Well as you have determined I was unable to blog during my trip so I kept a handwritten narrative during my stay in Ecuador. I will attempt to transfer my scribbles to my blog now. Hopefully I will be able to do this trip justice. It was the trip of a lifetime and I loved every minute of it. Dec. 7th, 2008 we were at the Hotel Reina Isabel in Quito. The hotel was wonderful and very comfortable. Of course as I have already explained, we were not able to drink the water, even to brush our teeth. Our guide, Patricio, explained that Quito is 9,000 feet so even though it was on the equator, it was still a bit chilly. We wore pants most of the time and needed to wear a light jacket. Quito was a very busy and fast paced city with traffic everywhere. Notice the bus is parked on the sidewalk? That was a common practice everywhere in Ecuador! This is outside of Hotel Reina.
We saw the bullfighting arena. Bullfighting is only in two Latin America countries, Peru and Ecuador. It only happens 15 days of the year.
Ecuador's main recreation is football or the sport of soccer as we know it. They take their soccer very seriously. I purchased a Ecuadorian national soccer shirt for my son. He is a goal keeper for his soccer team. He takes his soccer seriously as well!
When we were driving around the city outside of Quito we were able to see several volcanoes. There are many volcanoes in Ecuador. Some of them are active and many of them are inactive.
On our bus ride out of Quito to look at the country side, we picked up a little girl named Jennifer and her mother. Her mother was selling her paintings which were on Llama hides and were from her native tribe. We stopped along the way at a roadside fruit stand and Jennifer wanted a piece of fruit called a guava. This guava did not look anything like the guava fruit we are used to seeing. It is the long green pods. You open it up and it has a whitish, sticky substance with little seeds in it. Jennifer loved it. 
We stopped off at the Sinamune Disabled Children's Orchestra School. The students there were able to play instruments, dance and engaged the audience in participating. We enjoyed watching them have a wonderful time with music.
Host Family and Zero Degree Latitude and Longitude:
We went to lunch with a host Ecuadorian family. They served us a splendid meal with an appetizer of beans and nuts, followed by a vegetable soup and then chicken, and ice cream. The mother cooked the meal and the daughter told us about their lives. The family owns the museum at the zero degree latitude and longitude. The father told us about the museum. He was excited when he learned that we were from Wichita, Kansas. He has a sister in law that is from Wichita.
They were getting ready to celebrate Christmas. They celebrate in a similar fashion to us in the U.S. They gather together in family groups and eat a large meal. Most of the people of Ecuador are Catholic so they go to church on Christmas eve. They have symbols of Christmas just like we do of Christmas trees and the nativity scene. They do not have Santa Claus like we do. They do know of him and they do exchange some gifts. 60% of Ecuadorians are in poverty so their Christmas is not as focused on gifts as our American Christmas.
While we were at the museum at the zero degree latitude and 
zero degree longitude point we saw the thatched huts of the native tribes, the crafts such as the textiles which were woven by the indigenous men and an exhibit to illustrate the Coriolis effect. They performed a demonstration at the museum to show the Coriolis effect and how it works.
Host Family and Zero Degree Latitude and Longitude:
We went to lunch with a host Ecuadorian family. They served us a splendid meal with an appetizer of beans and nuts, followed by a vegetable soup and then chicken, and ice cream. The mother cooked the meal and the daughter told us about their lives. The family owns the museum at the zero degree latitude and longitude. The father told us about the museum. He was excited when he learned that we were from Wichita, Kansas. He has a sister in law that is from Wichita.
They were getting ready to celebrate Christmas. They celebrate in a similar fashion to us in the U.S. They gather together in family groups and eat a large meal. Most of the people of Ecuador are Catholic so they go to church on Christmas eve. They have symbols of Christmas just like we do of Christmas trees and the nativity scene. They do not have Santa Claus like we do. They do know of him and they do exchange some gifts. 60% of Ecuadorians are in poverty so their Christmas is not as focused on gifts as our American Christmas.
While we were at the museum at the zero degree latitude and 
zero degree longitude point we saw the thatched huts of the native tribes, the crafts such as the textiles which were woven by the indigenous men and an exhibit to illustrate the Coriolis effect. They performed a demonstration at the museum to show the Coriolis effect and how it works.
2 comments:
What did you eat and where did you eat?
Drew Mc
Drew, Great question. We ate a lot of bananas, yuca, rice, plaintains (like bananas) and corn. We ate in the Yarina Lodge common room when we were in the jungle and in the dining room of the boat when we were in the Galapagos. The food was really pretty good. It was not too different from our food here in America.
Mrs. Davis
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