Today can only be accurately described as “the day we spent 14 hours trying to make pizza”. Considering the dough we made yesterday, we knew that today we had to use that dough or it was all a waste. After completing our chores of feeding the pigs and spraying our pest deterrent we embarked on pizza making. While I made us breakfast, Sara read up on how to use the cobb oven. She started making the fire and eventually needed an extra pair of hands. The trick apparently is to start the fire on the large spatula and slowly move it back when you had a fire going.
We spent a good two hours trying to get the fire to keep going and eventually realized we would have to start over. This time we made sure we had lots of small pieces to build the tee pee formation around the wood chips and some sturdy logs which would burn afterwards underneath. Sadly this took us until about 1:00pm to get the fire at a constant burn and enough to generate some much needed heat. We got the ingredients for the pizza ready as well (onions, garlic, basil, oregano, cheese, and pre-made tomato sauce) and the pizza crusts ready by around 3:00pm. This was partly due to the fact that we needed time for the oven to heat up and chores to do. Namely feed the pigs and de-shell the Ecuadorian nuts I harvested my second day here.
Finally at around 4:00pm we had our first successful pizza ready to eat. Martijn seemed impressed and surprised at our ability to even cook the damn thing. I would argue that it was definitely not the easiest process with neither of us really knowing what we are doing. But the feeling of success of eating that first pizza was complete and utter bliss. After a celebratory high-five we knew we had finally accomplished a successful pizza in an oven in the shape of a tortoise shell. Totally eco-friendly as well.
While the second pizza cooked, Sara and I decided to head into town. I was running low on peanut butter and decided I needed another pair of pants, Sara needed beer. Before leaving I checked on the pizza one more time, to discover that our slight opening in the oven door (due to the handle of our giant pizza spatula poking out) had a gecko friend hanging out inside. This little bugger decided to take a quick run inside before making a flying leap for freedom. He ran right at me before I stepped out of the way, then he took a leap off of the oven for the grass. Scared me senseless.
Our trip into town was a complete success for Sara and an utter failure for me. Not only does no one here eat peanut butter (typically gringo fare), I don’t even think I saw a pair of pants either. I know people where them here, but no clue where they buy them. I will have to do some more investigation. Mostly I just enjoyed wandering through the town, seeing the people riding their bikes and pissing just off the roads, as well as the kids playing on the stoops of the homes and tiendas. All in all it was a delightful adventure and we even found perhaps the best looking (for foreigners standpoint anyway) restaurant in town.
Once we made it back we finished off the second pizza, which was completely warm and perfect. It was a delicious way to end the evening.
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