Our trip to the highlands

I think that this picture speaks for itself. . . the highlands and the people of them.

The first part of our trip in the highlands was with a tour company to a lake called Lago Quilotoa. On the way we went to a market, well three markets, one with large animals, one with small animals and food, and one with artsy handicraft stuff..

Some small animlas . . .

This is one of the many views of the stunning volcano crater lake!!

We walked down to the lake, slid on sand rather, then rode mules up!! Jesse was first in line, I was second. Jesse´s mule had diarreah. . .so did my shoe by the end!!! (I´ll show that picture when we get home if you ask..)

These are actually horses, not mules. After Lago Quilotoa we stayed at this hostal-ranch called PapaGayo. Our second day we went horseback riding in the hills. I didn´t get anymore poop on my shoe!!Beautiful!!
Yes, we wore chaps. They were super warm and kept our pants clean..ish.

Here we go again. We actually did flag a bus on the Pan American Highway. You should have seen us running down the road once one pulled over to jump on before they took off again. (Little different than the US, huh..)

Bellavista: The Cloud Forest Reserve

We took our first trip from Quito to the cloud forest. This is one of the last places in the world where there is still cloud forests. They are becoming exstinct due to a number of causes (mainly human reasons). It was beautifull! It is sort-of like a jungle experience in the mountains and clouds. Bellavista is a reserve where people go to hike the trails and bird watch. Ecuador has been ranked as the best place to bird watch in the world due to its incredible variety of birds that you would not be able to find anywhere else.

When you can see it, the view is amazingly beautiful!

So, we did not realize that bird watching was the only thing to do and we are not all that into bird watching. The other thing is that I am alergic to, well, really about everything, ESPECIALLY musty, damp, moldy places... hmmm... who would have thunk that a cloud forest would be that way...(Note: everyone has binoculars except for Cass - they were really looking at a bird, not just posing)

The lodge was an oversized treefort with a bit of everything I am alergic to. We left a day early so as not to make me sick. But, the hiking really was beautiful. We had three guided hikes through the forest at different times of the day. One particular hike, we walked up a creek for about 45 minutes and saw some great things.We wore rubber boots on all of our hikes because all the trails were wet and muddy (or you had to walk in a creek for part of it).

Of course, Cass´ boot had a large gash in it so it really served no purpose other than to freak her out that some blood sucking creature was going to swollow her foot, and to build muscles in one leg due to draging this boot full of water for 45 minutes.All in all, it was a beautiful time!

The Gospel of Luke: Chapters 8-14

So, here is the post for the second week of scripture reading. I noticed that no one read or wanted to comment on what they read last week in the book of Luke. Maybe this week we will have a little more success with the comments. I plan on writing so check back on the comments from time to time. These posts are labled and can be easyily acceced by the link to the right. Have fun and see what comes of it.
Jesse

An interesting day with the fam

This is our Mama, Susana. We are in a town called Ibarra. I´ll tell more about this town and this day at the end. . . .

This is me and our Mama and Papa (Papa is Marco) eating empanadas.
Still to come. . .the story of this day.

Ummm ya, this is what KFC looks like in Ecuador (fried chicken, rice, and lentils, oh and a tiny bit of lettuce) all for $2.29 . . .

Okay so about this day. . .
There is this indegenous town near Quito called Otavalo. On Saturdays there is a huge market where they sell numerous types of scarves, blankets, bags, trincets, etc. We were super excited to go and shop for Shirley´s store. There is a huge variety and everything is really cheap. Our family asked if we would like to spend the day with them and go shopping in Otavalo. Of course we were excited to hang out with them, but also to not have to pay a tour company $40 for the ride, so begins our day. . . (this is an excerpt from an email to my mom. . .)
¨We went on the shopping trip today with our family. Definitely not what we expected. We drove for about 2 hours and stopped by this pretty lake that was TOTALLY overcast, so at least I think it was pretty. Then we went to the leather town, where I bought nothing. There were some cute purses, but nothing super unique or super cheap. So we (you and me) both passed (on purses). Then we went to a town nearby for lunch. . .Marco asked if I watned cuy (guine pig) or chicken, and I said chicken. . . for some reason it took us almost 2 hours in total to find a place to eat. . .oh I have to tell you the place they finally took us to: KFC!! In Ecuador the fried chicken comes with rice and lentils!! We couldn´t belive that we were in South America eating KFC. Then when we finally got to the place that we wanted to go to. . .we were gonna shop for Shirley, for ourselves, for souveniers, ect. . . Marco (our Papa) told us that we had 15 MINUTES. I seriously thought that he was joking!!! Oh no! Jesse said could we please have a little more time, so he gave us 20! We were expecting to have like 2 hours. So I tried to laugh it off, we bought a couple things, and then left. So the trip was not quite what I was expecting...
I don´t think we´re gonna have another chance to go back, but luckily there is a smaller market here in Quito with very similar things that we can go to when we get back from our travels.¨
. . .so that´s a brief recap, but now that I think about the day I totally laugh. We were just sooo shocked that we only had 20 minutes in the market compared to the 8 hours we spent on the day!!

Bacilica (a little out of order)

This is the Bacilica in Quito. It was pretty amazing! There are two towers to one side and instead of the typical ¨Gargoyles¨it is adorned with Iguanas, Turtles and other animals.

Leaving for some travels tomorrow

Hi everyone. We really wanted to post a blog with pictures today about our trip to the cloud forest, but we just didn't have time. It was sooo beautiful. We will definitely do it soon, but for now I just wanted to let everyone know that we are leaving tomorrow on our three-ish week journey through Ecuador. The first place we will go is to the volcano/mountain of Cotopoxi. There we hope to see a cool lake inside a volcano, ride horses and possibly hike up to where the snow starts on this ginormous mountain. . . we'll see how our breathing is at about 15,000 ft. Anyhow, from there we have ideas/plans of what will be next, but we'll keep you updated the best that we can as we go. Please pray for safe travels and a joyous time. Miss you all, but am so thankful for this opportunity!!

The Book of Luke

We have chosen to read through the book of Luke in the New Testament of the Bible. I thought it would be interesting to extend an invitation out to everyone to read the same book of the Bible together and we can have an on going dialouge/conversation about it.

There are four weeks left in our trip, which will be perfect for dividing the book up by reading one chapter a day. This week we will read Luke chapters 1-7.

I do not expect to prepare a sermon for people to comment on. Nor do I have any expectations for this. I will simply start a blog at the beginning of each week (more or less depending on if I have access to a computer), I might add a little something, but the idea would be for each of you who are interested in reading with us to add comments.

Comments may be observations, questions, answers to someones question or something you belive God is teaching you.

Comments are also easy! Just click on the comment tab and follow the prompts. You may write it annonomously, sign your name or create a profile.

I will also "Lable" the four posts as "The Gospel of Luke." For future references all you would need to do is click on the lable to have easy acces to the previous posts/comments.

I encourage anyone and all of you to join us in this. This has the potential to be a very real and rich experiance. If you do not have a Bible you can easily get access to one by searching for it on the internet with a search engine.

Nothing But Love,
Jesse and Cassidy