Feliz Navidad!

Hello!! Merrrrrry Christmas!
I hope everyone is putting the finishing touches on their Christmas presents as we speak! Tying the bows, writing the cards... *sigh*
We are having a great time. We live underneath the Highest Active Volcano in the world! At least that´s what we keep telling people. We live at 3500 meters. The altitude gave me headaches he first few days but I´m getting better now. Both Jason and I have now gone on the day trip to the volcano (a bonus of being a volunteer- free!). We drive up the volcano to the parking lot, 4500 meters, and then hike up this gravelly hill for about 30 mins to an hour depending on how fit you are to get to the refuge, a height of 4800 meters. It really takes your breath away. Literally and figuratively. Then you continue upwards. I was able to reach 4900 meters, higher than any mountain in Europe!! I was so proud of myself! When Jason went he saw the Andean wolf, and a condor! I didn´t see that stuff, but it was still cool.
Jason did some horseback riding the other day. He enjoyed that, but his horse was a little skiddish and it was hard to keep control. But of course he did great.

We live at the hostel and are the hosts for the guests. We take care of anything they need and organize all their tours and stuff. It´s really fun meeting all the cool travelers. We live with four dogs and two kids. Three of the dogs are puppies and pee and poo a lot. You could probably guess, but Jason cleans up all the doggy messes. From our front step we can see 7 mountain peaks ranging in height from 4000 to almost 6000 meters (Cotopaxi). It´s almost always clear in the mornings, it´s really amazing.

I was feeling rather reminiscent yesterday. I walked up the hill and found a tree branch that had kind of red-green flowers on it. I put it up for a Christmas tree and made some paper snowflakes to go on it. I hung the ´ornies´ that Robin had sent with me and it made it feel almost like home.
We really miss everyone a lot. But I think it will be lovely Christmas nonetheless.
We´ll be here for three more weeks and then we don´t know what we´ll do. We´re thinking of heading to Argentina, or maybe head back up north through the rest of Central America that we missed. Who knows!

I´m having some troubles uploading the photos, but I´ll try later. LOVE YOU ALLL!!!!!
Oh, and by the way, if anyone wants to send a letter (no packages please), you have two weeks to post it so that we´ll get it.

Jason and Kaela
Secret Garden
Calle Anteparra y Los Rios
E4-60
San Blas, Quito
Ecuador, South America

Feliz Navidad, y prospero año a todos!!

The Next Chapter

Today was our last day at the Magic Roundabout. It was hard saying goodbye. We had a lovely day. We hiked up to all three waterfalls and had a lovely little summit at the top of the ridge. Of course, we also played euchre. Our time with Jordan, Randi, Roger and Jamie was so precious, it´s hard to see it finish. But it´s nice to leave on a good note. Jason will have to make friends with some new chickens.
Tomorrow we are headed to Cotopaxi, our next destination on this crazy adventure. We will probably be there for a month. There is no electricity. It´s a laid back vibe, and we´re volunteering for free room and board, so that´s awesome. Only 11 shopping days left until Christmas, hope everyone is not stressing too much! We might be having a Christmas dinner of guinea pig!
Us at the third waterfall.

Chocolate bananas. 10 cents. Amazing.

Our week at the local school

Jason here. One random day a group of about 30 highschool kids came up to the hostel to look at the waterfalls. Right before they left we thought it might be a good idea to run some trust and team building activities some time at their school. They said yes. I was a little intimdated by the language barrier but with all of us working together (Jordan, Randi, Kaela, Jamie and me) it turned out to be an awesome week. I truly learned the meaning of 80% of communication is nonverbal. The kids responded well to our crazy fun attitudes and simple acted out instructions. A local peace Corps volunteer we met helped put together a sign that we presented to each group before we started as way to introduce what all these crazy activities were ultimately for. We came about an hour or two early to set up all the challenge activites and make a plan. We ran about two to three groups a day for four days straight. It got very exhausting but a lot of fun and rewarding as well. At the end of the day each kid shared what they learned. It was amazing to hear what they had to say. A great way to end our time in Baeza.

We made good friends with several of the students.

This is called the "Bog of Eternal Stench." The students had to work together to cross a certain amount of distance without stepping off a dot. They would lose the dot if a foot came off but could purchase a new one in exchange for being blindfolded. This one seemed to be their favorite.

This is the "spider web." The students need to get the entire group through the web without waking up the spider and can only use one hole per person.

The "Mouse Trap" is always a thrill. One student holds a set mouse trap in their hand while they lead their blindfolded partner safely over it and with a flat hand snap the trap and no one is hurt. Good for building trust.

This was a huge game of Rock Paper Siccors. Nuff said.

Special thanks to Randi, Jordan, and Jamie for all their enthusiasm and help. I couldn´t have done it without them. We truly worked together as one team.

Exciting News

The moment we heard about Chad and Emily´s engagement! We´re in the internet cafe!

Congrats Guys!!

Photos

Jordan and Anand The waterfall.

Jason in the tub with his best friends. Don´t worry, they didn´t poo in the tub.

I´m pretty sure this translates as , "For the love of God, vote no". But it could be "because God loves you, vote no." Almost just as weird.

Hitching a ride to Baeza to get some of the best pizza in the world made by this Dutch guy. Mmmm!