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.

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.

Taking the Teleferico to Vulcan Pichincha

The #1 thing on my list in Quito was to take the Teleferico (cable car) up Pichincha Volcano. Because of the volcano's high elevation (16,000ft at the peak) we waited til our 4th day when our bodies had time to adjust to Quito's 10,000ft elevation. The teleferico, one of the highest lifts in the world, drops you off at 13,000ft. The view overlooking Quito from the top of the teleferico is quite impressive.

Hiking at this elevation was both amazing and absolutely breathtaking, literally. For those struggling with the low oxygen levels, the shop at the top of the teleferico sells canisters of oxygen along with coffee, sodas and snacks. 

Spectacled bears live in the area, however we were not lucky enough to see one.

After our short but very exhausting hike, we opted to take horses further up the volcano. 

Riding thru this gorgeous setting is one of our favorite memories of Ecuador.

Finally we left the horses and headed for the most exciting swing on which we've ever swung.

Swinging 14,000 ft above Quito is really cool, but not as precarious as it appears.

Of course we had to stop to greet the alpacas.

I met this very skilled artist at the base of the teleferico. He began collecting feathers while walking trails as a child, but didn't begin painting for another decade. He paints beautiful landscapes, scenes and very accurate representations of specific birds. He often paints a portrait of a specific species of bird on it's own feather. Many of the tiniest details require the use of a magnifying glass during the painting process. I ended up buying a couple of his works of art and I love them!