Quito Madness

Court and I headed to Quito to celebrate birthdays...welcome new Peace Corps volunteers and to enjoy the Andes mtns one last time before Courtney has to head back to the States. Our chiva...aka dance party on wheels...that took us on a night tour of Quito. I think chivas would be an excellent addtion to Denver night life. :)

Party group. 50 of us crammed onto the chiva.
Me, Laura and Sam

Historical part of Quito where the chiva made a stop for us to dance in the plaza

While in Quito, we also took a gandala up to the top lookout point in the city

We had an incredible view

I love Quito.

Laura and the Richmond sisters

and the greatness continued with some bowling

We snuck pizza into the bowling alley

Courtney rocking out at guitar hero

Rubia to Rockstar

Courtney is NO longer a blonde! She decided she needed a new look. So, after a day at the spa, Courtney came out looking like a rockstar. Before as a rubia

Drum roll please.................................

TA DA!

The new transformed Courtney

Whadaya think?!?!

Am I becoming the cat lady?

Valentines Day gift from my host brohter. Sweet, I guess but wasn't prepared for a new animal in the house but Courtney immediately got attached. So, after lots of convincing, the little gato became Courtney's new baby.

Say hello to Casanova

So, it didn't take me that long to warm up to the little guy either

He loves cuddling up to Courtney Meow

500,000 earthquakes a year around the world

The massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile more than a week ago rumbled all the way to Ecuador. Courtney and I were abrubtly woken-up by a violent shaking of our beds at 5:30a.m. First thought....why does my host brother need to run up and down the stairs like there is a fire in the house...and then I opened my eyes to see that the entire place was shaking. We jumped up and ran to the door way. Slowly the rumbling came to a stop and fortunately no damage was done. First earthquake for my sister and I. 5.5 magnitude. Ecuador is very lucky to not have had any negative repercussions. My heart goes out to those in Chile.

Celebrating Carnival on the Coast

After a looooonnnng night bus from the sierra, we arrived in Portoviejo to begin the Carnival celebrations.

The one and only pretty part of Portoviejo. I am thankful to live in the campos where I'm surrounded by green, green and more green Carnival crew. Casey who lives in Puyo, Mans, Me and Court

First night of Carnival, we went to a reggeaton Makano concert.
"Te amo, Te amo, Te aaammmoo" We danced like
We started in the very back farthest seats from the stage and somehow worked our way to the front row.At our $10 seats, we were walking targets for the masses of people who were drenching each other in water, beer, foam, lo que sea. We quickly ran out of amo and thats when we had to figure out how we could get closer and change sections.

Our escorts who helped us get to the front row
And our personal choffers back to our hotelThe next day we went on a bus tour to the beach where there was no escaping the Carnival madness
Covered in paint, water, coffee?! pop, colored foam....and who knows what else

there was no mercy. no one was off limits. Amanda got the full South American Carnival experience! Whether she is gonna kill me or thank me for it later, I'm still undecided. hehe
My dear friends Jen and Ali who metamorphed into Avitar characters
After the beach tour, we traveled back to my site where I had to make sure my host brother was not left out of all the foam fights
Now the real question...how does this oil based paint/flour come off???
After a lot of scrubbing, we made it to the Finca in my site to top off the celebrations. Good times but extreme. We all needed time to recover.

City girl enters the wild

Amanda J, BFF since Girl Scouts, takes her first trip abroad to come see her sidekick in Ecuador..... before Amanda J's arrival, we took advantage of being in the big city and had a spa day.
no more campo look.

Amanda in Ecuador

Amanda's flight got in at midnight....we stayed up all night talking like old times.....and had to jump on a bus early the next morning to venture across the country to the Andes mtns.

I feel like visiting Ecuador for some can feel like a whirlwind.....new foods....hot weather.....loud music.....people staring......incredible scenery......prehistoric animals.......3 day-long water fights......warm hearted communities........a lot of uncertainties......and a lot of surprises. Overall, it amounts to a great experience but sometimes much more appreciated once back at home in the comfortable convenient US of A.

Day 1: witness the aftermath of bus roll over (luckily everyone was okay) = 2 hr. delay

mudslide causes us to trek through a swappy mess lugging Amandas red rolley suitcase over the mud block onto a new bus=2 hr. delay

bus capacity= 35, actual number of passengers on our bus= 60

some people had a lot to transfer to the second bus

lending a hand across the mudslide The bus official insisted on having his picture taken with Courtney. hehe

Day 2: recovering from day 1. haha

and dinner with Sam's lovely family! Day 3: hikes and waterfalls



hungry for guinea pig?

our last night before we had to head to the coast to get ready for CARNIVAL....aka madness. Those pix to come!