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!

Kindergarden graduation

I was asked to be a godmother for a kindergarden graduation to one of my neighbor families who I adore.

Me and my little hijado Alvin.

Alvin and his big sister Maria Belin

to congratulate the new graduate, I gave him new pjs.....bc that´s all he likes to ever wear....and a picture of the fam

His kindergarden class of 5 niñoslove this sweet familyKindergarden class of 2010

Felicidades mis niños lindosgraduatesthis is what happens when you show up at the graduation ceremony on time.....and it doesn´t really end up starting until 2 hours after the scheduled time...so you kill time by taking

Parents come to find out why I love this place so much....

My family finally got a snapshot into my life.
hot, green, mangos, reggaeton, rain, good people and did i say hot....where just a few words my sister had to say when describing my site. My parents trip was so good but it was definetely harder to blend in traveling as a group of 4. Everyone in my community wanted to meet my family.

Behind my house near the riverme and my mamawaiting at the bus stopcanoe ride in Poza Hondaglamorous Courtney who decided to stay back and help out in my community and to be my new roommate for awhile. :)my neighbor´s bird haning out with my dadmy host mom and I´s garden host mom and I who loved meeting my parents but couldn´t get over how tall they were.

neighbor kids picking fruit for my famAnali loving on my dad.....who claims he is not a cat person......I don´t buy it. ;)

Court and IMy community wanted to wait to have the kids Christmas party until my parents came so they could see all the dancing and festivities....I think my parents enjoyed the experience but were shocked by all the extremely loud music and Hora Loca.


Also, during my family´s trip, I turned a 1/4 of a century old.

Ecuadorian family
my host family killed a chicken to welcome my family and to celebrate my bday. It was a nice fiestita with 2 families who I care about dearly.25!Another one of my favorite Ecuadorian families. Damaris, adorable 2 yr. old and her ¨mamina¨grandmaa turtle Damaris gave me for my birthday

all my bday surprises. the hat was from a family in my community who put their daughters names on the back...so sweetthe 16th of January, my bday and also the night before we had to say goodbye to my parents, we stayed at a nice hotel in Guayaquil where the staff sang me happy birthday and sent a cake to our room. It was a great ending to a wonderful trip with my family. Thanks Mom, Dad and Courtney for all your patience, flexiblity, open-mindedness and good company during your time here in Ecuador. LOVE YOU!

and for your enjoyment, I have posted below my reaction to having to kill a chickenclassic.