Spencer's Big Adventure

Last week Spencer went to Quilotoa on a class trip for a 3 day adventure in the Ecuadorian countryside. It was incredibly beautiful and cool, but also a hell of a workout!

First, Quilotoa is a volcano that collapsed 800 years ago and a lake formed that is over 800 feet deep.  It is incredibly beautiful. So, Spencer and his 30 kids took a 3 hour bus ride to this magical location and hiked down the inside to the lake.  Here are a few photos:

 

 

In the photo on the right is Spencer's principal Eddie and another one of our fellow new teachers Laura.

 

 On the left is the beginning of the long trail down.  On the right is about halfway down, looking straight up.

 

Finally at the bottom!! 

The walk back up is so difficult that most people will hire a donkey for that portion of the trek. A few of the kids indulged.

After sleeping in a rural hostel that night, they set out for a hike around the rim of the volcano headed for the next hostel. 

 

Hiking the rim on some incredibly narrow, sketchy and dangerous trails. This never would have been done in an American school.

Awesome, just Awesome.

 

In the far far distance you can just see the hostel they hiked to. Up and down, up and down the whole way. Eventually passing a sign pointing back the way they came. It was about 12 kms by the end of the day.  Wow.

The hostel and some kids the next morning getting ready for the 30 + kilometer bike ride!

Here they go.

Crazy terrain. Long steep hills, UP and DOWN for nearly 20 miles!!

Some local kids in one of the towns they passed through. They were super camera shy at first until Spencer asked them if he could take a photo.  

Amazing scenery!!

Caught this great shot of a local bus, those are children hanging off the side because it's so packed. Again, never in America! I think they're in front of the line.

After a long and hard three days it was a long drive home on very windy roads with super steep sides.  He took this photo looking straight down from his window.  That is a sheer cliff with no railing or anything. Again, NEVER in America!!!

I finally saw a Doctor

Why is it that it is not until you finally concede and go through all the trouble to make a doctor's appointment that you feel better? Unfortunately, I have continued to have some swelling and discomfort in my sprained knee heading into this week. And much more unfortunately, that discomfort was causing other issues in my back and calf due to my funny walking for soooo long. So, my awesome Spanish tutor helped find me an orthopedist this week and she even too me to the appointment to help me communicate with him.

Anyway, I had a very interesting trip to see him on Thursday in the hospital, where the doctor's offices are located and payed just $18 total to see him for 15 minutes. He examined my knee and declared that the remaining swelling is normal, my knee is stable, and best of all he is confident that I did not tear my ACL or MCL.  Phew!!

He gave me a much stronger anti-inflamatory and told me to do at least 10 sessions of physical therapy and I should be fine soon.

The best news is that after only 3 days on the pills, my knee feels tons better!!!

Anyway, feeling great, I went on a really long walk with Maia yesterday and came across a new and amazing lookout so I grabbed a shot for you:

Spencer went on an amazing trip this week to a place called Quilotoa and he promises to write and post lots of photos about it soon.

Big Tree

A random photo for today. Spencer went on a long hike yesterday and stumbled upon this HUGE tree. My favorite part of the photo is the happy cow hanging in the back.

It's Like Christmas Morning

I've been unable to find some important items here so I sent along a short list with Spencer on his trip back to America. I am so excited for these few creature comforts:

We will be having tacos for dinner tonight!

Spencer is in the US

Spencer had to go to Detroit this weekend for a work thing. He was very excited to head back to the states for a quick 4 days even if it was Detroit. He got to stay in a nice huge hotel, visit briefly with his dad, eat some good American food, drink draft beer and pick up some things for me.
He sent me this picture of the lobby because it was sooooo huge:

Really taking the whole "Motor City" thing to a new level when you put cars in the lobby of the hotel.

Here he is enjoying a yummy draft beer, something that is very hard to find in Quito for some odd reason.

While he was gone this weekend, I went out with some people and managed to find and drink this down with some friends:

Can't wait for Spencer to come home tomorrow. I think I'll be taking him back to the place I found this pretty soon.

Delayed Update About our Visitor!!

Sorry for the delayed update. Last week we had our first visitor!!!  My amazing friend Ashley was here!!! While it was a very short 36 hour visit, it was awesome to see her. Spencer and I didn't stop babbling the whole time and I didn't realize how much I wanted to share our crazy new stories with someone who knew us before this life. Here she is arriving at the airport last Saturday night:

She was only here for a short time while on her way to Peru for a super cool work thing so we didn't have too much time to explore, but we did stumble across this amazing father/daughter musician team in a park.

Yes, she is rocking out on a recorder to Stairway to Heaven. Amazing.

I wish I could have joined her in Peru, but it was not in the cards for me this time.  She sent me this pictures of her at Machu Picchu.  Looks amazing. Peru just jumped way up my list of places to visit:

 

Check this out...

Saw my first huge, hairy, scary South American spider!! These pictures do NOT do it justice! Found this guy while taking Maia for our evening walk, yep just walking down the sidewalk right outside my house!

 

The Rainy Season has Begun

Unfortunately, the rainy season has begun, which means we get a nice downpour for about an hour around 3:00 or 4:00 several times a week. But, at least I have a great view to watch the storms come rolling up the valley.

Some Photos from this Week

I posted this on Facebook last week and thought I should share it here too:

 

On the left is Maia sleeping the day away in a sunbeam. On the right is a moment later.  Somehow she knows when Spencer is walking up the street and she wakes from a sound sleep to watch out for him. It's very cute.

On Tuesday I went for a walk to a neighborhood that seems to hang off the side of the mountain called Guapolo.  It's very pretty and isolated and quaint with amazing views around every corner.  

 

On the left is from the starting point of our long walk down the very steep hill. You can just see the church steeple in the middle that we headed for. On the right is the church when we got a little closer.

  

On the left: a steep cobblestone street.  In the middle a door to a room that is no longer there. On the right is from the plaza with the church looking back up the hill, it was a BIG hill. 

Every once in a while there was a break between buildings and you could get a glimpse through to an amazing view. 

Finally, yesterday I walked out of my apartment to 20 heavily armed police officers. I stood there for a moment wondering what was up and as far as I could tell it was just a random traffic stop.

Never a dull day in Ecuador!

Happy Birthday Mommy!!

Happy Birthday to my amazing Mother! Hope you have an awesome day and treat yourself to something wonderful.  Wish I could be there to celebrate with you.
Love you
Brooke

A new appreciation for the DMV

Having always held up the DMV as a paragon of American bureaucracy, I have recently found myself oddly longing for it while living in this young country with a rapidly changing government eager to mature and stabilize in the 21st century. It feels like the laws and heavy regulations change on a whim. They're trying to build the plane as they fly it and it is really annoying.

Last week, we got an email letting us know that as of Sunday, September 30th all cell phone numbers in the country will begin with an extra number 9. Okay, not a huge deal, but annoying to have to change all the numbers in the entire country. It took me about an hour to change the numbers in my phone and some of them are currently not working at all.

Several weeks ago the school assisted us in submitting some forms to open a local bank account.  Last week those forms were returned because they want them completed in black ink, not blue as they had preferred on last year's forms. Then we got another email from the bank today saying that we are unable to open an account without including a signed working contract. Unfortunately, despite having signed a contract upon accepting the position, it is currently not valid as the government passed a new law this summer requiring teachers to work over 200 days, which was longer then the original contract outlined. The extended school year is causing all kinds of issues for the administration and has yet to be finalized.

The rapidly changing labor laws have been having all kinds of annoying effects. I'm a big fan of laws that protect the workers, but these significant changes rapidly rolling out are just causing people stress and no one seems to know how to do the paperwork! For example, anyone that employs a maid or other house worker for more then 6 hours per week needs to contribute to their social security and health insurance. This isn't a problem for us and our 3 hour per week maid, but it is for several people I know who as foreigners are so overwhelmed, they are considering discontinuing the employment rather then deal with the paperwork and liability. Lose lose for the housekeepers!

I've participated in a Pilate's class at the school a few times. It's conducted by a friend of a teacher who comes on campus for 2 classes per week to teach 4-10 people who drop in. We pay her a few dollars per class. Unfortunately, the new laws dictate that she is unable to work "for the school" without a contract. So, that class may have to come to an end. Ugh.

Our friends had their car stolen a few weeks ago. They've been enduring mind numbing annoyances with the bank, the police department, and the insurance company to try and get everything all settled with the hope of just getting the insurance company to provide them with a check so they can get a new car. Well, they JUST found out that despite their diligence before purchasing the car, the previous owner had taken out a loan using the car as collateral in 2008 and that debt is going to invalidate their insurance and they'll probably get nothing. Awesome.

Finally, we've been here for 8 weeks now and we still don't have the right visas. That saga never seems to end. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, I have some fun things planned for this week, so I hope to have a better/cheerier update soon.