Quito and Goodbye South America

We spent the last day and a half in Quito, before coming home, it was a long trip and we did not want to sound a lot of time in a big city so did not see much of Quito.

It was about a two hour bus ride from Peguche to Quito and parts of it through vast areas of green houses where roses are grown for export. Ecuador exports a lot of roses to other parts of the world. A bouquet of roses in Ecuador costs about fifty cents, fresh out of the green house!

Farming in the Mountains

After getting settled into the hostal, we wandered around the tourist area and went to a large North American style mall, in an area where there where lots of government ministry offices and even a United Nations office. The mall had many of the same stores and fast food outlets you see in Canada. We found a nice little restaurant where we wanted to go for supper and went back to the hostal to repack and rest

Then off to the restaurant, we checked with the owner to see if it was safe for us to walk, and it was! About a block from the restaurant we were accosted by three blacks guys that came out of the bush, one in front, one from behind and one from the street. They were not a group of street singers, but they did manage to increase our heart rate for the next five or six minutes. By the time it was over they had Loreen's wedding and anniversary rings, my wedding ring, my watch and about $90 collectively from Keenan and I. Although I did not fight, I did resist and got a small cut on my chin. Keenan did put up a bit of a fight by kicking one of them in the crotch and got punched in the face. Most of my money was in an inside shirt pocket so they just ripped the shirt off. There was no one else on the sidewalk during this time.

The unhappy mugee

We contacted the police and they drove us around the underbelly of Quito for an hour or so looking for them, but no luck. They even have less respect for the police there than people do here, but the police treated us very well. It was not the best goodbye from Ecuador!

So I am the only one in my family to have been mugged twice, but Loreen has me beat, she went through two muggings and a snatch and grab when a kid tried to take her watch in Chile. While in South America we traveled fairly safe and were aware of the scams, this time we were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Our last day in Quito we spent at the location the equator goes through the northern portion of the city. There are two sites where you can visit the equator, about a half a mile apart, so not sure which is the true equator, but to a tourist what the heck, I can say I have stood with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one foot in the southern hemisphere.

At the Equator

The first place is an indigenous tourism site where they have all kinds of gimmicks to try, walking a line with your eyes closed, balancing an egg on the end of a nail, which way the water swirls north or south of the line, etc. Oh and no shadows, well it is overcast or raining there most of the time so that was no trick. It was fun and we tried to figure out all the tricks that were used, the water one I think I understand.

At the Indigenous Equator Site

Then to the original site where the equator was established by a French Scientist, this one was much more developed and has several buildings where there are numerous displays. More money, fancier and maybe not as much fun. 

At the Original Site

We returned to the hostal early as we had to be at the airport at three in the morning. The three hour layover in Houston was great, lunch in the airport with a couple bottles of wine made the flight to Calgary very nice!

We had a great trip travelling through South America, seen some wonderful things, met some good people and appreciate that we ahave the ability to go on adventures like this, that said we are also so gratefull to be back home and to be able to live in a country like Canada.

Indigenous Village and Family

We spent the last week of our Ecuador experience in an indigenous community in northern Ecuador, close to the Columbian border. We came to spend time with  Keenan's host family who she stayed with in 2009 during her teaching internship.

Keenan, Loreen and the family

Piguche is a true indigenous village, most of the residents dress in traditional clothing and there are few vehicles. The hostal where Loreen and I stayed had llamas in the courtyard and pigs and chickens in the yard.

Yard Pig

While having breakfast in the cafe we would watch the villagers leading their cows down the street to pasture.

Doing the laundry and bathing Peguche style

Keenan's host family are great people, and have a large extended family that welcomed us as their own. Grandma and Gramps are both 78 and still perform their daily chores, in fact Gramps slaughters a pig once a week and butchers it for sale. 

Grampa and Grandma

We joined in with the family for the indigenous custom of honoring the dead on Good Friday. The tradition consists of the families visiting the departed members of their family at the cemetery, where they eat and share lunch with family and friends at the gravesite. They believe that this custom not only honors the family that have passed but eases the mourning process for those left behind. It seemed like there were thousands of people there having lunch.

At the cemetary

Keenan and Loreen committed to cooking a traditional turkey dinner on Easter Sunday, so Saturday was spent hunting through three different grocery stores in an adjacent town looking for ingredients. We found a turkey, so that was quite a relief. The menu included turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy, mixed salad, carrots, string beans, apple crisp, apple/pear pan dowdy and ice cream. The only things on the menu that they commonly eat were the beans, carrots and salad, everything else was new.

As they had never eaten this type of meal before they asked us to serve them - then they managed to get their own seconds. We served eighteen for dinner and it was completely enjoyed. It was the first time that Grandma and Gramps had ever had a special meal cooked for them.

Easter Dinner

We also managed to find some foil wrapped chocolate, Kinder Eggs and other treats and Keenan led the younger ones in an Easter Egg hunt, again a first for all.  The adults were more enthused than the kids!

We spent our last day in Peguche driving through the country side and seeing some of the expat communities. First, an American development that looks like suburban blue grass country with big homes, big lawns and horses in the back. Then across the valley a British retirement community, where the British government supposedly invested eight million US in infrastructure to allow British retirees to move to Ecuador and still have British type comforts. All very interesting, when both communities are bordered by indigenous corn fields.

Saying goodbye was hard, Grandma cried, Loreen cried, but it was time to move on and spend the last day and a half in Quito.