What I love about Ecuador

In keeping with the theme of trying to convince (and guilt) my parents into coming to visit, I felt like maybe I should go at it from a different angle.  I will now try to convince my parents (and everyone else) into visiting by describing all the things I love and will miss about this country (although I have plenty of time to enjoy these things right now!).  So here goes (although this just scratches the surface):

1. Tiendas!  I love walking down the street and passing by a variety of tiendas: shoe shops, plastics stores, bakeries, variety stores, school supplies stores, internet places, clothes shops, fruit/legume stores and restaurants serving hot dogs, shwarmas, fritadas, empanadas and morocho, ceviches, secos, etc.  My favorite place to walk is in La Jota, a street filled with tiendas. 

This is a picture of my favorite empanada place called "Empanadas y Morocho de La Jota" right next to a clothes tienda, during the reconstruction of the sidewalk

2.  Fresh fruit juices - the fresh juice that we have almost every day at El Centro is something I will miss dearly.  I love the Mora, Piña, Maracuya and Naranjilla juices that we get to drink every week - fresh fruit juice is definitely not something that we do in America, and I will miss it!!

3.  Bus rides on Juan Pablo II - this is the bus I most often take in the city, and I love it because typically it is blasting the latina music and the little window curtain shades are blowing happily in the wind - I just love that it's like a little party on the bus!

4. The fresh beautiful rose bouquets that I can buy for a dollar, that I will truly miss.

5. Buying fresh bread every morning for breakfast with my coffee...mmm, fresh bread.

6. Rejoicing when I find a tienda that sells Coca Cola Light, because that was quite a task when I first started trying to find it here in the south...now I have a regular tienda that I go to in La Jota, but it still is a nice treat!

7. $2 haircuts...that is something I will really miss when I get back to the US!

8. The endless mountains that surround Quito, and are found all through the Sierra...the mountains are just beautiful, and depending on where you are in the city gives you a thousand different perspectives and views of them.

Quilotoa, volcanic lake in the Sierran mountain range

9. The amazing churches and history of the city...it is a very rich history and I love Centro Histórico!

Inside San Agustín

A sanctuary to the sacred heart of Jesus, in San Agustín church

10.  The beaches, it sure is nice to be able to go to the beach every once in a while!

There are many, many other things I love about Ecuador and Quito, however they seem to be things you just can't appreciate unless you come visit!! I will definitely miss a ton of other things, such as how greatful I feel when I recieve relatively ordinary objects with the brigades (ex: Ranch Dressing), watching and sitting with the kitchen ladies as they cook and talk about their lives all day, telling myself "you go girl" in my head for running with shorts on, the lack of obesity, some of the food such as fritadas, choclo con queso, sopa de fideos, fresh ice cream popsicles, etc...

I do really love this country, and am so happy that I have the privilege of living here for at least another year. That makes me really excited, because I get to enjoy all these things a little longer, and continue to experience new things!

Mingo Gets a Bath

Mingo is "my" dog here in Ecuador.  Truly, Mingo belongs to José, however I love to walk Mingo around and pamper Mingo so that Mingo isn't so crazy all the time.  When Mingo is let out of his backyard area, he runs around wildly and happily - I like to make sure Mingo gets alot of playtime, and is always fed. Last week I took a video of José giving Mingo a bath, because it was the first time I have seen Mingo just stand still, without even trying to fight it; it was like Mingo was a commpletely different dog. It was also quite cute. I will add the video later (the Internet at the hospital won't let me access what I need to insert the video on the blog), but here are some pictures: