Visitors in Quito!

In Which, We Climb Way Too Many Stairs

For those who don't know, my parents came and visited us for two weeks at the beginning of March, and we had a BLAST!

I hadn't seen them since they left for the retired life in Puerto Rico in October 2014. That's the longest we've ever gone without seeing each other face to face! 

Reunited and it feels so good - even at 3am!

John and I were both super excited to show them a little slice of this beautiful country, and where better to start than in Quito? We were pretty familiar with all the tourist things to do, so getting around was fairly simple. 

The first Saturday we caught the market in Otavalo, which was, as always, phenomenal. Dad made out with a sweet hat and Mom picked up some coasters. She later regretted not picking up a few other things, but we'll probably make one more trip up there before we leave anyway.

That night we met up with our friends David and Carmen for dinner in La Ronda, a tourist district with lots of character and LOTS of food. Also plenty of live music and drinks, which was exactly what we were looking for.

La Ronda

The next day we ended up walking to the Basilica, which may or may not have involved me taking us down (and up!)many flights of stairs. My dad has both knees replaced and bad hips, so that wasn't the greatest plan ever, but he was a trooper and we got to see a lot of really great views of the city from some of the towers.

Panoramic view from the front of the Basilica - you can see El Panecillo!

Monday was probably our longest day, just in terms of being out and about. We had the driver of the hostel we were staying at take us to Mitad del Mundo, El Teleferico and El Panecillo, all in one day. 

We were pretty exhausted after that, but it was definitely worth it. Mitad has finished up their major construction projects, and they've got some lovely museums about the French geodesic missions to Ecuador to find the middle of the world as well as an AWESOME miniature model of El Centro Historico of Quito.

El Teleferico was a really fun adventure as well. While it was nice and warm down in the city, by the time we got up to the edge of the valley we were all glad to have jackets and sweaters, because it was COLD!

Just a veeeeeery small portion of Quito

The views were amazing and they had several hiking/biking trails as well as advertisements for horseback riding, so we may need to check that out again as well.

Finally, El Panecillo, or, that little lump of a hill in the middle of the city with a giant statue of a madonna, known as the Woman of the Apocalypse. The description comes from Revelation 12:1-18.

We were able to climb up (on the inside) to the top of the pedestal, which offered more great views of the city. Along the way they had explanations of how and when the statue was made.

Tuesday morning was our time to rest and relax, and then we packed up and left for Ambato around 1pm. 

While exhausting, I thoroughly enjoyed everything we did, even the stuff John and I had done before. It's kind of fun to hit up areas you've already been to as a tourist again, this way you can find a bit more in-depth information or new angles of seeing things. 

Up next: our trip to Tena and the tour up and down the Napo River! This was definitely a highlight of our trip, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone considering the foothills of the Amazon here in Ecuador.

Coming Home

In Which, We Plan to Return

Yep, it's true. We've decided to come home. 

We were initially thinking just to visit in June, but after looking at travel costs and considering several other options, we've decided to simply make our final return.

We'll be planning on coming back sometime in the beginning of June, most likely within the first 10 days or so. We'll hopefully be housesitting for some friends for a week or so, and then, when they return, we'll move over to John's grandparents' house for a few days.

THEN, the plan is to visit my parents in Puerto Rico for a month. If you follow me on FB, you'll know that they recently visited us for 2 weeks, so we'll return the favor. 

When we return from PR, we'll settle back into our house and basically start afresh with all the things we've learned while living in Ecuador. 

We have a couple posts waiting in the wings regarding our Mindo trip (back in January) as well as lots of photos from the trips we took while my parents were here, so look for those in the coming weeks.

Mama T, when we went to Banos

Getting ready to canoe down the Napo River outside Misahualli!

In the meantime, we're still making the most of our time here, with possible trips to Quilotoa and the beach (again!) in the mix. 

Either way, we plan to enjoy the rest of our time here to the fullest.