xavier bermeo photography

Ecuador (The Kingdom of The Clouds). 20 Hours Later

By Xavier Bermeo on January 31, 2014

                            The Cotopaxi volcano. Cotopaxi – Ecuador. December 2013

It’s been twenty hours since we left Ithaca and both of us are really tired. We walk out of the international area of the airport, through a sliding glass door and step into the big terminal. This is the new airport. iI is new for both of us. It’s nice. I look around and see my Dad waiting for us. He greets us with a hug and a kiss. We step outside and head for the parking lot. While my dad pays and I wait, she grabs her camera and runs, stops, turns around:

-“Are you kidding me?” (baltik accent)
– “What?”(latin accent)
– “What is that!?” (points to Quito)
– “That is Quito.”
– “Really?”
– “Yeah, that, in between those mountains, and right – on the belly of that volcano – is Quito;”
– “ It’s so pretty…”

                            Puembo – Ecuador. December 2013

The thing about Ecuador is the way the light fills everything. It hits earth at this point so directly and with so much intensity that it gives everything a soft luminescence that you don’t see anywhere else. The colors pop out.
We get to the house. It’s a short run from the new airport. During the drive my dad asks all the usual questions:
-“Que tal el vuelo?”
-“Bien, largo, pero tranquilo.”
– “…y el clima – que tal?”
“Eestá haciendo frío.”
-“Tu mama les tiene preparada la comida.”

                            Puembo – Ecuador. December 2013

-What are those?

-those are moras, they are similar to blackberries

                            Puembo – Ecuador. December 2013

It’s Saturday, we go out for a walk, the house is in Puembo a small town to the east of Quito. We get fruit including some guabas, a fruit she has never had before. She tries the guaba and thinks they remind her of something.

On Monday we start exploring Quito…