El Dia de Gracias!

Lately the most popular question asked of us is whether we were able to have a Thanksgiving feast...were we? Pff, of course! We somehow ended up cooking for the entire Escobar family, 11 people. Everything was delicious and since Ecuadorians can eat, there were barely any leftovers, a first for us.
So after countless hours spent in the kitchen of the Escobar home, the family gathered at two tables and went to town on P´s delicious squash soup recipe, a 16 lb. turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing and topped it off with vanilla ice cream & apple crisp. We´re absolutely sure everything turned out great by the amount of times we heard the phrase "¡Que rico!"
M is just about at 100% with her recuperation and although we´re sad for a second round of goodbyes, we´re ready to continue this journey. We´re off to Lima, Peru on Thursday!

"...and she´s OK!"

Some of you are dying to read details of my ailment, so here goes:

Tough as I am, I ignored the first pain spell in Quevedo, a stopover town on our way to the coast, where I experienced shortness of breath, stabbing chest and upper back pains and nausea. The pain finally subsided and allowed for a restful sleep. We awoke and left for Puerto Lopez feeling great. After an amazing day on Isla De La Plata, I began experiencing the same pain. P hired a tuktuk to drive us to the nearest doctor, who injected me with some pain meds and said nothing more than a guess at a digestive problem. OK, next morning, same episode! Off to a different doctor recommended to us by our hostel owner, luckily, this time, we were accompanied by a friendly, fluent Spanish speaker from the States, who overheard P´s frantic conversation asking for a doctor in town and offered to help (thank you Rebecca!). Dr. Olga gave me another painful injection for pain, felt my abdomen and said we needed to get to a hospital ASAP. The problem was that the nearest hospital was 2 hours away by car, 4 hours by bus! Dr.Olga said she knew a guy who´d take us for 40 bucks, we accepted, Rebecca was so nice to come along to help (and keep P calm). We arrived at the hospital in Manta with an order for a sonogram. The doctor placed the camera on my upper abdomen to reveal many stones in my gall bladder, he looked at us and said "need surgery, immediately" and I began to lose my mind. P, calm and composed, called our travel insurance company and asked all the right questions, she returned with great news- we can go anywhere for the surgery and we´re covered. Of course we thought of returning to NYC on the next flight, but I couldn´t stand the pain and I needed to be in a hospital as soon as possible. We thought heading back to Quito was our best bet- best hospitals, best friends, an apartment to return to, a familiar place and the list goes on. Luckily enough, Manta has an airport with frequent flights to Quito, it was that or a 12 hour bus ride! We bought tickets at the airport and took a 40 minute flight back to Quito where Belen and Diego awaited our arrival. They took us straight to the hospital. My skin and eye color was now changing for a yellow tint, not too attractive. After being admitted and having blood samples read, the doctors informed us that a stone has left the gall bladder, an MRI was needed to find out where it has gone before surgery can be performed. Results suggested I needed an endoscopy procedure to locate and remove the stone before my gall bladder could be removed. I was now very yellow, but with little pain considering I had an IV in each wrist. It wasn´t until the second day in the hospital that the endoscopy was performed with success and late that same night the surgery, also successful. We had a pleasant experience in the hospital for 5 days, it only took them 2 days to understand that P is a vegetarian and what that means (rice and carrots in this case), but they made up for it by giving us an amazing room with a flat screen TV and a pull out couch for P´s comfort (she slept in an upright chair the first night, what a trooper!). The hospital was great, nurses were very attentive, doctors were so sincere and helpful, even the cleaning staff tried to take our mind off things by asking us every question imaginable! We weren´t allowed to be discharged until I stopped vomitting, which thankfully happened towards the end of day 4. We got the great news early on day 5, we can go home! We are now back in our Quito apartment until I´m allowed to fly. In a few weeks we´ll fly south to Peru and continue on our journey.

Baños, Buses, and Boobies, Oh My!

So, we haven´t blogged for quite some time. Why you ask? Because we were in the middle of nowhere followed by a 5 day stint in the hospital. M is now alive and well. No worries. Let me back track...

BAÑOS

We finally left Quito 5 days later than planned because we love our neighbors a little too much. Seriously. We tried to wait for Tomas to walk, but that wasn´t happening so we finally had the dreaded tearful goodbye. We arrived in Baños 4 hours later. Yes, baños means bath, real creative for this town known for their natural hot springs. We spent a few days shmoozing around town, soaking in the (clean?) warm waters and riding mountain bikes. We engaged on a gorgeous bike ride from Baños to a town about 60km away called Puyo. Our aching asses only made it about 22km, but that was more than we could take. We saw nearly 15 waterfalls on the way, ending with the beautiful waterfall near Rio Verde before we called it quits. Apparently M isnt too keen on relaxation, so we cut the stay short to have more adventures and less relaxation. Which is where the bus rides began. Will post pictures at a later date.

BUSES

Hours on a bus? 15

Days until arrival in Puerto Lopez? 2

Number of buses? 4

Kilometers travelled? 200, yes about 120 miles in 15 hours

Number of motion sickness pills? Too many

Number of times we feared for our lives? Too many

Bus window decorations? Red fuzzy rear view mirrors decorated in Mickey Mouse stickers, giant, I repeat GIANT Jesus saying that we are all in his heart, isnt that nice of him?

Items for sale on the bus? Ice cream, bread, chicken, rice, salad, and beans in a little garbage pail container, gum, candy, pens that write sooo smoothly, in many colors, empanadas, mangoes, porn videos, watches, detox drinks, etc. You get the drift.

Strangest luggage? A man with a box of chickens, live.

Strangest luggage on top of the bus? 2 live sheep. Seriously.

BOOBIES! The blue footed kind that is...

We arrived, barely, in Puerto Lopez, a tiny town on the Pacific Coast, in the middle of nowhere. We found a great hostel called Hostal Itapoa and found ourselves in a cabaña equipped with a comfy bed, clean bathroom, hot water, mosquito nets, hammock on the porch, and the largest spiders I have ever seen. Ever. Puerto Lopez is a little dinky town with too good of a repuatation given by Lonely Planet. We hear Montañita, a little further south down the coast, is where it´s at. But Puerto Lopez is the take off point to explore Isla de la Plata which is exactly what we were there for. Known as the poor man´s Galapagos, we were in for quite the treat. We had a full day tour of the island which is an hour´s speed boat trip from the shore. The island is a low land dry forest, which basiclly means that for 10 months of the year it looks entirely dead. If it weren´t for the birds it would have been very ugly. But, every step we took, we had to avoid Blue Footed Boobies. Man, they are so cute. The island is uninhabited so the birds have not grown afraid of humans making them very accessible. The best part was that the birds made their nests in the middle of the path, not off the path, hidden in some brush, right smack in the center of the trails. We had to walk through the brush to avoid them because they started honking at us when we got too close. It was egg hatching time so we saw lots of Boobies sitting on eggs and lots of Boobie babies. Again, so cute! We hiked around the island for 4 hours as we encountered countless birds. It was incredible. We then had the chance to snorkel before we headed back to the main land. As we got back on the boat to prepare for snorkelling, we saw sea turtles swimming around the boat! It was a first for us and very exciting. We then got in the water and saw coral and beautifully colored fish. M quickly insisted on rushing back to the boat because she was finished. I followed because I was nervous to be alone. Once we got back on the boat M revealed she popped her head up while we were swimming and saw a big fin in the distance and was afraid it was a shark, hence the rush back to the boat. Turns out it was nothing but a sea lion! Very exciting wild life sightings!About 20 minutes after we got back to the hostel, M started feeling some crazy pain in her chest and that´s when the next 5 days in the hospital began. Thankfully M is fine now, and we will update with the story tomorrow.

Mindo, Ecuador

We´ve received enough complaints from friends to update you on what we did last weekend, so here goes:

Last weekend we left Quito for the cloud forests of beautiful Mindo. Mindo is a small, laid back village surrounded by lush vegetation & so relaxing that we ended up staying an extra day, though our funds were minimal. We started our day early Saturday, with a delicious, fresh breakfast compliments of our hostal owner, Cecilia. She was very proud to inform us that everything we were consuming was "de la casa"- fresh eggs, homemade bread & cheese, fresh Guayaba juice from her trees and homemade jam. Our stomachs pleasantly full, we headed to the mountains for a 4 hour hike to 5 waterfalls. To get to the trail, we had to cross in a makeshift cable car from one mountaintop to the next over a river valley hundreds of meters below us. Our hike came up short in the wildlife department, only one lizard and one snake sighting, nothing too exciting. OH and thousands of mosquitos, plenty of which left their mark. We then headed to Vivero Cafe farm, voted Ecuador´s #1 coffee, in hopes of a tour and a tasting. Upon arrival, we notice that the farm is smaller than my parents´backyard and that the tour was simply a "self-guided" look at the plot. We smiled, accepted the invite and took our walk through the 4 rows of coffee trees. The ladies offered a taste of coffee on our way out, best coffee since arriving in South America (did we mention that all they drink is instant coffee, EVERYTHING is exported). So, "the tour" lasted a whole 15 minutes, we alotted a couple of hours...what to do? Well, we´re not into the canopy tours and it was too late to try and scope out tropical birds, so we had a few Pilseners, a few card games and called it a day. We arranged an early morning bird hike with a guide for Sunday at 6AM, which turned out to be the highlight of the weekend for both of us. William, our guide, was amazing. We were thoroughly impressed by his knowledge and ability to point out every bird within earshot. Including this toucan which was barely visible without the scope! Sunday afternoon consisted of hanging out by the river that runs through town and staring at hundreds of hummingbirds zooming past with a local friend we encountered. On our way to grab a bite to eat we realize there was a bus station in Mindo, who would of thought? since our bus dropped us off outside of town when we arrived! We popped in to check on bus times for Monday, to our suprise all buses were full except the 6AM departure...another early morning for us. We were back in Quito by 9:30AM on Monday, but in unfamiliar territory, the bus we took dropped us off at the northernmost bus station in Quito, about 40km from our apartment...another adventure!

DOUBLE YAY OBAMA!

We will now definitely return to the U.S. once our journey is over.
Thank you for doing the right thing!

Yay Obama!

Our visit to Guallabamba

Our lovely neighbors invited us to spend the night at their family´s home in Guayabamba, just under an hour northeast of Quito. Of course we accepted without hesitation even though we knew Spanish would be the choice language. It turns out, we understand and can speak more Spanish than we may have thought...thank you Escuela Beraca! We arrived at Señora Maria´s house around 9pm on Saturday, she accepted us with open arms, kisses and warm Colada Morada. Her recipe was delicious! After a peaceful night´s sleep, we awoke for our day of fun. We got a thorough tour of the finca that the family owns. P was ecstatic over how many avocados they grow on their farm, so she enjoyed every moment of it. I, on the other hand, got excited over the fat, juicy moras (blackberries) they had! Nothing short of delicious. They also had a litter of 7 kittens and a litter of 8 golden retriever pups, so cute! We then got a tour of the market in the town´s square, where they bought tons of food for our BBQ. The BBQ was outstanding, tons of meat & chorizo, poor P, although I think she was pleased with the fresh guacamole served. Lunch was the event of the day, everyone relaxed and asked a million questions about the U.S. afterwards. Luckily our Spanish skills have come along, so we were keeping up with the conversation. It was soon time to head back to Quito, Señora Maria wouldn´t have us leave emptyhanded, we left with a bucketful of avocados and lemons...enough to last at least a month! We´re so happy to have met such a welcoming family, we love them! Check our Quito album (to the right) for more photos.

El Tercero City Tour

After taking a day off from school due to a long night of partying, Ecuadorian style, we gladly accepted the invitation for our 3rd city tour as half of our Friday lesson. To ease back into it, you know. The thought of sitting in class for 4 hours was enough to make me feel ill. Since we kept asking how big Quito is, distance wise, our teachers thought it was best to take us to the Virgin of Quito so we can get a glimpse of the entire city. The weather held up for spectacular views of Quito...and yes, it´s huge. Every inch of space available in this valley has been taken over by some building. Guess you take what you can get when you´re surrounded by massive mountains. We´re excited for this weekend as we´re invited to our neighbors family´s home an hour outside of Quito for a BBQ & fiesta. We´re going to celebrate The Day of the Dead a week early with the family. The tradition here is to eat "guaguas de pan," which is sweet bread shaped as dolls and drink "colada morada," a thick purple drink symbolizing blood. Colada morada is made of black corn flour, blackberries, blueberries, pineapple and "other ingredients" and is served hot or cold.

Can´t wait!

Otavalo, Ecuador

We started out late in the day on Friday, successfully found the bus terminal, paid for our tickets, paid the tax to enter the area where we could get on the bus, got prime choice of seats on the bus, then proceeded to watch BS anti-choice propaganda for the next 4 hours. ugh. A video persuading against abortion is not fun viewing material for a bus ride. Especially after the 60 mile journey took 4 + hours. We arrived in one piece thankfully and then had the weekend to enjoy. Otavalo is an indigenous mountain village home to an incredible market and beautiful sights. Friday night was spent chatting in the hammocks in the garden of our wonderful hostel. We awoke Saturday morning to the hustle and bustle of early breakfasts before a jam packed day of shopping. The market was tremendous, as were our purchases. After we were dizzy from staring at the brilliant colors surrouding us, we wound up with 1 sweater each (some of us won´t take it off, echem M), 1 purse each, some decorative rugs, an imitation Guayasamin paiting, a few smaller paintings, etc, as well as gifts for some of you. Guess we´ll have to ship out a package earlier than expected.
Later in the afternoon we visited a waterfall called Cascada de Peguche. The walk leading up the water was beautiful and entertaining thanks to the teenagers drinking beer and slyfully making out. We had dinner, drinks, and plenty of time for playing cards back at the hostel before we headed out to a peña until the wee hours of the morn. A peña is a bar filled with a ton of smoke and a ton of locals being entertained by live traditional Andean folk music. It was a blast, especially thanks to the techno music and strobe light during the band´s breaks. We slept off a hangover and headed to Lago de San Pablo, the largest lake in Ecuador. Little did we know, our bus dropped us about an hour´s walk from the lake. The walk was filled with cow traffic, sheep, indigenous shepards, polluting cars and buses, adorable kids, and tiny tiendas selling anything imagineable. Seriously, who doesnt want to buy a broom from a travelling broom salesman? Only $1! On the northeast side of the lake stands Volcan Imbabura which we took some great photos of. After a filling yet strange lunch with an incredible view of the volcano, we hopped on a bus that brought us right back to our hostel. How did we miss that on the way there? We packed up, got some blackberry pie to go, got on the return bus which was only a delightful 2 hours. The motion sickness meds made us pass out and the trip was over before we knew it. It´s back to studying spanish all day everyday, wait until you hear us!

Granizo!

The weather in Quito is a great conversation piece. Here we are stuck in school because it´s hailing outside...again. Everyone got a kick out of the fact that we´ve only seen hail maybe 5 times in our lives. The mornings are beautiful, with warm sunshine and blue skies, but by 3pm the dark clouds roll in. You never know if the clouds are going to dump a 5 minute shower on you or a 30 minute hailstorm, either way it makes for a cold and wet evening. Pam and I have been troopers and braving the weather. We´re the only two people walking the streets and as we run out of clean, dry clothes, we´re considering switching to indoor activities. We´re going to our first salsa lesson this afternoon! More to come on how that goes, until then, hasta luego!

A Stow Away!

Somehow, the Jenkins made it into one of our packs. Here they are sharing a few beers and lots of laughs with us.
Our first weekend in Quito went by pretty fast, we spent a day walking around old town Quito, browsing a craft market and other shops, listening to live music in the plazas scattered around town, dodging the rain and hail, visiting our local supermarket (our favorite pasttime) and, of course, studying Spanish.
You can view some of our photos by clicking on the ladies to the right. Enjoy!

Take a tour...

Pam will take you on a tour of our apartment, click below!

Nosotras vivimos en Quito!

After a 3 hour delay and many moments of feeling lost in translation(even in NYC, where Avianca Air strictly hires Spanish speakers ONLY!), we arrived in Quito.We´ve been here for 3 eventful days, to say the least. Within 24 hours of being here we moved into a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment. How did we accomplish this, you might ask? Well, we decided the best way to do this was to walk into every building that resembled an apartment building, point and say "apartmento?" Needless to say, that didn´t work out too well. We then tried calling phone numbers we found posted in various internet cafes and leaving messages for random people. Since there was no way of getting back in touch with us, we realized this was also a bad idea. We aborted that mission and decided to stop into Beraca Spanish School, where we´ll be studying for 4 weeks, to introduce ourselves and ask about finding an apartment. Carmen, the school director, made one phone call for us and, voila, an apartment was found. We´ve also started our very much needed Spanish lessons. Our heads are spinning from the 4 hours a day we spend in a one on one lesson, but this will soon pass, hopefully. We haven´t had much time to explore the city between classes and homework, but we do have a great view as we walk home from class!