Huertos Ilalo

We were ousted from our previous house (Finca el Cortijo) in Lumbisi at the end of May. We lost out there! We rented a wonderful plot of half a hectare, looking straight onto Ilalo, a convoluted house precariously built on the edge of a deep quebrada (ravine), with out-houses which included a pigeon loft of all things, and blessed space and tranquility - not easy to find now, around Tumbaco/Cumbaya. (Check out a previous blog from 2009.) We shared this paradise with our tortoises, Toby Thomas, and an extraordinary number of humming birds and other wild animals and birds. The new owner, a civil engineer who is not short of few million dollars here and there and clearly has influence in the highest places, has bought up huge tracts of the bottom of Lumbisi, has built 10 metre walls around everything, so no-one close by now has a view of the outside world at all, and employs, every day, 30 contract builders, engineers, gardeners and road makers. Inside his walls, he has flattened all the houses (including the one we rented), except one which he is converting into something of a gigantic palace - he claims, for himself only. it will surely only be a short time before he is building houses and houses and houses. Or turning his acquisition into some sort of hotel complex. Let's hope he honours his claim to be primarily interested in conserving the nature and environment of Lumbisi. If only we could have raised the necessary cash to purchase that plot and house ...........!

So, in May we were scratching around, looking for another house. Immediately above Finca el Cortijo is a lotización called Huertos Ilalo and in there we discovered that a small country house owned by one of my students, Sebastián S., was empty. We learnt about this because we wondered what were the two 'greenhouses' being built behind the house. These turned out to be for orchids. Sebastián's father is the money behind a most interesting orchid business, Floare Orchids, (see link on the rhs) managed by Universidad Católica here in Quito, which is researching, cultivating and trying to hybridise some of the 100's of different species found in Ecuador. The highest orchid biodiversity in the world! The orchids are being collected from all over Ecuador's different climate systems, micro-propagated and then planted out into the 'greenhouses'. The focus is very different from other orchid businesses in Ecuador, which are cultivating and retailing species which are essentially hybrids from Asia. The option given to me was to move in to the house and to help look after this collection of orchids and their very controlled environments. A no-brainer, that! We were in the house within days!

You don't have to be loco for orchids to appreciate the extra-

ordinary complexity and beauty of orchids.

Behind the main house is a little casita which we at first thought might be occupied by the necessary live-in house-help/nanny but, once filled with orchid environmental control systems, there was never going to be the space and comfort. The dilemma was soon solved when Leticia, who lives very close by, agreed to work for us. The casita has become the bicycle store! (8 bicycles now, believe it or not!) Our house has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a sitting room, a dining area and a small kitchen. There is also a jacuzzi attached to the house, with its own bathroom and changing area, which is presently a much-needed store area. The plan is to board over the jacuzzi, which is dug into the floor, and turn this into either swanky quarters for a live-in house-help/nanny, if ever the need arises, or into John's study bedroom, so freeing up his present, small room for a play room.

From the house we look westwards up the mountain, behind which lies Quito. If we go to the top of the garden we can also get a glimpse of one of Ecuador's famous glaciered mountains, Cayembe. On the east we see the extinct volcano, Ilalo, on the side of which is the children's school, Pachamama, and at the bottom of which is John's school. As the crow flies we are only 2 kilometres, even less, from The British School Quito, but the way is impossible, so in fact it is a 12 kilometre trip, which most days, John cycles.

So there's the story; here are some pictures:

A general idea, looking north-east. The 'greenhouses' are on the left.

The house and, on the right a covered parking space, which we

use for the car and for the hammocks.

There are the glaciers of Cayembe in the distance!

Evening shadows. Looking towards the front veranda.

Sitting room. Almost all our furniture is from Cali in Colombia. What

isn't from Cali, is from Ethiopia!

Kitchen - small but adequate.

The dining area - photo taken from the sitting room.

Again, the dining area. This time looking towards the kitchen 'hatch'.

Note the Christmas lights!