The Broken Record Effect

Frugurt....Nice Cream. The effect of post modernism is evident fully in the advertising of Ecuadorean companies.  Post modernism could be defined as the reuse of ideas that succeeded the first time around.  In the case of Frugurt, fruit is obviously a fairly popular and healthy diet choice and yogurt has recently been increasing in popularity so a regurgitation (pun intended) of the two ideas could possibly be profitable.  The idea of mushing two ideas together to make a "new" one shows how Ecuador is staying pretty up to date in the outlook of the world.  It is concerning to think that we cannot come up with enough new ideas, so we need to refurbish and reuse the old ones.  This kind of cultural recycling is quite interesting.  In the United States, it has been evident for a while that post modernism is taking effect.  Especially in the movie industry, the effects of reusing old titles and ways of life is starting to become frustrating.  We always here history repeats itself but when the idea does not even change enough to require thought to figure out its origin, the excitement factor disappates.  I never realized that the effect of post modernism had hit other countries besides the US.  Ecuador seems to be doing a better job, so far, although I am sure there are examples to the contrary.  Mostly the effect is seen in advertising here where its not as depressing to reuse old ideas.  Sometimes that strategy can be very profitable.  A store that says Nice Cream has a positive connotation to it that, at least at a first glance, makes one smile a little.  It is different that having the newest version of Tron come out or remaking True Grit without John Wayne.  The negative connotation to our use of post modernism seemingly works against our country.  Maybe we should take after Ecuador and use it elsewhere and get some fresh ideas in other areas...

Time keeps on slippin.....

From the few weeks being here and settling in Cuenca for an extended period of time it seems the concept of time is different here.  In the United States we pride ourselves on punctuality.  Here it almost seems as if time is a suggestion not a statement of fact.  When a group of us were told to meet at 2:30, we got there around 2:15 whereas our Cuenca friends showed up around 3.  It is intriguing that such an act is normal in this culture while in the United States it would be very rude to be even a few minutes late to a meeting.  Its almost as if clocks are made differently here with the numbers jumbled.  That is the other thing about Ecuador time that is different.  In the United States, there are clocks everywhere.  Here it is almost impossible to locate a clock unless you are on a computer.  The house I am staying in has 3 clocks, but only one of them is actually set to a reasonably close time.  I am starting to feel uptight because of how closely I keep things scheduled instead of just letting loose and let time roll by as it always does.  To me, it seems primitive to not denote what hour it is.  It seems less productive in a way because you have to plan for the area of time instead of exact time.  On the other hand, things seem to run more flowingly here.  There are less disputes due to people being late and not a level of stress due to time.  To be rushed is to be uptight here.  I do not know if I will be able to adjust to this form or not or even if it is logical to do so.  The only thing to do, I suppose, is to accept the difference and assimilate to the time frame. It is always easier said than done though.

Jurassic Park

The Amazon Rainforest, undoubtedly, was awe-inspiring.  I can honestly say the memories made there are going to be some of the best of my life.  I saw some of the greatest spectacles of bird species. For me, another exciting anecdote was that we got to meet Pete Oxford, who is a photographer for National Geographic.  He was very intelligent about bird species and identification, and overall, I felt, he was a very nice man.  He especially enjoyed my laugh, which is more of a squeak.  The most amazing bird species thus far are the white-fronted toucan, hoatzin, scarlet macaw, and caracaras.
Our guide, Romiro, was quite the character as well.  He loved monkeys.  Everytime he heard one he would say, "Mira!" and run off into the forest to catch up with them.  It made the trip much more fun.  We were lucky to see as many animals as we did.  I never realized how many medicinal trees the rainforest had either.  Its like the most functional pharmacy I've ever seen.
It is hard to say what the best part of the trip was.  The lagoon canoe ride, the canopy walk, the tower, and the caiman ride were the highlights.  The only damper in the trip was the plane ride home when all the native Ecuadoreans were laughing at us mostly because of what we were wearing (i.e. hiking boots, rubber boots, field pants).  The ride itself was also quite turbulent.  If I could chose a place to call paradise, the Amazon would be it.  Despite the humidity, it is the most beautiful and calming place I've ever been to, and I hope to return sometime in the future.

A Whole New World

This week has been a very interesting one.  It was the first our group of 16 spent in Ecuador.  The cloud forests were especially amazing to me.  The first night driving through the city was an eye opener for me.  So much of the advertising in Quito is geared towards "gringos".  One that especially stood out was one that referred to a Beatles´ song.  A long banner hung with the lyrics "let me take you down cus we're going to" and the restaurant was called Strawberry Fields.  I found it interesting that not only the music in itself made it all over the world but also that it was used here in such a way.  Even in the United States I rarely see a bar named after a song of a popular band and especially not one with the lyrics helping to advertise the store. It is interesting that the lyrics were not translated, either.  The preferred audience would almost have to be tourists.  It is a growing industry here and one of the mainstays of the economy so it would make sense to have advertising geared towards foreigners.  It gives merit to the idea of english becoming the lengua franca.  The advertising not only says ¨Come here gringos¨ but indirectly it could be telling the local population that it is hip and a sign of prosperity to take on the american way of life.  The places advertised in such a way were businesses that appeared to be doing fairly well.  The association with prosperity and the United States could be the driving force of westernization here.