Ecuador!!!!

Sean has been trying to get back to Ecuador ever since he served his mission there about 10 years ago. He came in contact with a prosthetist who has set up a clinic with a local rotary club and was setting up a 10 week course that physical therapist students could take to gain another skill and try to make the country a little more self sufficient in the prosthetic field. He asked Sean to teach a week of the course and Sean was thrilled. He wanted me to go, but I was hesitant because of the kids...I think Sean would have purchased my ticket even if I had said no. He was so excited. So we bought plane tickets and decided to go on our first KID FREE VACATION!!!!!!! Now I haven't really slept in 5 years so the prospect of sleeping all night for a week really sounded great to me.

We arrived in Quito and stayed at this cute hotel. Here is the courtyard.

And here is our room

We woke up early and hopped in this awesome taxi to the bus station and went to Otavalo for the day. The taxi's here have taken out all the seat belts in the back seats - so it's not even an option if you'd like to wear one. Another scary form of travel here is motercycle. I saw a family of 4 fit on a motorcycle. 4 year old child in the front, dad driving, next comes the 8 month old baby, followed by mom....so scary.

Sean served in Otavalo for 11 months of his mission. On Saturdays all the people from the local villages that specialize in different artesan work come and set up an ENORMOUS market that goes on for blocks and blocks. We walked around the market and ran into where Sean lived as a missionary. He couldn't remember if he was on the second or third floor of that building behind him.

A woman with her spread of beans and corn

Pork anyone?

Nothing quite like fresh coconut milk after a guy cut an opening in it with a huge machete

After a couple hours at the market we hiked to a beautiful waterfall. It's called Peguche. Along the way we net a couple of young cows grazing on the trail

We got to one of the look out points and then went down to the bottom of the falls and hiked up the other side to the top. It was pretty pathetic listening to us pant as we hiked up the million steps. It's over 10,000 feet and the air was thin. Both of us were nausiated and had headaches and couldn't breathe because of the altitude. We live at about 200 feet and have for the last several years. Not to mention we haven't exactly kept up on our exercise.

After hiking we went on the bus around a little village and got a good view of this.
Can you spot the heart on this mountain? (hint: it's on the right side)

We were also able to go to church in Otavalo on Sunday and Sean saw some of the families he worked with while there.

If you notice the fence around the church. Every place in Ecuador has bars on windows and fences or walls around buildings. If you can't afford these beautiful spikes the church can afford you can put barbed wire up. If you can't afford barbed wire (which is usually the case) what you do is break a whole bunch of glass and cement it to the top of your wall. That is the most common defence - broken shards of glass on top of a wall surrounding the houses.

We also went to this very fancy restaurant where we paid an unheard of $11/plate for cuy (lunch is usually about $1.50). This restaurant had a playground in the front for kids and an in door pool where you could go swimming while you waited for your food if you'd like. What is cuy you ask?

guinea pig - that's right, flattened, fried guinea pig. Most the meat surprisingly is in the legs and spine, there is hardly anything in the chest. It actually tasted pretty good - kind of like really good chicken. I told Sean that I felt like at any moment I could be grossed out and wouldn't be able to eat any more (which in Ecuador is a big no no - EVERYONE finishes ALL their food). He said it'd be ok since we were at a restaurant and not somebody's house. Yummm!!!! don't you want to take a big bite out of that rodent that's about to eat the tomato?

The Clinic

Here is the rotary club who was sponsoring the clinic. The clinic building is off to the right

Sean teaching the students

Last day of class with 2 of the students, the other American prosthetist and Bob, the guy who started this whole thing

Analyzing this woman's gait as she walks on her first prosthesis

Here is a leg another patient came in on. Notice how he had made a foot from yarn.

Modifying casts outside

At the end of our stay they threw a party and invited everyone from the clinic and their families. They presented Sean and I and the other American with awards for helping out for the week.

Horse back riding

On Wednesday we went horseback riding. We arranged to go with a company that a man from the marketplace told us about. We hopped in the back of an old landrover with these 2 young indiginous girls and they drove into the mountains away from the city. They kept going and going and all I could think of was what in the world have I gotten myself into. We finally reached our destination at somebody's house near the top of the mountain. The view was breathtaking.

This picture does not do it justice. The colors were unbelievable and you could see the other mountain and a little pocket of the city at the bottom. Our guide left us here to go get the horses. About 30 minutes later we were starting to get worried when there were still no horses. We looked down the valley and saw the young girl riding bareback on a horse trying to round up the other horses for us. She couldn't get them so she called for reinforcements. A man from the house went running down the hill with his son and soon after they all came stampeding up the hill riding bareback on the horses - our guide, the man who went to help her and his 5 year old son. Amazing.

Our guide asked us how much riding experience we've had and we both told her we rode a couple times when we were kids - so limited. She said ok, they put saddles on our horses and said to climb up and we were off...as simple as that, no instructions on how to sit or hold the reigns...just off we went. We walked down the steep road and the guide turned around and said (in spanish - Sean translated for me) that we would soon come to a bridge and the horses would want to run. So we got to the bridge and I was holding my reigns in 2 hands (the wrong way) and the horse took off and flew off my saddle and felt like I was going to flip over the front of the horse. I pulled the reigns tight and the guide calmed the horse and then taught me how to appropriately hold the reigns (one hand and tighter). I was pretty shaken up and had a tight grip after that. The poor horse wanted to keep running up the hills to gain momentum, but I wouldn't let it. We went off the road and onto a trail, it crossed a creek and then started switchbacks up a very steep hill. The trail was literally a trench that had been dug out of the hill about 12 inches wide and 8 inches deep. We had to duck under low trees and brush and finally made it to the top, where my horse insisted on walking on the very edge of a very high cliff.

We arrived at this waterfall and let the horses graze a little while we took some pictures. The guide told us that this waterfall was special to the indiginous people in the area and that once a year on a holiday they come and bath in it to cleanse themselves.

After the waterfall we headed back because it was starting to get dark and it was about an hour and a half back to the house. Both Sean and I had become much more comfortable on the horses by the time we rode back on the cliff, down the steep switchbacks, through the creek and through the meadow. Sean was in the lead, with me following and the guide behind us. Sean's horse got the the road and took off in a full gallop. Mine got to the road and did the same thing. It was UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! I've never ridden on a horse in full gallop. It was so smooth, just like you were gliding in air. I literally could not stop smiling. The horse slowed to a trot (which was not smooth, and very bumpy) and we alternated between walking, trotting, and galloping all the way home.

My ischium hurt for 3 days after, but this was definately one of the most fun things I've done...and something they'd never let you do in the states...you're lucky if somebody isn't holding a rope guiding your horse when you go for a ride here. :)

Touring Quito in a day

The last day of our trip we went to Quito. We had a day to see it before our plane left that night so we tried to make the most of it. The next couple posts show the places we went.

On the way to Quito we asked our driver to take us to the new center of the world monument. Here we are on opposite sides of the world

We saw a movie, which is something Sean never got to do on his mission, nor that we ever get to do now that we have kids.

panoramic of Saint Antonio church. It was beautiful inside, full of gold and beautiful paintings, but when we entered they were holding mass so we didn't think it was appropriate to snap a picture

The entrance to the public library

La Basilica in Quito

We went to La Basilica in Quito. This is a massive cathedral and you pay $2 and you get to climb all around the towers. It was really beautiful inside and out of the church. People wrote their names on the walls and it was kind of cool to see, except that it was in a church and probably not very respectful.


It's hard to get a good picture of the whole thing because it is so big
After climbing several flights of stairs you reach this point where you can take a picture of the interior of the basilica

panoramic from about 3/4 up one of the front towers

From the tower you can get a nice view of the Virgen de Quito on El Panecillo Hill


After getting to the top of one of the 2 front towers we decided to go to the tower on the back of the basilica. To do that we went down a couple of these ladders

Down several of these spiral stair cases

Then across this very creaky catwalk built directly over La Basilica's interier arches and up the ladder at the back of the room

Then up this ladder - yes that is a ladder pointed away from the building - it was sturdy, but very high up (about 350 feet) and very scary for me who gets pretty nervous with heights. They did add some wire mesh which helped calm my nerves, but on the next stair case the wire mesh was missing on the last 4 rungs and let me tell you it was a very scary straight drop to the cement ground from there.

Sean poked his head in this little piece of broken window and said he couldn't see anything.

So I put my camera in and saw this

and this

From this back tower, it's hard to see in the picture, but the virgen is exactly between the 2 front towers of the church

After the church we caught a taxi and went to El Panecillo Hill

Ecuador - Quito Botanical gardens

In Quito we went to the botanical gardens. It was so beautiful! They tried to create every climate there is in Ecuador. Here are pictures of some of the flowers I liked...there were too many to post all of them. I'm still just amazed that a lot of these bloomed naturally where we were staying at 10,000 feet.