John and Christine's Adventures: December 26th through New Years Day

December 26th through New Years Day: Monday: We got word that our daughter, Ginny, and her family's flight got canceled and they would not be leaving until tomorrow. So we did our cleaning and grocery shopping. Tuesday: We went to the temple for the morning shift.

One of the missionary zones that have been coming everyday this week. Quito North Mission

We are starting this week working only the morning shift and then next week working the evening shift. Ginny and her family arrived at 2:30am early Wednesday morning. We got them settled into their room and went to bed. Wednesday: We went to our morning shift and then had lunch with Ginny's family in our apartment. We then went into Quito to the historic district. We went to the "Church of the Sanctuary".

We then went to the Church of the Society of Jesus, or in Spanish the Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus or as everyone here just calls it the Compania.

In front of the Compania.

We then went to the Iglesia and Convent de San Francisco.

Inside the church from the Choir loft.

We then went to Pim's Restaurant on the hill Panecillo to celebrate Xela's 13th birthday.

Happy Birthday Xela

We finished about 7:30pm and could not get a taxi. We had to walk part way down the hill because there was a line of cars, probably a mile long, trying to get up to see the view of the city. After about 5 minutes, some people in a taxi trying to get to the top got out to walk and we got the taxi to take Chris, Ginny and the girls back to the temple. Sam and I continued to walk down. About 5 minutes later another taxi let his ride out and he turned around and we got him to take us home. This just added to our adventure. Thursday and Friday: We did our shift and then we hired a van to take us to the Mitad del Mundo, Middle of the Earth or the equator. On the way we stopped at a volcano where people are now living in the crater.

We had a fun tour and demonstrations of things that happen on and near the equator.

We then went for linner, if brunch in a meal between breakfast and lunch, then linner is the meal between lunch and dinner. It was about 4pm. We had very Ecuadorian food. Sam even ordered Cui or guinea pig. We got home about 6:00pm. We went over to the temple and did baptisms for the dead. We then spent the rest of the evening getting ready for our trip to the Amazon jungle. We got picked up at midnight and after a 10 hour bus ride arrived at El Puente de Cuyabeno or Cuyabeno Bridge.

We were pickup by our guide, Elias, and we were transported by river canoes to our lodge on the Cuyabeno river. It was about a 4 hour boat ride.

Here we go.

Video of our trip to the lodge.

We stopped along the way to see birds and other wildlife.

Can you see the bird on the log?

Trees fall into the river every week.

Monkeys moving through the trees.

We got settled into our rooms and then after dark we went on a walk into the jungle. Willa and Xela were a bit nervous and afraid but stuck it out for about 90 minutes.

Many different kinds of mushrooms.

Lots of spiders.

That is a 4 inch long cricket.

We got back to the lodge and had dinner and then it was off to bed. Saturday: After breakfast, we took a 90 minute canoe ride down river to visit a local community. We had an hour hike into the village.

The hike up to the trail was really muddy.

Here is our group, Christian on the left is from Quito.

A cock fight almost broke out.

We found these butterfly wings on the trail. Something ate the body of the butterfly.

This lady bug is about 1 inch long.

We then spent 4 hours with a women and her kids. She had prepared some treats for us and then she taught us how to make yuca bread. We had to dig up the yuca, then skin it, grate it into a mash, then press all the water out, then sift it into a very granulated flour, then make large tortillas, then cook them and finally eat them.

Lots of treats when we arrived.

Sam was strong enough to pull up the yuca.

Willa was especially good at pealing the skin off the yuca root.

We all chipped in to grate the yuca.

Our host mostly sifted the grated yuca after all the juices had been squeezed out.

Chris cooking the yuca bread.

After our late lunch, the daughter and her friend brought in some necklaces and bracelets that they had made. We bought Chris a matching necklace and bracelet.

We then hiked to visit the village Shaman. He tried to heal some neck and upper back pain I had. The cure was worse then the aliment. He slapped my upper back with stinging nettle and then put some medicine on the rash. It hurt so bad that I completely forgot about the pain in my neck so I guess he did cure me.

My back was a bit red from the stinging nettle.

I would not recommend him to my worst enemy.

We hiked back to the boats and went up stream this time to our lodge.

Good thing we all had our mud boots on.

The bird is blowing air in and out to cool off.

Don't blink or you will miss the dolphins.

On the way back we stopped to see the largest tree in the jungle. A Cebal tree. The base is about 20 feet wide.

After dark we went out in the canoe hunting caimans, similar to an alligator. We were successful and afterward returned for dinner.

This is a child and only his head is out of the water.

Sunday: A 3 to 4 hour walk in the jungle was on the schedule. Sam and Ginny were the only ones up for it. Chris and I rested up after our long day visiting the village. In the afternoon, we went to the lagoon. This time of year it is really just a dried up and muddy lake bottom.

Xela got sick and threw up so we went back to the lodge. After dark, we went back out to find some more caiman. We then had dinner. We all have a few bug bites, but it has not been bad. Here are some other pictures you might find interesting.