Boogie Boarding

We boogie borded today. The waves were fantastic! Since the waves were so big you had to dive into the wave and go under it! We have the boogie bord but were going to learn how to surf! I LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!!!

Spanish Lessons

It is Friday night and we just finished our first of 2 weeks of Spanish lessons here in Canoa. Our morning lesson begins at 9am just after desayuno and lasts until 11. We break for lunch and take 2 more hours of class from 3-5pm when cena begins. Meals are served in the common room and we get what is served, just like summer camp - which has been good simple food. Our classes have progressed rather quickly and we have homework every day to keep up. The girls share a teacher, Maria, a university student who lives in the next town and catches the bus here in the morning, leaves for lunch and returns by bus in the afternoon. The girls like her alot. Debby and I share another teacher Jaime, the father of the family that runs this hotel/school. Classes are taught in a small classroom on the property here of about 10 rooms right on the beach. We are the only guests that are not friends of the family and the only gringos taking lessons. When not in class we are studying, walking on the beach, eating, playing ping-pong and hanging out (no TV). This place is about 2 kilometers from Canoa so it is quiet with not much to do which keeps us a little more focused on the lessons. The weather has been cool and cloudy since we arived, keeping us out of the ocean mostly. There was a break on Wednesday during lunch and the girls and I did get some time in the waves boogie boarding!

The Beach

We are at the beach at language immersion school. I am having a blast. The waves aren't huge but the shells are gorgeous. I am in a class with Helen and I'm starting to understand a lot more. Today we were at the market and a guy tried to sell my dad grapes for way more than it was worth. Luckily we had our teacher there and he told the guy off. Above is a picture of the waves that I took off the back porch of our school.

Quito

Our second full day in Quito started off with breakfast in an outdoor cafe. We were seated moments before the place filled with folks to watch Argentina y Germany. We were the only ones to leave our table before the end of the game (obviously no one else had anything better to do on a Saturday morning).
Headed to El Panacello (pictures) for great views of the city from the giant virgin on the hill.
This town has been great to walk around and when it gets too far on foot, there is always a taxi nearby who remain pleasant while we butcher their language. Heard the bad news for Argentina from our cab driver after El Panacello. Caught the Paraguay Spain match during lunch with a beer and again left the cafe before the end of that game to empty streets while everyone was huddled in any bar, restaurant, market with a TV. This town loves football!

Exhausted

We have been running helter skelter all over the place today. We went to the equator, two churches and spent a lot of our time in a taxi. Both churches were beautiful and by the end of the day I want to sleep for 24 hours. I'm not sure if I'm getting any better at Spanish but I can translate decently by now. The hotel is very nice and I can't wait for language immersion school. It starts on Monday so were driving over on Sunday. I have to go to bed.

Dia Tres

We went to the Mital del Mundo. I laid on the equator. See photo.


We went to the La Compañia church. The church was covered with paintings and gold. It was beautiful! We saw a statue of Mary holding a small cross wtih Jesus hanging on it. There were dim lights and candles. We tried to go upstairs but all of the doors were locked. Me and Dad sat on the pews and looked up at the ceilings (which had gold and many paintings). We saw Cupid in one of the frames. I heard the hail outside when we were looking at the confessionals. That is where people kneel down in thanks for forgiveness. There was a room with lots of tiny red chairs and paintings with lots of gold. I had so much fun !!

The Flight - or part of it

Nightmare flight from Miami. We were held up because a checked passenger decided not to fly after all and they had to find the bag among the 180 checked for the plane. Then we took off, 2 hours late (almost all of this time we were seated on the plane), and 20 minutes out not one, but both pressure control systems for the air inside the plane failed and the pilot had to turn around. We got another plane (and they got it ready in an hour) but failed to remember originally (I guess) that
> the crew for the plane had too many hours logged yesterday, so we had to wait an additional hour (seated on the plane) for a new crew. At 4 in the morning, there was fog in Quito and the pilot did not have clear vision to land.

After 2 failed attempts, we were diverted to Guayaquil because the plane was running low on gas.

*sigh* But, we ARE in Ecuador! Horray! The girls are absolute troopers - and have weathered most of this without much of a peep.

Perhaps we'll get to Quito before nightfall tonight!