My family in Tabacundo: Florita, Me, David, Jorge, Flora, Andreita, and Daysi.
Happy 25th birthday to me! My family invited the other gringos from Tabacundo and provided a lovely feast, including a cake! We had the typical American fare... empanadas (my favorite!) de manjar (milk and sugar) and cheese, pork rinds, peanuts, chocolate, chips, and candies. They definitely treat me well here!
Here is my host mom, Flora, preparing one of about 15 guine pigs that were slaughtered for this weekend`s party. I`m pretty excited about lunch tomorrow, let me tell you! They think it`s pretty funny that we only have guinea pigs as pets.
This is me repelling down a 15m waterfall. At the bottom the water just pelted you in the face. It was awesome!!
Taking a break from our hike through the cloud forest near Mindo in a really cool thatch-roofed hut type building.
Our hostel in Mindo...it was a 20 minute hike (and a cool box ride over the river...see below) to get there, and it felt like an ape house...very cool!
This was our sweet ride across the river. People on the other side had to pull the box across on a trolley system. It was a bit scary at night!
The cloud forest near Mindo, which is a transitional region between the sierra and the coast.
More cloud forest from a hill...what an amazing view!
Our Tabacundo group after cleaning up the weeds and trash from the old cemetery. We had over 9 bags of trash in 3 hours.
A flower plantation near Cayambe. Because of the sun and great climate, there are tons of plantations close by.
A gorgeous set of roses at a flower plantation near Cayambe. We toured the plantation and then saw the processing room, where they put them in bundles of 25, like the one pictured here, and then send them to various countries, mostly Russia, the U.S., and Holland.
My kids at the Centro Escolar in La Esperanza. I spent about 5 days with them, teaching a bit of English and mostly just hanging out.