From Minnesota to Guayaquil, Ecuador

Flight to Ecuador was uneventful - we had 4 large duffle bags and 4  hard shelled containers along with 2 carry-ons, a backpack and my LARGE purse.

Going through customs did not present any problems. I am sure we looked like street people with all our bags/containers.  They did search our backpack for unknown reasons.

Our hosts met us at the airport in a school bus type vehicle. They  knew we had lots of luggage and most of the vehicles in EC are small.  Wish I had a picture of it. 

From Bob:

We then went to their home in Ecuador.  It Is a lovely one of a series of fenced -in homes set in a collections of homes surrounding a small park.  We spent several happy days with them. Fortunately, for our very limited Spanish, both of them lived in the states and spoke very good English.

We were fortunate enough to be treated to fresh juice every morning.  Bob watched the preparation.  It was much more involved then merely pouring it out of a container made from concentrate - and tasted much better too.  The fresh fruit was cleaned, peeled or not peeled depening on the fruit, cut-up, placed in a blender and blended.  Water (about as much as the juice from the fruit) was added along with sugar if needed depending on the fruit.  Needless to say, none was left.

The variety of fruit here is amazing.  The juice made from them varies widely in its taste/color/viscosity - all of them very good.

Back to me:

Our hosts took us on a tour  of the city (Guayaquil).  We stopped for lunch along a river park.

                                                 Guayaquil

Our hosts and grandson

Milagros and her daughter Vicki preparing some wonderful meals for us.

Breakfast Sampler - can't remember what it was but it was very good.

Mealtime

Off to Cuenca, to our new home.

Everyone helped to load our belongings unto the truck - plastic in case of rain, also to protect from thieves - our driver said no stops on the way to prevent being robbed.  Encouraging....

Finally loaded.

We followed the truck in this car.

Some scenes along the way - what I could manage from the car:

 Our ride to Cuenca was the most spectacular 3 hour ride.  There were groves of Christmas tree on the hills which we could not imagine how someone could get to them.  Waterfalls on the side of the road so close you could reach out and touch them.

Our leader in the truck came to a stop in a 'safe' place so we could see the view.  Awesome.

Our driver, Manuel and his 2 sons.  The one on the right rode in the back of the truck (for protection) until they were stopped by the Federalizes.  It cost us $40.00 to prevent a search of all our bags.

Next stop - Cuenca.