¡¡¡DRAMATIC CHANGE¡¡¡

Hey all we are changing the blog were posting on because it looks waaaaaayyy better on the new blog the link is https://myleszoeadventure.wordpress.com. Since we just set it up please comment and leave your opinions on what is better on the blog and what you want, becasue I can fix just about anything on the new blog. Awesome see you guys on the new blog (-_0) bye

Zoe,
Out¡

The Cathedral and ANOTHER parade (on Father's Day)

Connor said we couldn't leave Quito if we didn't visit the Basilica/Cathedral so we complied.  In the process we also stumbled on another parade that was celebrating the life of a well-known priest.  We enjoyed the pageantry and felt a lot more comfortable taking photos of people in their native costumes.-KS

Okay so this is a huge imposing church that's awesomely cool on the out side with twin clocktowers. So we payed the fee to climb up and started climbing. It was stairs the first 3 stories then it went across a wooden bridge. After the wooden bridge was a ladder/stair then the path went around a bit and finally up the last bit that was SKETCHY!!! Some of the ladder/stairs had mesh so you wouldn't step too far forward and fall off but the mesh on the last bit was missing. So you could had a wrong step and fallen. The clock towers were super cool with Quito in the background. The clock towers however don't match because the Ecuadorians bought top of the line Europian clocks but forgot to get anyone trained in the maintenance of the clocks. So both clocks have slowly stopped. Also coming down the stair/ladders was 2x as sketchy as going up.

Zoe,
Out!

 Galapagos gargoyles at Cathedral

Otavalo

Northeast, around the mountains circling Quito, is the town of Otavalo.  It is known for the artisan markets where people from all the surrounding mountainous areas come down to sell their wares.  It's a bit overwhelming:  from knock knacks to beautiful pieces of art...and in vast quantities.  The vendors seem to go on for miles.  There was an accompanying fruit and veggie market.  One of the vendors told us about the "food court"....just behind the church and to the right.  Myles said the entrance looked like the  night markets in Taiwan....a little entry covered with things...you walk through and you experience the smells and sounds of food.  Scott chose the place we we tried hornado.  They slow cook an entire pig and the serve the soft meat with mote ( hominy) and potato cakes and sausages.  It turns out that this woman won the award for best hornado in the province and a photo the president embracing her was above her shop.  it was yummy!  Returning to Quito, angie wanted to find an archeological site.  However, we ended up on the classic Ecuadorian adventure...locals saying,  "Yes, the place is over there...Más arriba."  We kept going up on the cobblestone roads, between small family farms growing maíz, potatoes quinoa, some with cows, pigs and sheep.  I have never seen pigs tethered together....one would pull one way and the other the opposite direction....but they both stayed put without fences!  We sort of found the ruins, but there wasn't a good place to park and we ended up continuing on the road as it wound down from the mountains/hills to the main road below.  We stopped at Qunice, a small town that the Pope will stop at because of the one of the saints.  We managed to stumble on a band and fireworks celebrating the saint in the afternoon!  The surprises of traveling in Ecuador!   We also balanced an egg at the Mitad del Mundo #2!!! -KS

S i

Cotopaxi in winters conditions, Casa de Vaca and Jardín Botánico de Quito.

We left the house at 7:30 am and headed to Cotopaxi. It was a long drive and we had to stop at a booth so you could register to enter the park but the guard wasn't there. It was realy foggy and chilly. When the guard finaly came, we registered and headed on in. The mountan had some snow on it but it wasn't on the road. On the way up, we stopped to see some flowers. It was realy windy and is was sprinkling sideways. When we got the to parking lot, we were met with fast, cold wind and frozen rain form an angle. We quickly took some pictures and got back into the car and headed down the mountan. We decided to go to a lgoon to see some birds. When we got there. It was also realy windy and sprinkling. We then went to a gift shop where there was a hike to a small forest. At first, it was sunny and there was no wind. But then, the rain and wind came so we gave up and set out of the park. On the way back to town, we stopped at a restaurant called Casa de Vaca where I got a hamburger with a small salad and fries and a chocolate milk shake. The shake was realy good. After we were done, we headed to the Jardín Botánico. There were a lot of plants but the biggest thing was the orchids. There were so many orchids that were local to ecuador. If you ever come to Quito, you should go to the garden. It's pretty cool. - MH

So we wake up at 6:00 in the morning so we can leave. By 7:00 we were out of the door. Where were we going you might wonder?  We were going to Cotopaxi! One of the large active volcanos around. We drove and arrived at the guard house but we couldn't get by. The reason was because the guard house was supposed to open at 8:00 we were there at 8:30 and the guard still hadn't shown up. We waited for around 15 minuets and then the guard showed up. We were already at a high enough altitude to where you very desperately want a coat. After we got past to guard station we drove up part of the mountain, which was a long drive on a very bumpy (and in my opinion very sketchy) road for around an 45 min. The higher we got on the mountain the colder it got by the time we reached to end of the road there was snow all around. For the record there isn't normally snow but lo and behold there was. The wind was so bad that we couldn't open two opposing doors on the car otherwise things whould just blow out the door. I put on a rain coat and was the first to get out needless to say I regretted it. I was almost instantly soaked from ice cold rain i hurriedly took at many pictures as I could then I ran quickly back to the car and Yanked on the door only to discover it was locked (nooooo!!) to I ran around to the other side and hid in the wind/rain shadow of the car and waited for Angie to come back to unlock the car and jumped in. We were all soaked. We weren't allowed to hike up to the rim of the volcano because it was too active. So we dropped back to the second plan to hike around a lagoon. We arrive at the lagoon and we climb out of the car and it was raining we decided not to hike the trail and dropped back to plan C. Plan C was to hike another trail by a gift shop we got out of the car and went into the gift shop. Then we tryed to hike the trail only to have it start rain as soon as we start hiking. We decided to just give up and started to drive back to Quito we stopped at Casa de la Vaca for lunch. I got a hamburger and a milk shake. The hamburger was huge and delicious the milk shake was milk with chocolate sauce and a large dollop of ice cream on top. After we devoured out lunches we figured we should stop by the botanical garden which had a huge orchid collection and I saw a awesome and rareish humming bird the black-tailed trainbearer in the flowers and it flew away in the exact time it took to turn on my camera(dar'vet!!!!). then after all that we headed home and called it a day..

Zoe,
Out!

Museo Nacional de Banco Central del Ecuador and Artesean Market.

Angie took us to the Museo Nacional de Banco Central del Ecuador to see some ancient artifacts. She said that even if we didn't want to see the artifacts, we had to see the gold room. The artifacts we pretty cool. But, just as Angie said, the gold room was worth it. It contained gold artifacts of all sorts: earrings, necklaces, figures and more. After that, we went to the Artesean market. There were hats, shirts, pictures, toys, tools, earings and more. I got a chess set that's made out of tagua and Americans know it as vegetable ivory. It looks realy cool. - MH.

The museum had all sorts of cool things. the first levels were precolumbian and the 2nd story was all colonial which was after the annoying Spanish showed up. Personaly the precolumbian artifacts were way cooler. After out time at the museum we headed back out to the street and walked over to the artisan's market. They had just about anything you could imagine from bracelets, to ponchos, to wallets, to stuffed animals and intricate carvings. And also they had the Ecuadorian iced cream which is just fruit juice sugar and then stirred in a metal bowl in iced water. For the record it's super good. my mom got gunabana, Myles got blackberry and I got Taxo. All in all it was a pretty good day

Zoe,

Out!

Old towne, Casa de Alabado museum

Today, we went to old town, so there were a lot of old buildings. It was also kinda of a market because there were a lot of shops. But we got there really early so not a lot of shops were open. But, on the way to a plaza, Angie brought us to a shop with cool art. I got a cool bag from there. After that, we went to a plaza where a big church was. I didn't like it there cuz they were celebrating the creation of Quito and they were playing loud music. After we left the plaza, we went to eat at a small resturant and I got a juice that was half blackberry and half gunabana. It was realy good. After that, we went to the Casa de Alabado museum to see some artifacts. It was cool to see how the pottery changes over time. After the museum, we went to go get Angie a coffee. She took us to a cafe that she had gone to once. She was surprised to find out that it had turned into a kind of resturant. I got a blackberry juice, Zoe got a hot chocolate, Angie got a coffee and mother got a sparkling water. Once we were finished, we head back to the car. Along the way we got to see how many stores had open since the time we were there. So I would say it was a good day. - MH


So first day really exploring Quito. We drove down to the old town and parked the car. Then we explored. While exploring, we encountered a procession which was occurring 60 days after Easter. It blocked a whole street and was insanely long but nothing compare to the good Friday parade(look it up on notyouraverageamerican for pics). After the procession we wandered over to a museum that had tons of awesome artifacts. Many of them made from clay in intricate figures. We spent around an hour at the museum and then Angie declared it was time for afternoon coffee so we stopped at a cafe and everyone got a drink. I got hot chocolate, because chocolate ever day people!! Then after we had exhausted ourselves we clambered back into the car and headed home.

Zoe,
Out!

The joys of travel!

We had a most interesting day yesterday....an introduction to the frustrations finding places in Quito, and an introduction to the medical system here.  We noticed that Zoe had a little chip in her tooth.  We have no idea how she got it but decided it was best to check to make sure it wasn't cracked.  Angie got us an appointment at 11:00 am.  At around 9 am Zoe said she must have gotten bitten on her shoulder and lip because it was itchy.  We decided not to give her Benadryl just in case she needed meds at the dentist.  We left the house at 10 and got to the cross streets of where the dentist was.  By 11 we still hadn't found it!  They have 2 addresses here:  an old system in white and the new system in green.  75% of buildings only have the new numbering and we think they gave us the old numbering.  After multiple calls, we were told it is next to the edificio de consul y muy alto y quiteño. We circled again and found the consul building and I jumped out to ask the buiding next door....they said the dentist was another building away.   The building had NO sign indicating the dentists were in the buildin (there were signs for the 3 businesses on the ground floor) was not the tallest on the block, had NO number sign on it, and had nothing to indicate it was Quitaño!  It looked like all the others.  It did have a police vehicular inspection lot right in front so you would think that someone giving directions might use that as a landmark!  Zoe and I went up while Angie circled one last time.  By the time she made it up, we had seen the dentist, I had managed to convey that my Spanish was horrible but we wanted to have her tooth checked, and the dentist had examined her and filed her tooth a tiny bit.  When we walked down to the car we gave her Benadryl.  And then I really looked at her.  Her lips were swollen about 4 times normal and her bites on her shoulder were hives.  So we decided to take her to the ER.  We figure that she ate something.....maybe the processed yogurt drink she had for breakfast or the red fanta the night before.  Luckily Angie has been to the hospital before so she knew the way.  30 min later we arrived at the hospital and although busy, they gave zoe the last bed once they saw her lips.  She got an IV, and meds and fluids and then we waited patiently.  I didn't recognize the antihistamine they gave her...we think it was one made in Spain.  She improved and  5 hrs later we were discharged.  Myles had been patiently waiting outside as they only allow 1 family member to accompany the patient...and Angie as my translator.  As we were leaving, you had to stand in 1 line where they added up her charges and then another line to pay those charges.  With your receipt in hand, you show it to the guard and they let you out the door!  Bills are always paid on time!...of course this is one of the pay for care hospitals of upper and middle class....but I was struck at the difference between our systems and decrease in paperwork etc.  Zoe is doing much better and will not drink either the yogurt drink or red fanta ever again.  Me...well, it's going to be hard to let her eat or drink anything!  Yeah, I know.....I gotta chill but it'll  take a few days!