Visit from Sue and Jim

We had a wonderful visit from my dad and sister for 10 days starting in early July while the kids were still in the Galapagos. We were a little anxious about my dad in this environment because of high altitude and the general difficulties one experiences being a pedestrian here. It all worked out fine. My dad enjoyed the trip so much he's even contemplating a return visit. That speaks volumes to us.

In the picture above (left) he and Sue are having a warm soak in the thermal pools near Cuenca in a place called Baños. (This is not to be confused with the more famous Baños in the central -sierras - more on that later.) This is a place we can get to by bus in less than 15 minutes and we make a habit of going there about once a month. The family picture above was taken on a trip to the Saturday market at Saraguro. This town is 2+ hours from Cuenca and the market was highly recommended by some friends of Sue's who come to Ecuador often. The coolest part was the traditional dress of the indigenous people. The three pictures above give a feel for some of the people we encountered.

What we enjoyed most about the visit were the relaxed hours at home, eating together, taking walks along the river, and other less-than-newsworthy activities that integrated Sue and Jim into the fabric of our lives here in Cuenca. Sue loved the shopping and showed an enthusiasm and indefatigability that was quite remarkable. It was also a great opportunity for her to interact with locals and put to use her most excellent and enviable Spanish. My dad's big purchase is featured in the group photo above. He had been reading The Panama Hat Trail (excellent reading we recommend for anybody interested in Ecuadorian history in general and particularly the peculiar story of the panama hat, which actually has very little to do with Panama and everything to do with the southern region of Ecuador) and was eager to put his head under the genuine article. It looks great on him. I think he may be the only one of us that could ever be confused for a native (at least until he tries to communicate in Spanish). We sure miss those guys and would welcome another visit. That goes for the rest of you too!

Mark

It's been since late May since we last posted on this blog so we've got some catching up to do. Here's a brief overview of what we've been up to in the interim:

June - kids studied hard for their finals at Santana and completed 7th grade with their classmates (a milestone year in Ecuador, equivalent to our completion of junior high school).

July - kids take an end of septimo grado class trip the Galapagos for 4 days, Mark's father (Jim) and sister (Sue) come to visit us in Cuenca for 10 days, Burden family summer vacation starts July 15th with a trip deep into the jungle out of Lago Agrio, after returning to Quito we went to the smalll city of Otavalo, the last week of July we took a bus to Milpe.

August - Milpe is very small town in the cloudforest near the better known small town of Mindo renowned for its great bird habitat. In Milpe we volunteered in a bird santuary for two weeks. After our volunteer work we spent three nights in Mindo and then went back to Quito to meet our friend Jennifer who would travel with us for about 10 days. With Jennifer we spent several days hiking and hostaling in the remote and mountainous Quilitoa region. From Quilitoa we all took a bus to Baños where we stayed for 5 days before returning to Cuenca. (Jennifer went directly from Baños to Quito where she met her sister and niece for a week of travel to the coast.) We are now back in our home in Cuenca. The kids return to school on Setember 7th and Sheilah and I are looking for English teaching work. That´s the snapshot. Read on for more details on a summer we spent getting to know a little more of Ecuador!

The trip to Galapagos

We went to the Galapagos for our school trip. It was really awsome but I wasn't really thinking about the fact that I was in the Galapagos. I was mostly thinking about how I was running out of shorts and I was desperate for something to wear. I was also thinking about all the boys in our class and how they were mostly complete losers. But I guess one of my favorite parts was seeing all the cute sea lions. I think if you are going to Ecuador, Galapagos would not be something I would recommend. Well, maybe if you did it the boat way. I saw more animals in the jungle. And personally for me I don't really care if this particular animal is only on these islands or not. I just want to see more animals. The coolest place we went was tortuga bay. It's beautiful. And really fun. The water is kind of warm and you can go swimming in it, really nice.

Ailish

When Ailish refers to doing a trip to the Galapagos the boat way she is differentiating from the kind of land based tour her class did. They flew to the main island and then took boat excursions from there. That way is a lot cheaper but you don't get out to the further islands and are really aware of the human impact on the islands.