Wrapping it up!

Greetings from.... Sunny California! :)
Just wanted to tell you a little bit about how our trip wrapped up!
After arriving in Cuenca on Monday, November 18th, we enjoyed dinner at a sit-down restaurant by the name of Pizza Hut (yes! It's like CPK there) with John and Sheri Ellie, followed by visiting and relaxing at their very nice home. It was like a taste of home and we really enjoyed it! We also really enjoyed hearing about their experiences in Nicaragua, Colombia, and Ecuador, as well as many other parts of the world.
Tuesday, November 19th, we took a 2 1/2 hour bus ride from Cuenca by way of El Tombo to Ingapirca! Ingapirca is the site of Incan ruins, and it was absolutely gorgeous. One of the best parts of our trip! One the bus ride there we started seeing more and more traditionally dressed Canari people get onto the bus. Women wear long dark green velvet skirts, with or without embroidery on the hem, plus black ponchos, thick wool socks (we soon found out it was cold in the mountains!), and most importantly, a black hat! Many school children also got on the bus along the way, and the bus driver enjoyed practicing his English by shouting to us in the back of the bus. :)
At the ruins we took a tour, after which we took a little hike to see the "Cara de Incan", a face in the mountain side! We loved seeing these sights, but even more so we LOVED the countryside! Gorgeous hillsides, sheep, cows, and traditionally dressed Canari people working out in their fields, a man and a woman riding one horse up a steep rocky hill. One of the most memorable sights was a young boy taking his sheep home.
A funny moment was when we were walking along the dirt road when a little old lady came out of her house and we said "buenas tardes!" to which she responded and said, "Come look! I have incan treasures!" as she unlocked a shed next to her home. I gave Heather a wide-eyed looked fearing the worst (haha after the fact we figure she wanted to sell us souvenirs) and we said "No gracias!!! Necesitamos salir ahora!"And we went on our merry way, forever wondering what it was she wanted to show us.
While we were really enjoying our hike around Ingapirca, it suddenly got dark and we realized we needed to be at our hotel. It was an interesting little jaunt up the hill on a dark road without any lit signs or buildings, but we found the hotel finally and were so pleased! Posada Ingapirca was the name of the place, advertised as an old farmhouse with luxurious decor and gardens. We were far from disappointed! When we arrived, 3 little kids were dancing in the restaurant to Canari music wearing traditional clothes. They saw us and quickly ran in the other room and hid much to our disappointment. So after settling into our room we went to the restaurant for dinner. Heather bravely requested a dance performance from the kids after dinner and they agreed to it! Pictures to follow below...
Side note: After our Ingapircan tour, the tourguide asked us where we were staying, and when we told him  he said "Oh! Well the guard and his wife have two rooms he rents out to tourists. Would you like to take a look?" What a small town... we did go take a look, but decided we were happy with what we had reserved.
Wednesday we returned to Cuenca by bus. In Cuenca we met up with Sheri and a Cuencan friend, Maria Isobel! What a treat, we got a tour from a Cuencan native! She took us to several markets, a flower market, a Loja coffee shop (best coffee in Ecuador), an old church, a view of the famous Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción, to a traditional ice cream shop, and a beautiful spot on the mountain with the best view of Cuenca called Mirador de Turi. It was awesome! We spent another night at the Elley's which was really nice once again.
Thursday morning bright and early we flew from Cuenca to Quito, on a flight that was just by chance the same as John and Sheri! In Quito we took a bus to downtown for a bit of shopping. We also got to meet up with the Borjas so I could say a final goodbye! Very special, because they had become like family to us while we were in Ecuador, always looking out for us and making sure we were okay.
I had an interesting final taxi ride, in which the taxi driver really tried to convince me to take a taxi all the way to the airport, then tried to get me to pay more than the taxi meter stated, and then refused to give me correct change! Oh well, at least this was an extraordinary occurrence. :)
Heather stayed in Quito for convention, and had a very special time! She returned Monday morning to San Francisco.
We are so glad for the experiences we had while in Ecuador and Colombia, what a memorable month in our lives!

 

The Coast to the Mountains

Hola, hola, hola!! Sorry for the delay between posts!
Wednesday, we wanted to see some friends, and made some plans with some of the friends to see them as we headed south down the coast from Puerto Lopez. Somehow we were able to meet up with some people despite not knowing quite what they were saying. We met another family, and they took us to the famous town Montañita, and we fell in love with the beautiful views and yummy food. We got to eat some cheesecake from a local bakery, and it is always best to get recommendations from the locals of the best spots to eat! We were unsure of our plans, so we headed to a small town on a small bay, recommended by one of the natives, and we had $7 lobster!! We also went through 3/4 a bottle of ketchup with 4 girls! Can you tell we might be missing hamburgers and french fries and ketchup?! Haha! We had the most amazing view from our hostel, and even got a hammock to stay in on the balcony!
We liked Montañita so much we decided to head back, and get some surfing lessons! Amazing waves to learn to surf on! Then we went paragliding at dusk! The view was breathtaking- city lights to our right and left, the sun almost gone down below the horizon, and the ocean right there! Then we took a eventful ride to our hostel- 4 girls in the bed of a truck with tons of bags and things! We sang Beatle's songs and had a great fun adventure!
Friday morning, we caught a bus from Salinas to Guayaquil (the biggest city in Ecuador). We had to catch a different bus to El Cristal, where the conventions are! In the large bus terminal in Guayaquil, we just happened to run into some friends that just so happened to be taking the same bus to convention! We were so happy to see them! We had another wonderful convention! Many privileges! There is a river that is less than a 2 minute walk from the grounds, and it is breathtakingly beautiful! Wow!
We stayed Sunday night, and got to visit more with the workers!
Monday morning, we walked down the hill an caught the next bus, and headed to Cuenca! Wow- AMAZING view on the bus ride! Probably one of our favorite views so far! Through the 6 hr bus ride, we saw variety! We came to a couple's house that just moved here from Nicaragua! We went out to dinner and had some awesome visits!
Off to see Inca ruins tomorrow and then head back to Cuenca for the downtown and adorable buildings!

Las Mercedes to Puerto Lopez!

Hola! Apologies for such a delay since our last post. We are presently in Puerto Lopez, a coastal town near Isla de la Plata, 'poor mans galapogos'. Last week after Puerto Viejo we arrived at Las Mercedes for convention on Wednesday. We had lunch with Lester and Narcisa and Brett Hammer. We stayed one night on the grounds in a house called 'la casita' with the sister workers! We enjoyed dinner with Doris and Javier and their kids, who live next door to the grounds. Javier is a son of the couple on the grounds, Lilia and Jose. We also enjoyed bfast with them and two sisters, Ruthie and Marsha. The next day was a prep day, which meant laundry and squeezing oranges for us! Las Mercedes is a beautiful places with humid warm weather and innumerable fruit trees from star fruit to mangoes! There are cows and horses in the nearby fields. 13 families in the small town area are professing so the town is well aware of the convention. Thursday thru Sunday nights we stayed with Lester and Narcisa and their two girls Natalie and Perrlita! Lester and Narcisa were the first professing couple to marry in Ecuador! We had a great time with them visiting and playing games with the girls in the evenings. Convention started Friday with two meetings, and went thru Sunday afternoon. Very special convention and people with remarkable stories about how the gospel came to their family. Monday morning we woke up at 530 and Lester taught us how to milk a cow! We ran to convention grounds (1/8 of a mile away) and were chases by one of the many crazy dogs in the area (I considered going on a run during our time here but was warned about being chased by the dogs, and here it served to be true! This one was biting Heathers skirt and trying to play!) After laundry and breakfast, we met a bus with about 10 other friends and workers to a bus terminal. This bus was open air benches in a truck bed. And the bench broke when we went over a big bump!!! The kid next to me said in Spanish "ummm the bench just broke!" and we had to get up and shove it back into place. Ha ha :) At the main bus terminal we parted ways from those going to Guayaquil and head to Puerto Lopez. We enjoyed lunch at a fish restaurant here with 4 workers and Casey and Shanise, two girls who are accompanying is on our coast travels this week! Casey is from N Dakota and Shanise from Vancouver. The workers went on their way and we relaxed and ran in the beach! Today we went to Isla de la Plata for a guided hiking tour and snorkeling! We wished we could have taken pictures of the cool fish we saw! Tomirrow after visiting friends in Las Tunas and Ohlone we will head to Canoa, a beach town we have heard good things about! Friday we will go by bus to Guyaquil and then El Crystal!
Sorry for the lack of more detail... I wrote this once and it deleted half on me! All is well and we are enjoying ourselves, particularly with today being Shanise's birthday!
now for pics...

El camino de Las Mercedes

Greetings from Portoviejo! Today is a travel day, starting in Quito, where we enjoyed breakfast with Damaris and her two children, Hugo and Selena, after which we caught a taxi with their help to David's house. This was a meeting spot for everyone. 14 of us took a private bus to Las Mercedes. We stopped in Santo Domingo for lunch with some of the friends at their auto repair shop. It was a delicious meal and once again hospitable kind people! We arrived at Portviejo after dropping off all of the other visitors. We enjoyed dinner with the family here, Monse and family, and then a bible study in their home. Tomorrow we will go the rest of the way to Las Mercedes for preps and convention!

The view this am from our Quito stay

Chichay en Colombia! :)

The phrase "chichay" is a colombian exclamation meaning "Frio!" Or "its cold!".
Friday morning we woke up and took a bus with one of the friends from Quito, Andres Borja. It was a 5 hour bus ride up to Tulcan, Ecuador, and then the workers picked us up at the bus stop in town and drove us up to Ipiales, Colombia. Going through the border, you have to get stamped out of Ecuador and stamped into Colombia. We arrived at the friends house and met a lot of the workers. Then we went to the home of a newly married couple, and then went to the man's mothers house for dinner. Many people were there, and we ate really yummy food, and then sang hymns.
Saturday morning we went to one of the friend's homes for making sandwiches for everyone. We met 3 girls, one from Canada, one from North Dakota, and one from Colombia, who are going to be with us on the convention rounds with the workers! What a great privilege! They rent a hall for convention, so off we go in a taxi, 4 girls squished in the back seat of the taxi! Wonderful meetings and we ate dinner afterwards at 9 pm. We were exhausted, and couldn't get to bed soon enough! The couple we stayed with for friday and saturday night were the cutest couple, with the most brilliant countenances! Most all the people here are so thoughtful, welcoming, and accommodating!
Sunday we went to the man of the home's mother and had breakfast with the same group of people as the night before! Off to the hall we went for another day of convention! The couple offered to give us a tour of a part of town where the famous church of Ipiales is. The church is built in between 2 mountains and one of the mountain sides is the church wall. Very interesting to see the religious people lighting candles and applying plaques to the mountain side as petitions for favors from the virgin Mary. Then we went to a house high up on the hill of Ipiales of a family with 2 children, and we got to hear their stories. They had a big Saint Bernard dog named Miel (honey). A sister worker stayed with us. The food was once again delicious. We have heard stories similar to our experiences here but it is a completely different thing to experience in real life that words cant describe. You just sit back in awe and wonder what the best thing to do is, and how we could ever repay any of the friends or workers on this trip who have done so much for us out of their care.
Then we were picked up by the workers this morning and we went across the border back to Ecuador. We took the 5 hour bus ride back to Quito and stayed at David Lansdale's house for lunch (3 pm mind you). Then we are staying tonight at the house of one of the friends and she has a son and daughter, and she showed us pictures of the towns we are going to! Fun to see beautiful views, and we got to see some large insects! Good to have some pictures to prepare our minds for these large insects! Off to Las Mercedes in the morning for convention!

From ziplining to holding butterflies

Hola, hola, hola! Sorry for the delay in not posting the last few days, but we have been otherwise occupied! Just want to give you a quick update and let you know we are still alive and well (for the most part)!!
Tuesday was a thrilling day indeed, with many activities for adrenaline junkies, such as we are, NOT!! Haha! Well we decided to do it all- tubing down River Mindo, zipling 10 different lines, and canyoning, which is basically rapelling down a waterfall that is about 50 ft. Needless to say, it was a thrilling day. The problem with it was that it was cloudy and drizzly the whole day, so we only had a view of clouds covering the mountains, but that is a magical view in itself. David Lansdale met us for dinner and we had pizza (we have been having lots of pizza!!). We stayed in a hostel that was less than great on tuesday night and we decided that we wont spend less than $10 for a hostel again. Lesson learned! :)
Wednesday morning, we met David at the elementary school in Mindo, and some people he has been working with on projects asked to videotape Tianne and I. So we were filmed eating a typical bread for the month of November called Guaguas de pan- they are usually either filled with cheese or guava marmelaid. In addition to this, we were filmed in the butterfly farm, feeding and holding butterflies. Then David dropped us off in Mitad del Mundo, which is the closest town to the ecuator line. We took a tour, and saw the 'trick' they play with the water going down the drain. It is not true, but it is very believable when they demonstrate it. Then, one of the friends, Andres Borja, came and picked us up and took us back to his house for meeting. We had a special meeting, but it was hard for both of us to get much out of it because even in english it is a difficult study to understand! Very special to meet more new friends, and see familiar faces from Sunday! We had dinner after meeting, and sat and visited with the very special family who had meeting in their house. We had meeting, dinner, and spent the night with the same super special family. So many wonderful visits and sweet fellowship indeed. They are very hospitable- the last name of the family is Borja.
Thursday, we had a late breakfast, and had another special visit with the Borjas. Then we took a bus to Old Town Quito and ate pizza (surprise surprise!!) and then we took a walk around the park. Then we took a tour on a double decker bus, and we got to see the central and south parts of Quito. We have mostly spent our time in the northern part of Quito. Then, we came back to the Borja's apartment and ate pizza (haha) and played Phase 10. We are headed to Ipiales, Colombia tomorrow!
Some memorable moments the last few days thats for sure! :)

What it is like to get a tour in Ecuador from a German!

Well, well, well.. where to even start with this amazing day!! We woke up to the most beautiful view from our bedroom window.... tons of trees, and flowers, and a creek running outside and there were clouds peaking over the mountains! Breathtaking after getting to our hostel in the dark!! We had a typical Ecuadorian breakfast of eggs, bread, tropical fruit, and fruit juice. We got a text from David this morning that said that one of his students from the university was here in Mindo filming for a class project promoting tourism in Mindo (it is a very small town), and wondered if we wanted to get together with him. We met up with the student, Alex, and we got to spend the whole day with him. He was born and raised in Germany but now lives in Holand going to school. He is doing an exchange semester in Quito and takes 2 classes from David. He is very well traveled, and has been many places, and has lived in the US for a year as well. So off we went to the cascades! We took a taxi and got to the top of the mountain where there is a small cable car that takes you to another mountain where the cascades are. It feels like ziplining going across in the cable. We went over the hundreds of trees!!! Unbelievable!!! It looked like a carpet of green and you are able to see the various rivers and such down below from such heights! We hiked until i thought we could hike no more!! We probably hiked for a total of 7 miles, and saw at least 5 falls!!! The view the whole way was beyond magical!! You can't describe it! :) Pictures below will show you a little of the beauty, but it is nothing like hearing the birds chirping and smelling the earth, and feeling the humidity and rain on you! It was cloudy all day today, so no sunshine for us! We got well acquainted with the exchange student of David's and it was so nice to have someone showing us the ropes, because he had been to Mindo five times before! And he spoke Spanish so that made it a lot easier!!! :) Back to the downtown (all of one street about 5 blocks long haha), and we were off to the Chocolate-making factory! It showed us the cacao plant, the cacao seed, and then all the way down to BBQ chocolate sauce! We even got free brownies too!!! The chocolate we got was so rich! It tasted like 100% chocolate!!! Then Alex showed us his favorite place to eat, and we finally got some real Ecuadorian food! Tianne ordered tilapia and got the WHOLE fish!!!! Eyeballs, teeth, bones and all!!! Yuck! But you have to try it once since we are here! Tianne said she tried it once and we didnt need to order it anymore! Haha! :)
Tomorrow is going to be an adrenaline- filled day! We are going to go tubing in the river and then we are going to go ziplining, and then we are hoping to meet up with David! So much to do still and so many fun things to look forward to as well!


Side note about the taxi video: This is a sample of a classic Ecuadorian taxi ride, we just had to share ha ha! :)