Quito Fever

We´re in Quito, having a blast. We came to have a few days in the city, a little break from the life on the farm. We´re staying in the apartment of some friends, and generally having a great time. We´re just here for the two days but it´s quite interesting. At the hostel where we hang out all day, 95% of the people speak English. I often forget that I am in South America. I feel like I´m hanging out with some new friends at some place in Portland or something. All the music they play is in English, too. But everyone here is traveling this way or that way. Any question you have about anything around here is answered with ease, we have no need for a guide book, we have many new friends. We´ve been away only one night and Jason already misses the chickens. We bathe in an outdoor bathtub next to our house. The day before we left Jason was in the bath and petting the chickens that were on the side of the tub. We´re really excited to have chickens when we get back to the States.

For Thanksgiving, we made a delicious pizza and had pasta and Jason invented a yummy donut hole recipe. We also had berry cobbler. It was nice, but honestly, I was incredibly heartbroken to be away from family. We all went around saying what we´re thankful for and everyone mentioned family back home.

Christmas decorations are everywhere here, as I¨m sure they are at home. It´s pretty pathetic, I know, but it´s hard for me to even comprehend that Christmas exists when I´m not at home to celebrate it. I look at all the decorations and Jason has to keep me from buying random ornaments and such.
Much love from Ecuador!!

Galak

This is Jason impersonating the face dogs make when they poop. He is with Guiness in this photo. Here is Roger, Marco and Jason with Guiness and Winston at the first waterfall up the path from where we live.

Randi with Roger´s birthday cake.

View of Quito

Yumm.... We are eating candy right now called Galak. It is made by Nestle and it is kind of like a Crunch bar but with white chocolate. Delish. We are having a lovely time. On TV in the internet cafe is Full House dubbed in Spanish.

Here is a story: We went to travel a couple of days with Roger, Jordan´s dad. We were in a taxi and we told the taxi driver that it was Roger´s birthday. He asked how old Roger was and he told him. Then Roger said something along the lines of "I have a young face". Then the taxi driver said, "but you have grey hair!" We all laughed awkwardly, as this would be kind of a strange thing to say in the States. I was translating everything and I almost didn´t want to translate it. But then the taxi driver said, "we have a saying, it doesn´t matter what color your hair is, it only matters how your penis works." I, of course, did not yet know the Spanish word for penis and told him that I wasn´t familar with it. He laughed like crazy and asked how that was possible since I am married! We all had a good laugh. What makes it really funny is that the Spanish words for hair and penis are really similar. I´m not sure on the spelling but its something like pelo and palo. so the saying is quite an effective one. That taxi driver was hilarious. He joked the whole time that we were with him and then asked if we believed in Jesus Christ.

Jason might do a facilitation day with one of the local high schools. They came by to go on a hike and we asked them if they wanted him to come and do a day at their school. It will be his first international facilitation. How cool will that be. I get to come and translate. The teacher who we were talking to was also telling lots of jokes. He was telling pretty dirty jokes right in front of all the students and everything. I guess it´s just a cultural difference. They love to joke down here. I usually end up understanding about half of the joke and pretend to laugh. My Spanish is not quite good enough for humor, yet. Although I did manage to tell them a blonde joke in Spanish and everyone cracked up.

Love you all.

The Good Life

Jason and Jordan playing cards on the front porch of the lodge.

Our first meal together.

This is where the beeks´sleep.

The view from the porch.

The whole gang on the porch.

We´re having a blast here. Today we´re headed to a little sight-seeing trip with Jordan´s dad, Roger. We´re going first to Otavalu, a huge market town. We´ll go shopping there tomorrow and then spend a night in Quito, and then one in Cotopaxi. It is the point closest to the sun on the Earth because of the Equatorial bulge. We´re having such a good time.

A few adventures include: when the dog escaped and attacked one of the llamas, when one of the llamas gave birth (baby did not survive), when I got charged by a random horse that was on our land and jason jumped a fence to protect me, learning to make woven bracelets, feeding the chickens everyday and having to go on egg hunts to find where they´re laying *dang free range*, butchering a chicken, de-feathering, and gutting it and then barbecuing it- what an experience, playing cards all day, and many many more.

It´s starting to hit me that we´re not going to be there for the holidays. There are christmas decorations for sale here and I´m so bummed to be away from family during this time of year. But, I also think it will give us some perspective.

Traveling is like the first time that you go to spend the night at a friend´s house. You realize that not everything you and your family do is normal. Or not even normal, but just that not everybody does them. I remember the first time I went to spend the night at my friend Ann Gevock´s house. Her family was having meatloaf for dinner. I had never had meatloaf before. Our family didn´t even eat meat, let alone a LOAF of meat. They couldn´t believe that I´d never had meatloaf, but they still graciously showed me how some people eat it with ketchup, and so on. I was amazed, and eternally changed. Traveling has been the same.

Ecuador!

Welcome Back to the Jungle!

We have arrived in the Amazon Basin, about 3 hours southeast of Quito, close to a town called Baeza. We are staying in a little hostel that Jordan and Randi are running called ¨The Magic Roundabout¨. It is amazing. We have llamas, chickens, and four waterfalls. It has been raining a lot but we keep ourselves busy by cooking delicious meals and joking all day long. Our window looks out onto rolling mountains covered in cloudforest, primary rainforests. We eat veggies from the garden and eat eggs from the chickens. We are totally in our element here. It is so nice to be back in the jungle but without the million degree weather.

I don´t have a ton of time, just wanted to say that we are safe and oh so happy. We will be watching the news really carefully!
If anyone is dying to talk to us, there is a cell phone here at the hostel, the number is 099345264. You´ll have to dial the country code for Ecuador first, though. I don´t know what it is. If it doesn´t work, try the number without the zero.

Okay, I think that´s it. We are so stoked to be enjoying another country with our great friends! Everyone go out and vote today!!!