At home in Ecuador

Our first week in Shell was spent with Galo, his wife and their three children. Before we arrived my children were very nervous about communicating with kids in Spanish. To their delight, their oldest son knows quite a bit of English. By the end of the night all five kids were running and playing together and sad to say goodnight. They took great care of us by showing us around Shell and feeding us delicious food until our house was ready for us.

 Here is the house we rented in a compound with great neighbors and their six dogs! It was huge- five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a full kitchen and laundry room. A hide-and-seeker's dream. With all that room you'd think we'd spread out a bit, but no. We closed off the extra three rooms and the kids shared a room as always. Twins that are best friends can't be separated!

View from the front (above) and back (below)

The house is one of 10 residences inside a fenced compound behind a mission-built hospital. The homes were built to house the hospital staff, however after a hospital opened in the next town, this hospital was closed and later reopened as a clinic.

Most people in Shell have a locking fence securing their home and bars on the windows. Initially Journey thought there were a LOT of jails in Ecuador. Ha!

4 of the 6 dogs of the compound. 

On a clear day (which is rare) two volcanos can be seen from our house. This perfectly cone-shaped one is Vulcan Sangay, a 17,158ft active volcano that we witnessed sending up puffs of smoke at times.

(Our house on the left, clinic in the background and Sangay in the distance)

The other volcano, El Altar, is the most rugged mountain I have seen. At 17,451ft, it is always snow-capped and is a real treat when the cloud curtain rises to reveal its beauty.

Having a playground in the backyard was a wonderful bonus.
My children enjoyed playing with our neighbors who were close in age. 

It rains pretty much everyday, often multiple times a day, and sometimes for an entire day. It's not the kind of rain I've known in the US, this feels as though the sky opens up and just pours out from the heavens. When you're outside and hear a train coming, you better hope you're less than 30 seconds from shelter, because that's not a train!

This is a photo from our patio looking thru rain at our neighbor's house.

Some of the most beautiful rainbows appear afterwards.

Cultural Curiosities

A short collection of cultural differences you should know before visiting Ecuador.

Adios is only for final goodbyes (moving away, death). Say Ciao instead.

Never point or wave, use your chin to indicate a direction if necessary.

Never use the single finger "come here" motion (NEVER). Instead do a palm out, fingers down scoop towards you.

When indicating height- for an animal, hold your hand at the appropriate height with your palm down. For a person, the palm should be sideways.


Terms: As we traveled we realized some words were used only in Ecuador and not in Colombia, or even more specifically in Shell, but not in other parts of Ecuador. This is quite interesting, but it seems quite similar to the pop vs soda vs coke type situations we have in the United States.

Mande- polite way to say "What?" when someone calls your name. Or your child gives you the ole "Mom, Mommy, Mama, Maaaamaaaa....." bit. However we learned it's not used in other parts of Ecuador, but is used in Mexico and not at all used in Spain. 

Funda- a bag

I'll add more as I remember them.

Views from Ecuador's Pan-American Highway

The five hour drive from Quito to our new home in Shell, Ecuador was simply fantastic. I was in awe of the beautiful mountains and towering volcanos to which clouds would cling. We drove past innumerable waterfalls, thru tunnels that rain (a bit disconcerting), and patchwork quilt farmland that scaled the steep mountainsides. (Please excuse the photo quality as these were all taken thru the car's window without slowing.)

 We stopped at a cafe with a sweeping view of the valley below. The cafe is also a bonsai tree farm and one of their trees is a miniature orange tree with actual grape-sized oranges growing on it! Wild!

We stopped briefly to gaze at this 240ft waterfall in Rio Verde known as Pailon Del Diablo (Devil's Cauldron). A month later we walked the hanging bridges and rock stairs along these falls.

And five hours after leaving Quito, we arrived in Shell, a small town along the edge of the
Amazon jungle, and our new home for the next five months.