Ups and Downs (Literally)

In Which, Jethro Cannot Enter the Park

Before I get into details of last week's Sunday adventure, I just want to take a minute and talk about the ridiculousness that is my dog's hair. 

I feel like it's about to grow legs and walk

O.M.G. Seriously you guys, this is after TWO DAYS. I never realized that Jethro sheds so dang much! Maybe it's because we have light grey carpet in our house and here we have dark red/brown tile, but it is so obnoxious. I've gotten to the point where I'm sweeping every day, usually multiple times a day. For anyone who wants to know what they can send us, send me a Roomba!! I've never wanted one more in my life. Ugh.

THIS.IS.NONSENSE.

In other news, last Sunday (not today) we decided to make the trek up to Parque de la Familia. It's this huge, really well-tended, well-manicured park up on the ridge of the valley, about a 10-minute taxi drive. It was a beautiful day out, and we decided that Jethro needed some exercise. We'd heard from friends that Parque de la Familia is THE place to be on the weekends, so we packed up and headed out.

On the way, we drove through a teeny-tiny little hamlet (because, really, it's not big enough to be a town) called Pinllo. The most stand-out item was their church, which I managed to snap a picture of as we were waiting for some cows to cross the road.

Anyway. So we finally get up to the park, and we're really excited. This map kinda shows the rough layout. The scale is hard to gauge, but the park actually encompasses a LOT of space, so much so that they've got all these different areas named via their usage, as well as vendor stands and food stalls scattered throughout. It's a pretty cool place.

SADLY, as we were walking in, we were approached by a friendly looking (but really not very understanding) park greeter, who told us that dogs are not allowed in the park.

Say WHAT?! I mean, this is a beautiful, wide open, well-tended park! It's perfect for dogs! It's perfect for us with our dog! We even brought baggies to scoop the poop!

Regardless of our explanation, it was a no-go.

The greeter told us that we could walk Jethro all the way back to the park entrance where there was a rope where he could be tied up while we enjoyed the park.

We were torn at this point. Jethro is quite the whiny-butt when he doesn't get to come with us, but we had just gone to all the trouble to get up there. In the end, we decided to leave him for a bit and see how he would do. So we tied him to a nearby tree (rather than the line, which had several little dogs already) and headed into the park.

Jethro, being a whiny brat. 

Once we got in it was pretty uneventful. It was really beautiful though. We had a great view of the valley and could almost even see our apartment. There were a good number of people there, but the park is so big, it didn't really seem like it. We hardly ran into anyone other than at the entrances.

They had really well kept paths and different little pond areas. There were also different courts for different sports and players. There was one court specifically for handicap players, which I thought was pretty cool.

In the end, we didn't stay very long. When we were about to cross the road to the other side of the park, we heard Jethro...from all the way across the parking lot. That was our cue to leave, because no one wants to hear a bluetick coonhound in full bawl for any amount of time.

John's selfie

From the top of the ridge

Overall, it was a slightly disappointing trip, but the park is actually really nice, so John and I will definitely go back (without Jethro) and explore a bit more. 

Take 1...

Take 2 - Perfect!

One really fun thing that happened was that we took a bus back down the mountain. That was pretty cool because we haven't tried that with Jethro yet, and we didn't know if the driver would let us on with him, but it proved to be a non-issue with that particular driver.

Loving the walk...not the heat

Lest you worry, Jethro did get a lot of exercise in that day anyway. We had walked from our apartment down to the easiest bus/taxi stop to get to the park, and that's a good 45-minute walk, one way. Going there is not too bad because it's all essentially downhill. Coming back...is another story.

Check out these stairs.

They just keep going on...

And on...

Seriously, by the time we get to the top, I feel like I'm going to die. I've told John that the day that I can run up these stairs without needing emergency services will be the day that I know I've acclimated to the altitude and I've gained the Ecuadorian level of cardio that everyone seems to possess.

The rest of the week was actually pretty busy and quite eventful. We went to Quito on two different days to get our visa process started. As you might remember, we're applying for the Student Visa. John will be taking Spanish classes starting on Monday, so this allows us to kill two birds with one stone.

Anyway, I'll update more on that as we will most likely be making the final trip back to Quito sometime later this week. Stay tuned for more on that saga.

I leave you with this photo that we took in Parque Cevallos a few weeks ago. It's part of the new advertising campaign across Ecuador and in Ambato in particular. I love these colors, and for some reason, they don't remind me of Christmas!