Mindo- part one!

This week we took a slightly nauseating bus ride to the town of Mindo for three days.  It was nice to getaway from Quito for a bit.  Mindo is located down a deep winding road through a jungle valley two hours east of Quito.  It is green and lush surrounded by undisturbed mountains within a preservation area.  The town has been regarded as a birder’s destination for the last 20 years, but in the recent past adventure-tourism has taken a hold.  What feels nice about Mindo is that 70% of the visitors are Ecuadorians so it isn’t much of a “gringolandia” (the term used for the super touristy area of Quito.)  The town is laid back and you can tell the folks here have a lot of pride in keeping it clean and welcoming.

I have so much to write about this beautiful place.  I will add it over a couple posts because we took so many photos!

Praying Mantis

jh

BUTTERFLIES
Our first destination was to visit the butterfly farm.  We walked along the Rio Mindo and loved hearing the rushing water instead of the belching buses of Quito.  Because we arrived later in the day, we were the only people there and had the butterflies all to ourselves.  Harper was mesmerized by all the fluttering and walked up to every butterfly she could find with a big glob of banana on her finger.  She gently tried to coax all sorts of colored and spotted butterflies onto her hands; one even crawled up into her hair and onto the top of her head.  Cal tried to be brave and he shyly stuck his finger out, hoping secretly that none of the butterflies would find the perch. 

This is the wall of pupas- where caterpillars are all wrapped up in their cocoons transforming themselves into butterflies.  

Dig my new bangs?  I gave myself a haircut one day when Cal was sick and napping for 3 hours.  

WATERFALLS

The next day we started out with some playtime with Sabina and Divina, two girls age 6 and 8 whose parents ran the hosteria we stayed at.  They had a pretty sweet playroom on the third floor of the main house full of swings, jump-ropes and amazing views of the cloud forest canopy.  

After we pulled our kids away, we set off on a long hike down to a bunch of rushing waterfalls.  There are actually 7 waterfalls along the way, all crashing into the Nambilla River.  Harper and Cal did great hiking the trail.  It was wet and slippery, but they both toughed it out.  Along the way we swung on a rope swing and looked for lots of birds.  We all waded in the river and the kids jumped off little rocks.  It was a sunny day and although the water was chilly, it was no Colorado snowmelt-fed stream, so the swimming was nice.  

Playing with Sabina

Harper swings out on the rope swing.

One of the pools along the way.

Cal jumps in

Happy 11-11-11

Dessert

We got good news from Dr. Jijon that Cal doesn't have any other parasites, amoebas, or bacteria growing in his gut.  He seems pretty much back to normal and just happily scarfed down some of a chocolate bar dredged through peanut butter for our homemade, dinner-out-was-going-too-late dessert.  It is amazing how much lighter Danny and I are feeling with Cal healthy again.  Even though it was just bad diarrhea and head/tummyaches, having a sick kid away from home was pretty stressful.  Whether it was or not, each decision we were making felt so crucial.  Now we are back to that "strolling around town" feeling of traveling.  Much better.

Yesterday we finished up with our homestay.  Our week and a half at Olga and Angel's house was great in so many ways.  Living in their house we got to ease into being in a big city.  They had lots of ideas for us in terms of where to visit and what places our kids might enjoy best.  Having breakfast and dinner prepared for us each day made our daily excursions so easy- we didn't have to go from restaurant to restaurant making numerous choices about what and where to feed our kids.  We spoke lots of Spanish and the kids picked up more new words like trenzas ((braids) Olga liked to do Harper's hair,) guayábana (a fruit for smoothies,) and manjar de leche (caramel spread that Diana liked to each from the jar with a spoon.)  Although they had never hosted a family before, Olga provided a few great "toys" for Cal and Harper to play at the house.  An old truck, poker chips, dominoes, and a couple decks of cards kept our kids busy for long stretches at a time.  The game pieces acted as building materials, road sets, babies (when wrapped up in the green felt poker mat) and garbage trucks (surprise, surprise.)  Overall, it seemed like the family really enjoyed the energy that Cal and Harper brought to the house.  More than once our kids were referred to as the "nietos." (grandkids) 

Cal and Harper with Olga and Diana

So we checked into a hostel yesterday afternoon.  With Cal feeling better we thought it was safe to move.  It is nice to be in a space all our own.  While staying with Olga and Angel was a godsend when Cal was sick, coming and going without checking in with anyone feels nice too.  It is quiet, clean and bright, and we found a place that doesn't have much of the backpacker-vibe going on.  It is close to some good international restaurants and cafes, as well as Quito's new version of Starbucks: the yogurt shop (which I will write more about some time later.)

For the weekend we are going to stay here and do things around the city.  Today we went to the Natural Science Museum and since it was empty the kids had a ball running from exhibit to exhibit.  We hope to go to the TeleferiQo either tomorrow or Sunday, which is a gondola ride up the side of the volcano east of Quito.  Also we hope to visit el Mitad del Mundo- the actual place where the equator crosses Ecuador.  Touristy, yes, but how can we come here and not lay across the line of the center of the Earth?!?

Harper's favorite exhibit at the museum

Alright, that's about it here.  Ciao

Getting better

After five days of feeling really crummy, Cal is getting better.  We met with a great doctor on Monday and lab tests came back that he has rotavirus (which I am pretty sure we vaccinated against but understandably it was probably a different strain.)  We are waiting for one other lab to return just to rule out any other weird stuff (his white blood cell count was high showing a possible other infection) but Cal is feeling better and his tummy is definitely improving.  He is eating regular foods again and the diarrhea has stopped.  Thankfully he is no longer complaining of stomachaches and headaches.  Instead of needing an antibiotic we are filling him with probiotics (good bacteria for his GI tract) and lots of liquids.  He has taken a nap everyday this week (so we KNOW he was feeling sick!) but his wild and crazy Cal energy is coming back.
We are just starting to think about the rest of our time here in Quito.  The night Cal got sick we literally had just sat down in bed with our laptop, the Lonely Planet book and the map to plan out some overnights away from Quito. Then the vomiting started.  So now we are back to square one with about 2 weeks left before Danny's sister, Shari, and her husband, John, come to meet us back at the Rio Muchacho farm.  Hopefully we will still get up to Otavalo and Mindo like we thought before but now I can't help feeling a little more cautious about getting further away from the health care here.  We'll see.

Still sick

Our little boy is feeling bad.  He has had more trips to the bathroom in the last 24 hours than I'd like to recount.  So we're headed to a pediatrician this afternoon to see what bug has got his insides all churned up.  I cross my fingers that it is something we can get under control real soon.  There isn't much worse than watching your two year old on the pot crying, "my bottom really really hurts."  Poor guy.

He is asleep right now and Danny and Harper are out dropping off a poop sample at the doctor's lab.  I have too much time on my hands so I sit here and worry.  I don't like being away from the familiar right now.  I know taking this trip we had this coming, we all knew bad diarrhea was in the cards, but it still feels like we've been caught off guard.  Why couldn't it have hit me or Danny?

But I guess we're not the ones that walk down the streets of Quito rubbing our hands against every wall.  We don't pick up pieces of sparkling trash at the park and announce that we've found "a treasure."  When eating we keep all of our food on our plates, as opposed to the complex fork maneuverings used by one of our children that almost always sends something rolling onto the table (and then is quickly swiped up into the mouth.)  We wash our hands after we go to the bathroom, not only when we're pressed about it.  We don't pick up lovies from the floor and cover them in kisses.

It's no wonder he's sick.

All right it is time to wake him up and head to the doctor.  We'll post what we find out soon.

Harper's thoughts on Quito so far...

Quito looks different than Carbondale because there are lots of golden churches here.  Me and mom looked inside a church .  It was all gold, almost not any more colors.  It was so pretty.

Harper at la Compañia de Jesús

Yesterday at lunch we had an empanada de morocho.  Morocho is a kind of corn.  We had one of these at the soccer game, too.  It is good but sometimes they have cheese in it.

We can’t drink the water from the sink so we have a water bottle and we keep water in that and then when we brush our teeth we use the water in the bottle.

There is a park here named Caroline (just like my cousin!)  It is named Parque Carolina.  At the park there is a museum there where me and Daddy got to hold a boa.  There is also a ride (like an old carnival ride).  I went on a black horse with a white tail and it had a pink saddle.  The thing that wasdifferent about it was that a grandma was the one pushing it to go around.  It kept going and going until the grandma stopped pushing it around.  A little girl there cried so much because she wanted to get off.  Also at the park was a bungee jumping trampoline and I jumped really high.  You could do flips but I was too scared to do it.

Carnival ride pushed by "a grandma"

The park is different from Carbondale because it has a real airplane that you can climb on to and into it.  It is a real airplane that couldn’t work any more so the pilots brought it to a park so kids could play with it.  It doesn’t look like a regular airplane because it is colorful, painted with little animals on it and a big face is on the front.  The windows make the eyes of the face.

Inside the plane- no seats!

Out on the wing

Crazy slide from above the wing.

In Spanish people say my name like this, “Hyper” and “Allper” (or kind of a combination of the two.)  People have to try it lots of times to get it right.  When I first met our host family they asked me, “Como te llamas? (what is your name) and I said “Harper, es dificil en español.”  Everyone laughed at that!

This morning I fell off my chair and I hurted my knee.  Mom wrapped up a container of ice cream and put it on my knee.  I think that it will have a big bruise on it.

Today I am going to have a playdate!  Yesterday we met a girl named Camila and her mom, Paola.  They said we should all go to the park together.  Camila is seven years old and she speaks Spanish.  She has a little dog named Princesa.  I am excited.

Sick boy

Last night we had our first sick kid.  Cal spent most of the night vomiting and on the toilet.  We haven't figured out what caused it, but I am hoping that we weren't responsible (we cooked all our meals at the house yesterday!)  He seems alright this morning, dehydrated but no more "tummy hurting."
He was a trooper last night.  I am always amazed how my kids rise to these things and don't fall apart crying, afraid of it all.  So, it will be a slow day here today.  Thankfully we didn't plan much- Cal started to call out crying just as Danny and I got settled into bed with the Lonely Planet book in our laps.  At least he's got good timing.

Quito

We left Puerto Lopez last weekend.  We traveled by bus to Manta in order to catch a flight out to Quito.  

          

We arrived in Quito Saturday night after a long delayed flight.  We walked into our homestay at midnight dazed and exhausted.  The next morning we got to meet everyone in our homestay family: Olga (58), Angel (63), Gustavo (26), Priscila (24) and Diana (20).  They are very nice and we've enjoyed getting to know them so far.  Olga, the mother, is mainly the one we interact with because the rest of the family work and are gone from early in the morning until after 6pm.  The first few mornings we ate breakfast with Olga and then headed out to explore Quito.  

On Tuesday, with the start of the weeklong Dia de los Muertos holiday, Olga and Angel and the girls packed up to visit family outside of Quito.  So for the last few days we have been staying at the house living like it's our own (although the son, Gustavo, didn't leave with them and has spent most of days in his room watching TV-  kind of weird but it's okay.)  We are thrilled to have our own kitchen and today was the first day in two months that we prepared all of our own meals.  It was fabulous.  In the morning before I shopped at the SuperMaxi supermarket, I planned some home-cooking comfort food for the week.  Tonight we made burritos and guacamole (we've been shocked that we've barely eaten one avocado here in Ecuador!) and tomorrow we're set for spaghetti and chocolate chip cookies.  The supermarket is definitely a perk of being in a big city. 

Sunset from our homestay in the Floresta neighborhood

In addition to shopping for gringo food, we are enjoying lots of what a big city can offer.  We've started to figure out the intricate bus/trolley system and the kids have had a ball running the narrow sidewalks.  I think they have walked more pavement in the last 5 days than they have in the last year.  The absence of carseats is still thrilling to Cal although he did look a little stunned this afternoon when the cabdriver slammed on the brakes and sent him flying into the back of the driver's seat.  

In Quito we have spent a lot of time in el Centro, the historic part of town, and walked many of the tight hilly brick-paved streets.  The stinky exhaust from the buses mixed with the delicious smells from the bakeries make for quite a sensory experience.  One day we visited the Basilica and climbed all the stairs to reach the belfry.  The views of the surrounding mountains and the house-covered hills leading up to them was beautiful.

Say, "30 ft. high stained glass window!"

The view from inside the belfry of the Basilica

We made it!

We spent a while playing at two of the large city parks.  At El Ejido, we climbed trees and played on the really cool and plentiful play structures, including the kids' favorite- the enormous seesaw.  The kids made friends with some other little people, playing soccer and hanging on the monkey bars.  At Parque Carolina we took out a paddleboat and walked through the Vivarium, a reptile museum where Danny and Harper got to hold a 2 m. long boa constrictor.  

(It looked eerily like the one caught at our place in Puerto Lopez a week ago!)

Paddle-boating at Parque Carolina

Yesterday we went to a futbol game- Quito vs. Loja- at the downtown Olympic stadium.  We ate morocho empañadas (corn-filled fried dough, yum.)  Although we were too chicken to sit in the bleachers with the craziest fans, we still cheered along with the drum-banging, bell-ringing, stomping and screaming crowds.   We found our seats among a bunch of nice other families and Cal blended right in with his new futbol jersey (even though he was sporting Ecuador's national blue and yellow instead of Quito's red and blue stripes.)

You can't tell from the photo but the people across the field were going nuts for the entire game