Spencer had an Ecuadorian Root Canal

And he said it went great!!!

We're really exploring ALL the medical services available down here. So far so good.

Amazon Pictures coming soon!

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: