The Struggle to Renew Our Visas

I promise that the dog in our main picture above is not photo-shopped. He/She was really there, and was not injured in the taking of the photo.

This post isn't going to have any connected pictures. It was tough enough to get through, much less being able to take pictures during. But I will describe to you our process this second time of trying to get our visas to be legal in staying here for at least six more months. Victoria has already explained part of it, but I thought it necessary to compile the adventure in its entirety. Enjoy our struggle:

To start off I'll explain the first visas that we received. For those that don't know much about traveling, when you enter into a different country you are required to have a visa of some sort. It's the country's way of regulating who is there and what they're doing. In our case with Ecuador, we received a tourist visa for 90 days just by coming. Everyone gets one. 

Since our goal was to stay here for a while we needed to go through the process of getting a longer term visa. So after our research we found out that a student visa was the cheapest, and it's good for the term that I would be studying. I needed to learn Spanish so I registered for classes at a school located in Quito that qualified us in getting a student visa. Killing two birds with one stone kind of thing. 

We live in Ambato which is two hours away from Quito, so whenever we need to register for visas, we have to travel to Quito to the school, and to the Ministerio to work things out. Each time we go, it costs $48 to take a VIP taxi round trip. These taxis are supposed to save time and take you from your door to the door of the place you need to go. We received our first visas and have had no problems while living here in Ambato.

First Trip

This second time, we needed to "renew" our visas. I finished 80 hours of Spanish training from Simon Bolivar school of Languages in Quito over a 6 month period and our visas were running out. 

We emailed the school and told them I wanted to continue my classes and that I would need to renew our visas also. We set up a time to go there with all the stuff that we needed and commenced our first trip to Quito. We spoke to the same people as the first time and we immediately ran into problem #1: Dates here (and most other places except for the United States) are written day/month/year, when in the States it's month/day/year. 

Needless to say we misread the ending date of our visas. The problem arose when we learned that you needed to reapply for the visa at least a week before the ending date. Yeah we were 4 days away from expiring. It started a little unease in us and the administrator at the school, but we were going to have to try anyway. We paid for my classes and they started getting all our paperwork ready. We knew that we would have to stay the night in Quito and that the next day the administrator would meet us at the Ministerio the next morning at 8:00 in the morning. 

We stayed in a hostel that we've stayed in before, the only problem was they didn't have a "cama de matrinonio." Basically, a bed that sleeps two people. So we received a room that has 3 twin size beds in it. 

Me being me, I said to Vic before we got married that no matter what, "We will never sleep apart as long as we were not out of town or something..."

Yup, I made good on my word by fitting both Victoria and I on a twin size bed bwahahahahaha. I'm stubborn I know. 

After our uncomfortable sleeping arrangement we woke up really early to get to the Ministerio before they opened. That's when the line starts building. 

This place gets packed immediately. You have to wait in a line to get a number to wait for a different person. Then when your number comes up you go speak with said person. 

After our long waiting was over we start to speak to the EXACT same guy that helped us with our first visas and we found problem #2. They passed a new law that you have to register within the city you are living in! And they passed this within the previous 5 months. 

NO ONE knew about this. Not us, not our school, no one. 

He denies us our application and tells us to go back downstairs to talk to Alexander someone. We found the line to wait to talk to this guy, and after our wait he told us that he would accept a letter explaining why we were in Quito registering (Profound idea guy...).We left and found a place with computers that we could type and print a letter that basically said, "We didn't know about the new law, my school was in Quito, sorry." And we typed it both in English and Spanish. Printed it, signed it, and walked back into the Ministerio. 

We waited to see Alexander again, then he referred us back to the first guy we waited to see. Waited for him, and gave him our new letter and he wrote some stuff on it, then highlighted the part where we live in Ambato, and gave us a ticket to go downstairs to pay for the application. 

You have to pay for the application AND pay for the visas (Yeah, i'm serious). This is all you can do in the same day. You take the receipt of your payment, go home, and wait for them to send you an email to return to give them your passport to put the new visa in. 

That was trip number one. $48 for the ride there and back, $1 for our profound printed letter, $60 for our application fee, $50 for our hostel stay with breakfast. Total without our other food...$149. 

Next Trip

Got an email saying they wanted to have an interview with us. WHAT? 

We get there at the date and time specified and wait another hour after our appointment time to see the guy. Where he says that the paperwork from the school is insufficient and doesn't mention that we live in Ambato and can take classes via Skype, and it be legit from their school's policies! IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH US! We can't change the school's policies! 

After conversing for a while the guy understood it wasn't something we could correct. We basically made an agreement that after 4 months, I would need to return to Quito and give them some sort of Certificate of a Level completion in Spanish. I don't know what that's going to look like but whatever.... sure. He gives us approval BUT we have to wait for the official email to give them our passports. Yup, another trip. 

Total this time? $48 for taxi. We ate and stuff but I won't include that. 

Next, Next Trip

A week later we get the email. We travel to Quito, wait in the first line, get a number, wait in the second line, hand the woman our passports and paperwork, and then comes problem #3. 

Now the first time we did this part, we handed in our passports in the morning and returned at 3:30 the same day to pick them up. 

Nope, not this time. 

She said, "Come back on Monday between 3:30-4:30." We asked her 3 times total if she was serious. We walked over to the next window and paid for our visas and then left. Total? $150 for the visas and $48 for the taxi.

Next, After the Next, Next Trip

Monday comes, and we set up a taxi ride at 12:00pm. They call us back and say is 12:40pm okay? We say yes. The guy comes at 1:05. 

When you take these taxis they take other people too, like a carpool. There is a girl already in right front seat, we get in, and then we go pick up this older woman that has half her house in bags that are put into the trunk. Right when she gets in, she starts complaining about him being late. Understandable, cause I was thinking the same thing. Then we are off to Quito. The time is approx. 1:30pm.

We get to Quito and drop off the first girl. Traffic is heavy and its raining. The older woman said she was going to North Quito, but even after being questioned twice, would not give the specific area, just North Quito. Peaks my curiosity a little. We come to the end of a road where the driver says that one way is where we need to go and the exact opposite way is where the older woman needs to go. It's 3:15 at this point. The older woman complains again about the guy being late and expresses her need to get to her destination. I'm thinking out of respect for my elders, "Yeah okay we still have plenty of time before 4:30, she can't be that far away." 

WORST IDEA I HAVE EVER HAD! 

We drove 30 MINUTES in the wrong direction. It's raining, traffic is bad, and this woman doesn't even know the correct directions to, what we would soon find out was HER HOUSE! After getting lost in finding a certain road, when we did find it, we stayed on it for forever. We kept going and going. Each minute that passed I got more and more mad. Victoria was about to explode. I'm holding her hand and rubbing her leg to try and calm her. 

By the way, the first girl was sitting in the front passenger seat, which means this older woman, Vic, and I are squished in the back seat for the entire trip. 

We get to this woman's house at 3:45. She then needs to unload her half-a-house from the trunk, in the rain, and pay the driver. She and the driver get her stuff out and then we have to wait for her MAID to bring her the money to pay for the ride. Yeah, I'm freaking out, and Vic is developing a case of inner tremors.

We leave the woman's house and start our way back into the center of town. It's raining, and the older woman had given directions to a main highway that she thought would get us there the quickest. 

Ha, problems #3-50. 

Did I mention it's raining? The car's defroster is broke so all the windows are white including the windshield, we get stuck behind a bus trying to do a U-TURN, an ambulance comes through traffic, AND there is a wreck on the highway that everyone has to stop and look at. 

I was hopelessly laughing at all the stuff that was happening to us. Victoria is freaking out because she is seeing it as impossible to stay in Quito for another day. Jethro (our dog) was still back at home. I was problem solving to work it out because time was ticking away, and I knew if we didn't get to the Ministerio by 4:30 we weren't getting our passports and visas. We literally get out of the VIP taxi 4 blocks away from the Ministerio, because traffic is stopped, and run the rest of the way. Victoria does not run, mind you.

We arrive at the Ministerio at 4:35pm to find two guards at the front. The guard proceeds to tell us, "You're too late." Victoria started getting worked up and explaining that traffic was bad, so he told us to go to the guy at the front desk. 

We run over to him in which he says, "No, you're too late." Victoria proceeds to tell the man that traffic was bad and it's raining. So he says hurry quickly upstairs to see if anyone is still there. 

We run over to the stairs where we encounter 4 guards that proceed to tell us, "No, you're too late." 

This is the time that Victoria explodes into the greatest dramatic Meryl Streep performance I have ever witnessed in my life.... ever. And it was in the worst Spanish I believe I've heard. It consisted of:

1.) We waited in the street for an hour. (No idea what that even means)

2.) Please (which was probably said about 15 times); and
3.) You don't understand.

All of this was spoken on that thin thread between crying and not crying. At the moment she was starting to break down, the woman officer was like, "Go, go, just go upstairs." 

You might be wondering where John is in all this? Why hasn't he said anything? 

I was watching the greatest moment of my wife's acting career being portrayed with a gusto never before witnessed by Ecuadorians. I totally sat back and watched as Victoria played the hysterical gringo in panic mode without the words to describe her feelings. Many of you would say, "How rude John, why would you allow Victoria feel like that?" Because..... her episode was working flawlessly hahahaha. She was going from one point to the next because no one wanted to deal with her.

We get up the stairs to find the EXACT same guy that has helped us each time. The guy that was going to deny our application form at the very first visit. At which point he said, "No, you're too late," after looking at his watch. 

Victoria and I knew that HE knew that we were from Ambato so we brought up the point immediately. He thought for a moment and then turned around, grabbed a box, set it on his desk, took the receipt I had in my hand, flipped through two files, pulled OUR file out, handed us our passports with our new visas, and told me to sign a paper. 

That's it? That's all he, and we, had to do? 

He was about to tell us to return ANOTHER day because he didn't want to do this 25 seconds of work? 

Many, many bad words were rushing into my head, but immediately left when I realized the feeling of ease that Victoria would be experiencing in the coming moments. We had our visas and passports, and the mission was accomplished. 

As we were leaving, I thanked all those people that Victoria had verbally vomited on, and we exited the building. The only thing left to do was to get a ride back to Ambato, which wasn't that stressful.

Grand Total for our "renewed" visas experience? $443 not including other foods and things.

I want to thank all of my family and friends that read this. We wouldn't have been able to do this without you. It's amazing to be able to look back and see all the God ordained moments that allowed for this to even be possible.

We are legit legal for the next 6 months. Hopefully after this I will be fluent in Spanish completely. (Most of you would argue that I'm not even fluent in English...)

May we continue to glorify God Almighty who is worthy of all honor and praise.
Soli Deo Gloria 

The Holidays and a Hike

In Which, We Are Lame but also Fit

John has never been happier during the holiday season. Why, you ask? Because this is the first year he's not had to put up any kind of decorations since we've been married.

Scrooge.

So, yes. It is the holiday season, Christmas is almost upon us, and while we aren't too preoccupied with it this year, it does produce some longing for home when we do come upon decorations and general holiday frivolity.

We haven't actually done too much that's holiday related. We were supposed to go to a Christmas concert at the local theatre one Friday, but that was one of the days we went to Quito, and by the time we got back it was late and we were exhausted. We also missed the Crossfit Christmas party that night which was irritating.

Thanks a lot, Quito.

So I'm keeping my eyes open on the local paper to see what other festivities we can crash. Hopefully we'll find some good ones.

They love Christmas here. Not quite to the commercial extent that they do in the States, but they love lights and fireworks and pageants and all sorts of holiday displays.

One of our friends' house looks like an army of elves threw up inside of it. His mom is an artist/crafty person, and she ADORES Christmas. She's got more (handmade) Christmas decorations than you can shake a stick at.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!

We'll actually be splitting our time on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve between David's house and his family, and Juan and Andrea's house and their families. We're really looking forward to it!

In other news, we hiked up the mountainside behind our apartment a few weekends ago. It's actually the very far west side of the valley that Ambato lies in, so it's significantly steep.

You know it's bad when the stairs give you stitches...

Re: it kicked my butt.

FYI, this "dirt" is more like sand

But the views from the top were AMAZING. We got to look out towards the west and see views we never get to see since we're at the bottom of the hillside.

West!

Ambato, which is to the east

Going down was MUCH easier than up (go figure) but we also ran into an obstacle course of black wiring that, if you weren't paying attention, would trip you and happily break your neck. Lucky for us, we are fleet of foot. 

Well, John is. I'm just exceedingly slow.

This is probably our internet line...

He and Jethro were ahead of me the whole way

So that's that! Today I made cinnamon buns with Andrea and Juan Martin, and I think they are going to be deliiiiiiicious! We'll take a pan (or 3) with us to dinner on the 24th to help contribute and to also say thank you to Juan's family for inviting us to celebrate Christmas with them.

Be very, very jealous

John's in the process of writing about the visa fiasco that happened last week, so stay tuned for that!

Don't Stop the Party

In Which, We Hit the Town

So the other day, it was Andrea's birthday! The original plan was to go to Baños on Saturday and dance the night away, but she ended up having to work this weekend, so we went out on Thursday night.

All in all, it was a great time. There was dancing, drinking, laughing and a chilly walk to catch a taxi at the end, but we had fun.

We haven't been downtown a lot lately, so I was super excited to see that several streets and parks are dressed up with lights and decorations for Christmas!

Parque Cevallos, all lit up!

We DID have plans to go to a Christmas concert at the local theatre here in Ambato Friday night, but we had to go to Quito for more visa stuff, and by the time we got back we were absolutely exhausted. I was super bummed to miss it, but hopefully they'll have another concert before Christmas that we can go to.

SPEAKING of Quito - I'm really starting to hate going there. Mainly because it's a 2-2.5 hour drive each way and it costs us almost $50 roundtrip each time in the private taxis. It would be cheaper to take the bus, but that would take SO much more time. 

So we finally received the official email telling us our applications were approved and to come make the visa payment in Quito on Friday morning.

Now, last time we did this, we got there REALLY early, waited for about 2 hours, paid, then came back at 3 pm, waited another 1.5 hours, and finally received our passports with the visa applied in them. It was a whole day of basically waiting, but it was just ONE DAY.

This time around, we decided if we were going to be waiting all day, it didn't matter how early we got there, so we rolled in around 9:15. After a 3-hour wait, we finally paid for the visas and left our passports for the visa to be applied.

THEN. Goodness, then we were told, "Come back Monday afternoon" to receive our passports back. 

YOU.ARE.KIDDING.ME.

So we have to go to Quito YET AGAIN on Monday afternoon. Ugh.

At this point in time, between transportation, hostels and food, we've spent over $250 in this process. Frustrating to say the least, since that number would be ZERO had we known beforehand that we could apply in Ambato.

SIGH.

Anyway, Monday should be the last trip to Quito for a very long time. 

At least we got to spend some time in one of the parks, El Ejido, which we love to do. 

Statue in front of El Ejido

Entrance into El Ejido from La Patria

They were having some sort of fair as well, because there were vendors selling jewelry, art and clothing. We picked up a bit of art, just to have something to put on the walls.

John with his refreshing, handmade, $1 OJ

And that's where we're at for now! Monday will be our last trip to Quito, and then we hit the holidays.

Friends of ours have told us that for the next 3 months, Ambato's like a giant party town. We've got Christmas, New Year's, 3 Kings and Innocentes, all culminating in Ecuador's titular celebration of Carnaval - Fiesta de Frutas y Flores, which takes place in February.

So stayed tuned for the party, it's bound to be a good time! 

Trials and Frustrations

In Which, I become annoyed, panicked, and annoyed again

The thing no one tells you about when you talk about living abroad is visas. How they're a real PITA.

Here in Ecuador, it's very easy to stay for 3 months. After that, it gets a little tricky.

Ecuador divides their visas into resident and non-resident categories. If you're looking to retire or stay here indefinitely, a resident visa is the way to go. It takes time and a lot of patience and paperwork, but after roughly 4-6 months (depending on the type of resident visa you choose it can be longer), you'll be a permanent resident and you don't have to deal with routine visa stuff anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I've heard some chilling stories from some resident visa holders and the frustration is real on their end. But, once they've got the visa, through however much frustration it took, they're essentially done.

Non-resident visas is like living the frustration over and over again, every 6 months to 1 year, depending on how long you want to stay and how long your visa is good for.

We chose the student visa option for a few reasons, not the least being that it was more in reach than the missionary/volunteer visa or the work visa.

Our first application went off without a hitch. It was time-consuming, but relatively pain free.

This time around however, things have been a little dicey.

First off, we applied late. Technically, you're supposed to submit your application a week before your visa expires. I got the dates all turned around (they write them day/month/year and I'm used to seeing month/day/year) so we ended up submitting the application 4 days before our visa expired.

Ironically enough, this seems to be one of the least of our worries at this point.

Secondly, when we were actually submitting the paperwork, we were informed that there is a new rule (surprise!!) that required us to submit the paperwork in the zone where we live. Ambato is in Tungurahua, which is a different zone than Quito, which is in Pichincha.

There wasn't any information about this at all and no one at our school had mentioned it. We were just supposed to magically know it, apparently.

*Insert annoyance*

Thankfully, they took pity on us poor, lost gringos and let us write a letter (in REALLY bad Spanish, natch) about why we were submitting the paperwork in Quito rather than Ambato.

The following week (this past week) we got an email from the ministry saying they needed to interview us regarding our application.

Enter problem numero 3. We get to the ministry (in Quito, mind you) at the appropriate date and time and speak with a lovely gentleman (Dr. Hidalgo) who tells us that, essentially, we're missing some paperwork from the school.

The problem is, we're talking about ALL of this in Spanish, so we were a little confused with what he was trying to say. In the midst of the confusion, we told him that the classes were via Skype, not actual in-person classes taken in a classroom.

Problem numero 4 quickly raises its head. The man points us to the legislative language allowing the school to offer student visas, and it doesn't say ANYthing about classes via Skype being allowed.

*Insert panic*

Talk about a rock and a hard place.

Thankfully, the man took pity on us poor gringos (playing the dumb card can really work in your favor). Basically, the paperwork we were missing was essentially John's "graduation" papers, stating that he had completed a level of work and was moving on to the next level.

As a compromise, Dr. Hidalgo says he'll ok the visa application, but we have to get the paperwork stating John's completion of whatever level to him in 4 months. If we don't bring it in that time frame, our visas will be revoked and we'll essentially be here illegally.

We agree and he types up a very official letter, with his official seal, and we sign it.

At that point, we weren't sure what to do next, and he tells us now we have to wait for an email regarding our visa application, at which point, we have to come back to Quito AGAIN and finish out the process.

Keep in mind, it's a 2.5 hour drive and it costs us almost $50 roundtrip each time.

Sigh.

*Insert annoyance*

So that's where we're at. We'll hopefully get an email that our application was approved this coming week, we'll go to Quito AGAIN, pay for the visas and, hopefully, get them instated in our passports.

Today's lesson? When you have the chance to apply in your home city, do it.

The Land of Volcanoes

In Which, we get ashed on

Ecuador is incredibly diverse. There are few countries that I can think of that have a similar level of biodiversity or topographical diversity. Within roughly 110,000 square miles, there are four distinct regions: the Coast, the Highlands, the Amazon, and the Galapagos Islands. Within those regions are a multitude of biomes, from tropical highland areas to temperate desert areas. 

As you probably know by now, we live in Ambato. We're in the province of Tungurahua, which is smack in the middle of the country. The Andes mountains run N-S through the country, and we are smack in the middle of them. 

You might be sensing a theme here - we're in the middle, ok?

Ambato - that's us

Within the Andes are held all of Ecuador's volcanoes. Oh yes, Ecuador has volcanoes. And several of them are outstandingly and terrifyingly active. They like to call this chain the Avenue of Volcanoes. The road from Quito to Cuenca winds its way through the entire chain, and it's breathtaking. 

Avenida de los Volcanes

We happen to live within sight of two of these volcanoes. Cotopaxi, which we can see from our balcony, is to the northeast of the city, about 40 miles away. Tungurahua is about 20 miles southeast of us, and we can see her from our friend David's house.

If you want to get technical, you can say we live in sight of a third volcano, Chimborazo. We actually can't see him because he's to the southwest of us, over the crest of the valleyside that we live next to. Fun fact about Chimborazo, even though he's not the highest mountain above sea-level, due to the equatorial bulge his summit IS the farthest point on the earth's surface from the center of the earth.

Doing my best to help you win your next game of trivia

As far as Cotopaxi goes, even though he's pretty active these days, we don't worry too much about him. We're uphill so there's no worry of lahars (basically a giant mudslide caused by a volcano) and the wind typically blows from E-W or some other direction away from Ambato. So he's great to look at, but we don't worry about him so much.

Cotopaxi, from our balcony

Stock photo of Cotopaxi

Tungurahua is a slightly different story than Cotopaxi.  Affectionately called 'Mama T' by locals, she woke up in 1999 after almost 100 years of dormancy and she's been active ever since, famously erupting twice in the summer of 2006. Baños (of tourist fame) is essentially right at her feet, in the shadow of the volcano. 

Mama T from the north side of Ambato

Since we've been here (April of 2015) there have been several general announcements and alerts regarding Mama T, two that I can remember which were moderately serious. The most recent one has been since the beginning of November, with the IG-EPN (Instituto Geofisico Escuela Politecnica Nacional, Ecuador) putting out an orange alert on the 17th. Basically this means that people should start preparing for a volcanic event of some sort. 

Allllllll that to say...we woke up this morning to a significant coating of ash on everything outside. Some had even made its way just inside our balcony door.

Our terrace is normally white

Nice, even coating

Gathering in the grooves of the covering over our washer

It was interesting, to say the least. We have pretty constant winds here on the southwest side of the valley so even when there were other alerts, we didn't receive any fallout.

In the grand scheme of things though, heavy ash and dirty skies are generally the effects we'll feel here in Ambato. We're uphill so the threat of lahars is very minimal.

For now, we're doing our best to keep it out of the apartment and out of our lungs. Thankfully there doesn't seem to be anymore coming from this particular expulsion. John spent about an hour and a half sweeping up the stuff on our terrace with our downstairs neighbor.

I don't know the properties of volcanic ash in general, but what Tungurahua puts out has the lovely quality of drying into a hard, cement-like substance when it gets wet. So we had to sweep up as much as we possibly could before cleaning down the terrace with soap and water. Having dried cement blocking our water pipes seems like not such a great idea.

So that's our adventure so far! Mama T is still pretty active, so who knows what the coming days hold? More ash, probably. Hopefully not too much more though, because Jethro is just chomping at the bit to get back outside...

...not

Next up - our visas are coming up in the beginning of December, so next week we head to Quito to start the process to renew them. Oy vey.

V

Coming Back

In which, we revive our blog

So as you can see, we are absolutely TERRIBLE about updating this blog. The last post was July and we're now almost halfway through November. EEK.

While there's a lot that's happened, there's also a lot that's been normal. We've pretty much settled into a daily routine, with the occasional adventure. August was pretty tame, as we were trying to settle in after our June/July adventure to the beach. At the beginning of September, we met up with the proofreading guru herself,  my friend and sensei, Caitlin Pyle! She and her husband Ben were here in Ecuador for 3 months (they've since moved on to Argentina) so we met up down in Banos for a weekend trip. That was really fun and involved an afternoon trek to Pailon del Diablo (Devil's Cauldron) and the zoo! Check out their blog over at The Work Anywhere Life - they've got some really great pictures and videos of the weekend.

Taking a tarabita over the river valley

Pailon del Diablo - the actual waterfall is DIRECTLY to the right

On a bridge, looking back at Pailon del Diablo

After that, we spent the rest of September putting our lives together for our big trip home in October. That involved several weeks of prep for Jethro as well as a last-minute trip to Quito/Otavalo for some gifts.

Raw, local honey!

We also made a little side trip to Ibarra, about 45 minutes north of Otavalo, for el Caceria del Zorro, which is basically, the fox hunt. Only in this particular hunt, it's a rider dressed as the character Zorro, and everyone chases him down. We weren't able to stay for the actual race but we did get to see the parade. There were over 600 riders in the parade, which meant a LOT of horses, which made my inner 9-year-old girl so very, very happy.

There are actually several race categories, for both younger and older riders to compete and chase the Zorro. Seeing them all in the parade was exhilarating, with the variety of horses and riders. Some were beautiful, other were extremely talented and well trained. I really hope we get the opportunity to come back and see the race someday!

After this last trip, it was nose to the grind. The apartment needed cleaning and we had to ensure that our housesitters had all the information they needed to make their stay as easy as possible. We had made arrangements for a retired American couple living in Panama to come and stay in our apartment with Jethro so we didn't have to leave him at the vet for the entire time. Clyde and Terry were AMAZING and you can follow their adventures at Along the Gringo Trail. 

With those arrangements made, we headed home to good ol' South Kackalacky (South Carolina, for the uninitiated amongst us) for Will and Amanda's wedding in Charleston as well as a chance to visit with our friends and family.

Aren't they just ridiculously good-looking??

For those who don't follow me on Facebook or Instagram, I won't relive our ordeal to even get back home (TL;DR - it was a version of hell on earth), but at the end of the day we made it back. We had a great time visiting with everyone, catching up with our families and spending quality time with those we love. We were in the States for about 3 weeks, from October 7th - October 29th. We got in all the good Southern cooking we'd been missing and did some shopping for some of us (...me) to correct our wardrobe shortcomings.

That time my sisters and I were all on the same continent, in the same state, city, and room!!

It was a great time, and for those we didn't manage to see, we're sorry! We'll be in Ecuador for 7-8 more months though, so feel free to come see us!

We made it back to Quito on Thursday, the 29th, and the trip back was MUCH more pleasant than the trip home. Even so, by the time we pulled up to our apartment the next day, I was pretty much ready to never travel with checked luggage again. It's nice to have all those things when you settle in, but lugging two 50# duffel bags is no joke.

We had a bit of a snafu with Clyde and Terry's transportation to Quito, but they finally got underway at about 6pm. A little later than they hoped, but they made it there safe and sound and enjoyed several adventures over the holiday weekend.

Pan de guagua and colada morada

Oh yeah, did I mention we arrived back on a holiday weekend? November 2nd is Dia de los Difuntos, or Day of the Dead. They celebrate it here in Ecuador a little differently than what you might expect. There's special bread (pan de guagua) and drink (colada morada) that everyone makes based on their own family recipes. There's fireworks and parades, and here in Ambato they have one of the biggest fairs in the entire country. On November 2nd itself, many families go to the cemeteries to remember their loved ones. It becomes a family outing, with food and games abounding.

We didn't go to any of the cemeteries, but we did check out the fair since it was literally 3 blocks from our apartment. We went Saturday morning to avoid the crowds. It was a beautiful, bright sunny day and it was a perfect re-introduction back into Ecuador and Ambato. There are vendors and artisans from all over the country selling their wares. There's also a CRAP ton of food from all over the country, which is just another way of spelling happiness.

Basically, to keep MILs away... ;)

Since then, we've basically been settling back in, trying to adjust to the altitude and finding a schedule again. 

This past Thursday, Ambato celebrated the 195th anniversary of its declaration of independence from Spain. There were parades and commemorations and people all over the place. It also coincided with a South American World Cup Qualifying match between Ecuador and Uruguay. We went to watch the match at a small restaurant with our downstairs neighbor, Andrea, and had the pleasure of seeing Ecuador win! It was an exciting game, and it was fun to watch it with the locals. As you might imagine, they were VERY animated. 

So that's it. We're back and once we get fully acclimated to the altitude again, we'll start looking at some more adventures. Banos is in the books (always), as well as Quisapincha, Puyo, and Riobamba. Who knows, maybe we'll get really adventurous and try the beach again?

Swingin' at the Edge of the World

In Which, We Have a Swingin' Good Time

Soooooo cheesy, I know. But it works.

ANYway. On to one of the more exciting things we've done lately (ya know, other than spending a carefree week at the beach and learning to surf. Yeah...). La Casa Del Arbol is practically an INSTITUTION for extranjeros (foreigners) here in Ecuador...AND WE FINALLY WENT.

Thursday morning, while we were finishing our session of death at the gym, several of our friends said they wanted to go to the treehouse that afternoon. I was torn - I had work to do but MAN I wanted to go! After about .2 seconds of indecision, I threw responsibility to the wind and John and I were going along with them. The next few hours were a grammatical blur as I literally FLEW through my work. Fear not, intrepid readers, about the quality of my work during this rush. I actually went back and QC'd myself and did a better job than I typically do. There's something to be said for a deadline = better focus.

The crew! Minus David, he's hiding behind John

So we headed out around 3pm or so. La Casa Del Arbol is on the ridge above Banos so all in all, it took us about an hour, hour and 15 minutes to get there. The roads steadily became less and less developed...we went from paved roads to cobblestone roads with paving where the tires go, to straight cobblestone roads with HUGE potholes in them, until we finally hit the end and dirt roads. It was interesting, to say the least, especially since our friend Steffany (aka, Nena) drives an old VW Beetle, which has about a 1000cc engine. I was afraid we were going to have to get out and push her a few times, but Herbie came through.

We arrived at the top and it was great because it was towards the end of the day AND it was a weekday, so there weren't a lot of people there. We climbed up a trail about 1000 yards or so (no heavy duty hiking, just walking) and were greeted by this sight :

First (cloudy) glimpse

Yup. Clouds had rolled in, BIG time. We were literally in the middle of them.

Nevertheless, we continued up to the treehouse, where we were accosted by an obnoxious group of English travellers.

Ok, so maybe they weren't absolutely obnoxious, but they definitely made me see how citizens of 1st world countries have a bad reputation in other places - just generally acting a fool, not being considerate or polite without being prodded by your tour leader, etc...

So we did our best to ignore them and just enjoy the tree house and swing. We actually got some really cool shots in the mist and rain.

You can tell that it's a big tourist attraction because they've upgraded a lot of the space around it. They've put metal framing around the whole thing and the house itself actually looks like it's been rebuilt at some point. There's some nice landscaping to the side and down from the swings as well, so that people can get good pictures. 

There's also a little cafe where you can get coffee, tea, hot chocolate, water, or just sit down out of the elements for a while. That's what we decided to do when it started to rain.

John was kind of grouchy at this point, saying it was underwhelming and kind of a let down. I had seen pictures and gotten a feel for it beforehand, so it was essentially what I was expecting, but I could see how it was a bit of a disappointment for him.

Thankfully, our friends were plenty happy to stick around and wait for the crowds to die down a bit so we could all take turns on the swings. There are swings on either side of the house, something else that I think is a new addition. It helps cut down on lines and wait times, that's for sure.

Happily, after about 30 minutes or so, we saw the clouds start to break up! It was just about 5:30, so right before sunset here, and the sky was beautiful! 

Nena checking out the clouds

Then, when we'd taken a bazillion pictures and gone on the swings MULTIPLE times, we found something else fun behind the cafe - a mini zipline! The seat was from an old tire and it got preeeeeetty close to the ground at a couple of points, but it was still a fun ride. Basic, but fun. Also, free. Can't beat that. 

There's David!

By this time, the sun had pretty much set, so we went back down the trail and headed to Banos to rustle up some food.

John saying 'bye' to his new friend

We walked around a bit and eventually settled on a place called Chevere. It had typical sandwiches from all over South America, which was pretty fun! Also, you're seeing the remains of a maracuya flan with brownies and rasberry sauce that John devoured. It was tasty.

It took David a while to realize there was a camera out...

We ended up back in Ambato around 9pm. We had a great afternoon and totally crashed. The rest of the weekend was relaxing and full of friends and fun. We actually did have hotdogs on the 4th of July, totally by accident, but we appreciated it nonetheless!

Oh, and I totally got all of my work done on time. Just thought I'd throw that in there for those of you who were concerned ;)

So in parting, next time you have the chance for an adventure but you're bogged down with responsibilities, take a chance. Swing away. It'll work out in the end.