From Baños to the Coast

Okay, so last week we traveled down through the middle of Ecuador, in the highlands, then over to the coast where we are now. Here´s a little snipit of out trip.

We took a bus (about 3 hours) to a little town called Riobamaba. It was a cute town, but we didn´t go to see the town. We went to take a train the next day, south toward Cuenca. The train is famous for it´s decent down ¨La Nariz del Diablo¨(the devil´s nose). This decent of course is only about the last hour of the 7 hour train ride. Most people sit on top of the train for the whole ride. We did too, even though it was lightly raining the entire time. It was a fun experience. The train went pretty slow and only derailed once. Overall a successful trip. Here´s a few pics of the train..

At the end of the train ride we ended up in a town called Alausi. There we ate a really quick lunch and then jumped on a bus to Cuenca to finish off our day of traveling. It took about four and a half hours to get to Cuenca. Cuenca was a town that I ws really excited about visiting, but by the time we got there I (this is Cass by the way) was kinda over the colonial towns and don´t think that I enjoyed it as much as I may have, had it been towards the beginning of our trip. I also got a little sick, so that also made it hard to enjoy. It was still beautiful though. We dedcided to only stay three nights, and since we only had two full days there, we decided to take a ¨city tour¨to make sure we saw all that we should. Here´s a few pics...

Typical residencial city street

the ¨New Cathedral¨ It´s the second largest church in South America. It was pretty amazing. The next one is also of the cathedral, from the back...

A flower market a block long... I love flowers!

Another pretty church. We didn´t go in this one, but it sure was pretty at night.

Ecuador is the home of the Panama hat (not Panama). Cuenca is where most are made and sold. Aren´t we cute?!

And, classic Ecuador.. rifles are sold with backpacks. Who would have thought...

One of the paintings in the museum of modern art. We loved the contrast it shows between the ¨have´s and the have not´s.¨ Check it out.

The end of our tour, the balcony of the city.

After Cuenca, we took a private transpot, a big van, to the largest city in Ecuador, Guyaquil (population 3 million). We only spent one night here. It ended up just being an ïn-between¨(between the highlands and the coast).

We are still alive and smiling.

This is the cutest corridor in the city, you see it in ALL the books, flyers, etc. It was recently remodeled and cleaned up, it really is pretty. This was the first place we went that was truely warm. It was humid too, and after walking up these some 400 steps I was drenched..oh well.

In the park right behind our hotel there were Eguanas, just hanging out.... lots of them. (And turtles, fish and pigeons).

Picture from the boardwalk. On the map Guayaquil looks kinda like it´s on the ocean, but it´s actually on a river. This is the river.

So, from Gualquil we came to the coast. We were going to just stop in this little surfer town called Mantañita, then continue to this other town called Puerto Lopez, but we like it here in Montañita so much that I´ll think we´ll stay here and just take a day trip to Puerto Lopez. We will head back to Quito on Wednesday or Thursday then fly out on Friday. More pics to come from the beach.

Be sure to check out our ¨Trip Map¨ to the right to get a better idea of where we´ve been!!

Love you all and miss you...see you soon.

The following is adapted from our friends blog. Visit it by clicking on the link to the right¨: Eshlemans

You Know You're in Ecuador When...
- multiple children run up to you at one time to shine your shoes (flip flops, converse, green suede vans..)
- Futbol is more important than anything
- If you don't have nausea at least once a week, you must not be eating.
- If the doors on the bus can still shut, there's still room for more
- Milk and eggs aren't refrigerated
- You can't breathe at an intersection
- $3 for lunch is really expensive
- No vehicle (car, bus, police motorcycle, ambulance, bike) stops for a pedestrian. They do however honk to let you know they're coming.
-You can buy 100 limes for $1 on the corner, the bus, the street...
- You can go from sweating to freezing in 30 minutes
- You can get 120 songs on one CD for $1
- New release movies (still in the theater) are $1.50 on a DVD at the store right next to the theater
- Rice is served at every meal, every day
- The view of the mountains never gets old
- Coca-Cola is the new water - and even tastes better
- Pinguino Ice Cream - they sell Magnum bars!
- $1 for 25 roses
- Old ladies and children are the best pick-pocketers. Watch out!
- Most buses have curtains and tassels - classy.
- KFC is one of the most popular restaurants
- You have your "own" panaderia, pirated DVD store, movistar man, and tiendita where you know the workers by name
- Halls cough drops are considered candy
- Aji (spicy salsa) makes everything taste better
- Regaton (music) is played at all hours of the day/night
- Only 80's-90's top 40 music has made it on the radio here
- Even the poorest of the poor have cell phones
- You have never thought white bread could be so tasty!
- There is a different key for EVERY door in your house
- Family dogs always seem to be hanging out on the roof
- You throw your toilet paper in the trash, not the toilet
- You have been involved in a city bus race
- You have witnessed a political protest
- You haggle with Taxis for a mere 50 cents
- You put popcorn in your soup
- You drink juice with every meal
- When somehow drivers make 3 or 4 lanes out of 2 lanes
- Mothers silence their crying children by flopping our their äll natural¨ pasipher in the restaurnat, bus, street corner or anywhere really that the child can grab for it
- You are overly excited when a bathroom has toilet paper, soap, paper towels and a SEAT!
- Toilet paper is scented because you dispose of it in the waste basket, not by flushing it in the toilet
- The Isuzu Rodeo is branded with Chevrolet here
- Gas is $1.48 a gallon, Diesel is $1.03
- When a man wants to marry a women the parents of the man go with him to ask for her hand from her parents (to show that his family accepts her).
- There are more than 3million Ecuatorians in the US.
- They are obligated to vote... When they vote they recieve a ¨card¨saying so. Without it they can not buy any big purchases such as a car, house, drivers licence, passport and the list goes on...(Imagine the outcome or fraud involved with indigenous people who do not follow politics. Political parties promise tons of food and supplies to the poor country people if they vote for them and they win)
- Ecuador is in the process of voting on accepting a new constitution! Big deal to be decided by ¨vote¨Sept. 28th
- Men are obligated to join the armed services
- The average monthly salery is $250! (Imagine rent of $80 and a phone bill of $50 what you could do with the rest! Maybe food or school uniform and books for your kids...)

Oh how the list can go on...

Feliz Cumpleaños (Happy Birthday) Brooke and Mia

Hi Brooke and Mia!!! We hope that you had a super fun party for your birthdays last week. We were sad that we were not there. We hope that Mia had a great birthday yesturday and that Brooke has a great birthday today!!! We love you very much.

Since we couln´t be there to celebrate with you we want you to know that we wish we could share this yummy ice cream with you and maybe when we get home we can come visit and take you out to ice cream!!
This is a picture of us in a birthday supply store. I asked the lady if we could take pictures wearing birthday hats and holding a birthday balloon for you. . .she said yes and is actually taking the picture for us. It´s hard to read, but the Hello Kitty balloon says Happy Birthday!! Uncle Jesse is blowing you a kiss!
We love you very much!!! and miss you!!

Love,

Auntie Cass and Uncle Jesse

Shell - And a bit of Jesse´s thoughts...

Yes, this little town was named after the huge oil company. Many may not know, but Ecuador supplys a large percent of the worlds oil. We had a chance to visit this town while we were in Baños, not because we wanted to see the influence of large oil companies on the Amazon, but because of a connection we recieved from Karen Appier´s brother-in-law, Tom Clark.

The draw to Shell for us is that it is the gateway to the jungle and historical with misionary work. For those who have read the books, seen the movies (the last one being Ënd of the Spear¨) or heard the stories, you might be starting to connect the dots a little. Some +/- 50 years ago a group of missionaries went to this area to reach one of the tribes in the jungle. Five of the men were killed in this process, the name most recognized being Nate Saint. God has done an amazing work in this area in revealing his love for people with obviously great sacrifice by those who chose to assist him in it.

This is a picture of the center plaza in Shell with a large tower topped with a replical of Nate Saints´airplane.

Rick and Sharron LaBouef have been in Ecuador for 30 some years now and he is a jungle piolt. He basically has people (jungle people, natives, missionaries, etc.) who show up at his gate every morning around 7am begging for flights out to one of the 250 plus air-strips. He then ¨hops¨from one air-strip to another all day ¨bush flying.¨ We were able to spend a night with them and hear their stories.

...and a pic. of the LaBouefs and their plain

It is pretty cool to be a part of something big. To be apart of God´s family.

While there we also went to an orphanage that a lady from the states started. She has 56 children in a very small place! The kids come to her from all ways. Dropped off, found, delivered by the police and so forth. She just houses them and loves on them. She has been in operation for about 7 years with hopes and plans to build on a larger property more rooms and placed to make this operation functional. It is truely a day by day ministry.

Cass with some of the kids at the orphanage

here is a pic of the orphange itself...

Here are a few my thoughts:

I have visited a place in my mind that should have been obvious, but I do not really encounter often. Cass and I have commited to being a part of something larger than ourselves. For this reason, traveling and giving of money, time and resources to various origanizations is on the fore front of our minds. I have been able to research the big organizations and find information on the internet about places and people in which to invest. But what became more clear to me, and brought up experiances from the past when I was in Guatemala, Amsterdam, Ireland, Mexico and on, was that the need is endless. When I say endless I really mean ENDLESS. Just in Ecuador I have had the privliage of seeing three different real-life ministries by those who have little to those who have nothing. We rationalize away resouces (especially money) from 5 bucks to $100,000 fairly easy. For very little these particular three organizations/ministries could exponentialy have a greater impact! Even with-in the non-profit organizations/ministries there are categories of ¨¨Haves¨and ¨Have-not¨.

So I have been a bit challenged. How and to whom should we invest our resources?

For example: Let´s say someone spent a $1,000 or so on toys for themselves this past year... Did you know that there is a friend in Chico who has a non-profit called Bridging the Gap by Giving that will build a clean water well for those who do not have clean water. Hmmm, water seems simple, but people die DAILY because they do not have it. Or the sacrifice for others is a choice of clean water or education because it takes so long to travel to the closest location to retrieve clean water. Check it out. Go to http://www.bridgingthegapbygiving.org/ We will return with many things from our trip here in Ecuador for Shirly to sell at her International botique store. Be sure to check them out as 100% all proceeds from your purchaces go direclty to building a clean water well.

Well, those are a few of my thoughts as I cut myself from rambeling on too long. I would welcome any and all the opportunities to develop these thoughts further with anyone interested.

Nothing But Love!

ADVENTURES in Baños

So, we spent the last week in a town called Baños. It´s named after the thermal baths (baños) that are there. We did visit the baths once, but were sorta grossed out by the enormous number of people that were in them that we decided to pass. In Baños there are also endless adventure activities to take part in.... we took part in our fare share...First, we went for a mountain bike ride from Baños toward a town called Puyo. Total trip is 61km. We didn´t go the whole way though, about half. There are some 13 waterfalls along this road that although we did see, we didn´t photograph all. . you´re kind over it by number 8, although they were beautiful.
A major rush was the bridge swing jumping. Yes that´s me standing on the top of a 35 meter bridge looking down at nothing but sharp rocks and freezing water. The guy kept saying ¨puedes, vamos¨ (you can do it, let´s go). Swing jumping was something that I really wanted to do, but I really watned to watch someone do it first. The guy had no business when we rode by and said that he would make his assistant do it first but it would cost me $15 instead of $10. SO... I though what the heck, there are pictures of this all over town, it must be safe... I made Jesse check out all the equiptment then suited up and climbed to the top. . .knees shaking and damp eyes I dove head first off this bridge. You have to dive head first because the rope is attached to the other side of the bridge and in order to fall gracefully you do a beautiful summersalt in the air before being caught by the rope and swining over the river while the harness rides up your crotch. It was amazing!!!!! (We don´t have an upside down picture of me cause we took a video! (I´ll show it off when we get home). . .we do have an upside down picture of Jesse though!!
He wasn´t going to do it, but after seeing that I made it down alive, thought ¨what the heck, if my wife can do it, so can I¨ (He didn´t hesitate nearly as long as me though..) I tell myself it´s becuase he actually got to see someone go first, although I´m pretty sure he´s just braver. After I jumped there were tourists lining up to do the same. I should have asked the guy to let me do it for free, I did bring him a bunch of business!!

Jesse got jealous of the many waterfalls along the way and decided to make one of his own!

The mouth of the Amazon. The bike ride truely was picturesc.

Not having seen enough waterfalls, we decided to repel down five of them. It´s called canyoning and it was super fun. . .and freezing.

Jesse showing off. . . he really could have guided the whole thing. I think he spent most of the time thinking of how he could set up something similar in Northern California...he loved it!!

I didn´t do so bad either.

(Like the yellow diaper thingy. It kept my behind nice and protected.)

Here we are at the end. Soaking wet and ready for our next adventure.

This picture doesn´t really have to do with Adventures, but it´s a picture of the common area in our hostal. I LOVED our hostal. It was $8.50 per night per person. It had this great firepit area outside that was always clean, well lit, and warm, and it had a communal kitchen! I could get up whenever I wanted and have my coffee!!! This made for AMAZING morning routines (for those that know what I mean =))
This is me loving the fact that I am going to have broccolli for dinner. We made a yummy spagehtti with delicious broccolli.
We also went for a hike!! It was long, steep, and beautiful. I was happy for the exercise and thrilled for the view!

I thought that this was super cool, I hope you do too. Look at these ants, they´re so strong. We passed a long line of them on our hike.One other ¨ adventurous¨ thing we did was take a night ¨chiva¨ (basically a flat bed truck with a roof and bench seats, no sides and painted really colorful) ride up a really steep hill to watch the volcano in hopes of it spitting out some fire. Unfortunately it was sooooo cloudy that I could barely see the person next to me, so as you can guess, we didn´t see any lava. It was fun to share the experience though. (Although, once again, I was freezing).
Please save some Chico sun for me.

Oh yes, and we played on the children´s playground. I think we teater-totered for almost an hour!

One more note: we really were gonna go white water rafting, I didn´t chicken out, but.. they canceled our trip the morning of becuase there weren´t enough people. So, we´ll have to go when we get home as soon as the rivers are ready!!

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!