Category: Ecuador

I think I forgot to write about going to the Botanical Gardens last week.  Barb Q. took me, her daughter and a young teacher to the gardens.  They were quite nice. They had all different types of ecosystems.  We saw cacti, rain forest and between.  There were two buildings of orchids. One was more dry and the other more humid.  Also a building of carnivorous plants.  One was enjoying a butterfly dinner.

After we went to the Gardens, we walked to a large mall where we had lunch.  I had the regular meal of rice, beans, meat, fried eggs, avocado. Barb gave me her fried green banana.  It was quite good.  Tasted like potato.

Yesterday, Aug 23,  Elaine C.  took us up Pichincha on a cable car.  It is a beautiful view from the top.  We hikes around a bit.  The clouds lifted enough for us to see Cotopaxi, Antisana and Cayambe.  We also saw a glimpse of Chimborazo.

In the afternoon, some of the Ecuadorian ladies, Carmen and Natalia,  accompanied us on a tour of the city.  We rode in a double decker bus and had a very nice time and saw lots of sights and took lots of picture.  On the way home we had a very clear view of Cotopaxi and Antisana, but it was to dark to get a good picture from the bus.

Today, we got up early to go over to HCJB and take inventory of what is going to go into the container.  Larry also started the list of what was in the boxes.  We’ll probably go over early tomorrow in order to complete this project.

Larry spent the day on Pichincha,  helping  on a transmitter as well as observing and doing the tourist bit with the camera.

I went over to the office to see if there was more that I could help with, but everyone seemed to be in meetings, so I came back to the Guest House and finished a book I had started  so it could be returned,  worked on my quilt, did some hand washing and a load of machine wash and began packing.

Today we attended the English church as we did last week.  It is a long, crowded service.  It is good, but my back gets really tired in those chairs and the people are so close, it is hard to fidget.  After church we came back to the Guest House and took a nap.  Around 3:00 we went to lunch and ordered the special.  We had no idea what we were getting, but we knew there was soup, rice and fruit juice.  We were right.  Potato soup with banana chips floating in it, chicken, rice and a salad, juice and some kind of fruit for dessert.  It was good.

I still haven’t figured out the picture thing, at least I can add them, but haven’t figured out the ‘wrap around’ part..

Friday, Aug.17, we went with Quirings and Childs to the PIM’s Panecillo restaurant.  It is high on a hill that overlooks Quito.  The Virgen De Quito monument is on top of the hill.

I had a lamb stew with avocado and rice.  I think rice comes with everything.  It was all really good.

Saturday, Aug. 18, we walked around town.  We went to a huge mall and ate lunch.  We ate at the American Deli.  It was interesting.  American did not mean USA. The food was local and very good. Meat, beans and rice.  It was such a crowded place to eat.  I finally sat at a table where a man was eating and then another man plopped down beside me.  So the table was full when Larry sat down.  There was nothing empty, so you had to sit down, or someone else would!

I don’t think I wrote anything yesterday. It was pretty much the same. Larry worked on packing and organizing transmitter parts and I worked in the office scanning documents. We ate the normal hospital food for lunch and had a meat pasty for supper.

Today, Larry piled up the boxes and moved the frames to organize them for loading into the container. He hasn’t had help for the last couple of days, so has had to do it all himself. It is hard work. In this picture he obviously has help!

I worked at the office this morning, scanning documents. I had planned to go to observe the prison ministry, but Elaine had to appear in court instead, so we didn’t go.

We ate lunch at the hospital and then walked to a mall where I bought some needles because I lost the one I brought with me. I now have 24 bright shiny new ones. 🙂 That should last awhile.

I was feeling a bit crummy so took the afternoon off. I took a nap, drank some tea and finished a quilt block. It was good to be quiet for awhile. I felt much better after a quiet afternoon.

Larry got back shortly after 5:00 and we walked to a hamburger place for supper.

Today was a fun day. Two of the ladies, Elaine and Barbie took me to La Mitad del Mundo (The Middle of the World)http://www.volunteeringecuador.info/travel/mitad-del-mundo-near-quito.html    

We saw some llamas and a baby llama nibbling on the plants at the La Mitad Del Mundo. There were several museums there to walk through. One told about the measuring of the equator and finding where it ran. One was about insects and another owed how Quito used to look. We stopped by the Ecuador Insectarium and looked at the various insects and butterflies of Ecuador and South America. I held two Dynastes Hercules http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_beetle. Yes, they were alive.

We also visited some of the craft shops there. We saw some Vegetable ivory http://waynesword.palomar.edu/pljan99.htm  It was very interesting to see the jewlery they made and the carvings.  They were very pretty.

For lunch we had locro, a potato soup with cheese and avocado.  It was very good!

We also moved into the HCJB missionary guest house today.  It gives us a little more room in which to move.  It is very pleasant.

We were able to join a Vision Journey Tour (http://www.hcjb.org/engage/vision-journey/vision-journeys.html) and take an overnight trip to Otavalo  http://www.galapagosonline.com/Explore_Ecuador/Andes/otavalo-area/Otavalo.htm, (a craft town) and Cotacachi (Ecuador’s leather capital).

We left Friday afternoon and made it to Otavalo in time to watch them tear down their craft stalls.  They had piles of crafts that they would put into huge bags and carry them to hand pushed wagons to take home or wherever they store them.  Sometimes they hire people to carry their goods.  Often the bags of goods are larger than the person carrying them.  It was a mass of people shopping, selling and some little ladies begging. I think it smells better than Africa.  They had food, carvings, scarves from Alpaca and pretend Alpaca. (I hope the ones I bought were real Alpaca.  They said they were).  Big bags full of shelled corn, bags of spices, piles of fruit and vegetables.  Everyone calling out their wares.  It really was a wake up to all the senses, smell, sight, hearing and even touch. It was kind of fun to barter with them. I found the easiest way was to pick up several things and ask a certain price for all of them.  It was a bit more difficult when I bought just one thing, but still worked.

Saturday morning was breakfast at the hotel, http://www.hotelelindioinn.com/imagenes.php, Indio Inn in Otavalo.  It was quite nice.  We had dinner there on Friday night.  It was Bread, steak with potatoes, rice and veggies.  Fruit juice and fruit for dessert.  We also had breakfast there, which was bread, fruit, eggs and juice, coffee or tea.

After shopping until noon on Saturday we went on to Cotacachi, where we ate lunch (taco with meat and avocado filling, soup with popcorn and banana chips for croutons, chicken, vegetables, fried potatoes (we skipped the rice) and strawberries and cream for dessert… oh yes, fresh fruit to drink   On this bus trip, a couple of young girls rode the bus from Otavalo and sang to us and sold dolls and scarves  They got off n Cotacachi where they would catch another bus and do it all over again.  The older was 17 and the younger 5.  Very sweet girls.  We walked down the street in this town and saw the leather goods.  I sure wish I had picked up that leather purse for $12.  Larry will have to bring me back down, I guess. 🙂

Then we went to the town with wood carvings.  We shopped and looked at carvings, listened to a band play and sing in the city center and talked a little with an old homeless lady that has been there for a long time.  This was also a potty stop.  Paid 15 cents for some toilet paper.  The carvings were beautiful.  I bought a small hand carved nativity that was carved using the faces of local people.

Our trip home was slow.  I think it was about 7:00 when we got home.  The road winds through the mountains, with bumper to bumper traffic a lot of the way.  The mountain are beautiful.  There are green houses for roses all over, even on the steep sides of hills.  They ship roses from here all over the world.  They are cheap and easy to find here.

Sunday we worshiped with some of the English speaking people here.  It was actually in both languages for the songs and scripture, but the preaching was in two languages.  It was a two hour service.

We had lunch at a little place ‘around the corner’ and had a hamburger and fries.  I wonder if there is a place that serves Ecuadorian food, or if they are like Americans and don’t have  ‘local’ food.  After lunch we decided to explore a bit and walked to several stores, the local market and then to the Mall.  It had a lot of American shops including, McDonald’s,  KFC and  Hallmark, as well as others.

We bought a 2 liter of coke on the way home as well as crackers and hand sanitizer.  If we have a big meal at noon, we will probably snack on peanut butter and crackers  and fruit in the evening.

I forgot to mention that Friday morning, I went with Larry over to the storage area when the transmitter is, and helped to put screws back in place and a few things before our trip.

It has been a good weekend.  So far, we have really enjoyed Ecuador.  Hopefully, I will have some pictures to add soon. We left our camera charging at home, so had to borrow a camera.

Today was pretty much the same.  Breakfast was bread, tea, coffee, jam, scrambled eggs and juice.  I thought she said ‘tomato’ juice, but it was not the type of tomato I know.  When I asked the girls at work they said it was tomato for juice, not for eating.  It’s a tree tomato.

I scanned in another year and a half of documents today.  Boring and tiring, but something I can do that is helpfulI enjoy the Ecuadorians that I am working with.  I took some M&M’s for break today, and the all came back to work with some in a napkin.  Tomorrow I am taking peanut butter because they either don’t understand what it is or don’t have it here.  Might taste good on the bread they eat for break.

We ate lunch at the hospital again.  Rice, chicken, cucumber sliced, carrots sort of shredded. tangerine, an unknown juice drink and soup.  $1.80 for all of that.  Tomorrow, I think we will get one plate. I’ll eat the soup and Larry the other stuff.  I usually have a bread break, so am not needing so much, but I do like the soup.

For supper tonight we stopped at a bakery and bought a meat pastry apiece and a Coke to share.  The pastry was very good $1.80 for the pastry and 80cents for the 1/2 liter of Coke.

Larry is getting a lot done. They hope to pack next week sometime.  It looks like rain this weekend.

Just thought I would put down a few first impressions of Ecuador before they are forgotten.
When we arrived at the Quito airport Sunday night, August 5 and began walking down the concourse, we were out of breath! It seemed odd to feel so out of breath and tired with so little effort. The next impression was people! Lots of people. Pretty typical for a large airport. Then cars, lots of cars. Nice thing was that they didn’t drive to fast. Apparently, they have started enforcing the speed limits.

We arrived at Angelica’s around 11:00 that evening. We were shown to a nice little room with two single beds and one double bed. We have a private bathroom. :-)There is a sign in the bathroom asking us to not flush toilet paper or any paper products down the toilet.  It is a nice clean place. Unfortunately, the view has been hidden by progress. A 6 story building on each side hides any hope of a view.

Breakfast at 8:00 in the morning. We were served coffee or tea, pineapple, papaya and a bread with cheese inside.

Geoff took us on a very brief tour of part of the mission Larry got busy digging the transmitter out of the shed. He had the help of three others so I was not needed. I walked around a bit and worked on my quilt. We went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch and brought the leftovers home for our evening meal. The afternoon continued as the morning.

Tuesday, Angelica served us scrambled eggs, bread and jam, coffee and tea. Larry went back to the transmitter and I was put to work in HR scanning documents. Rather boring, but a needed job. Good job for someone who does not speak Spanish. Usually, there is a break around 11:00 in the morning for coffee, everyone usually drinks tea and has bread. All the people in the room where I was working went at the same time. We had a good time, even if I don’t speak Spanish. I managed to finish one file of documents today, perhaps I will be faster tomorrow. We ate lunch at the hospital. Fish, rice, salad and avocado with a pastry.  It was tasty.

Tuesday evening, we had dinner with the Kooistra family. They have three children that made me think of our grandchildren. We ate pizza and fruit. We had grapes, cantaloupe,  granadilla,  mango and a white juice that was good. We walked to the Kooistra home.  It was about 1k straight up.  Quite a climb.