Ecuador

My brother Alan, my friend Pilar and I took a trip to Ecuador Oct 10 thru Oct 26.

Alan speaks great Spanish having served two years in the Toronto Spanish mission. Pilar is my mission friend from Portoviejo. She was a member in the sector I was serving in...called La Paz. She now lives only 20 minutes or so east of me here in Mesa. She and I were roomates @BYU as she was sponsered to come to the US by a family friend of mine. She has since married and lives in the US. We have been friends for 25 years.

It is hard to put into words the experience, but I'll try. (The photos will do a better job)

No hot water

No water for days at a time, bathed from buckets of saved water

Electricity comes and goes

Fish eyeballs
Chicken Feet

Blood filled intestines

Had three close driving encounters/ Me at the wheel/dark/one way streets/ taxis everywhere /buses /bikes /carts /honking horns /...I have driven admidst chaos and lived.

Killed a chicken in the kitchen (Alan spun it around by the neck until the head fell off) That's how you do the pheasants he said.

Boiled water for drinking

Wonderful hospitable families and friends

Delicious food to choose from

(I truly mean it !)

Homes of cement and tin

Homes of cane and tin

Fruits like the Garden of Eden

Traveled from the North Ibarra (above Quito) and to the South of Bahia de Caracas. If you look at a map.

Didn't make it to Guayaquil the road had been washed out due to heavy rains.

3 members remebered my missionary name Hermana Kerbs.

Alan slept with bats (in the roof) that dropped their fruit pits near his bed.

Met some Otavalan members while bargaining @ the Otavalo market.

Take your toilet paper with you. You pay for it @ public restrooms.

Fun

Laughter