The Pululahua Crater and the Equator

We enjoyed a lunch at a beautiful restaurant that overlooks the crater at the Pululahua Geobotanical Reserve, a volcano that last erupted more than 2000 years ago. We were lucky to  get a clear view as clouds often fill the basin.

 This is one of only a few places where people live within a crater. Currently about 40 families live within Pululahua crater while cultivating agriculture and livestock. The volcanic activity has left behind rich soil for their crops.

I took a quick hike to look for birds and came across some unusual flowers.

Our trip to the Equator

Look, my twins are in separate hemispheres! Or are they? This is the initial location that was determined to be the equator in 1736, however GPS technology later revealed it's about 250 meters off. Oh well, close enough, ha!

 An elevator takes you to the top of the 90ft tall monument for an interesting view, 

while the lower levels contain a science center with many exhibits.

The kids borrowed our phones to take our photo here.

 I love this one with Asher's fingers in the frame.

Exploring Ecuador: Quito

We spent five months living in Ecuador while helping an organization named ITEC (more on this later). We spent our first few days exploring Quito where we'd found a nice high rise apartment on Airbnb with floor to ceiling windows, a gym on the first floor and a lovely rooftop lounge with a view of downtown.

The place in Quito that I was most looking forward to visiting was Pichincha Volcano, but at nearly 16,000 ft elevation, we were advised to wait a few days to first acclimate to Quito's 10,000ft elevation. In the meantime we discovered some interesting places.

Our first stop was the Basilica del Voto Nacional, a neo-Gothic Roman Catholic church in Old Town. This, the largest church in Quito, was constructed in 1892 and features animals like frigatebirds and tortoises instead of gargoyles on the exterior.

To reach the lookout tower, you had to walk this path then climb quite a few very steep staircases. I was the only one that went all the way to the top.

The virgin on El Panecillo can be seen from the church. Just look on top of the hill between the two towers.

Historical Old Town is filled with narrow, steeply-sloped streets and tiny sidewalks.

Our apartment's location next to Carolina Park, gave us lots of opportunities to enjoy multiple nearby parks and a short walk to the grocery store. Grocery shopping in other countries is always a fun experience to see what new items are available. My kids especially love the fruit section.

The dairy section in this store in Quito was HUGE and the variety of eggs filled an entire aisle. Asher was excited to try some quail eggs. By the way, none of the eggs are refrigerated. 

And lollipops the size of their heads! Nope, sorry kids.

Even though it was February, the midday sun was quite warm and a t-shirt was sufficient, but mornings and evenings we needed a fleece or jacket. We later learned that while most of Ecuador has similar weather year around, Quito experiences more extreme weather fluctuations including flooding, snow, and ice storms. Our last morning I took a trip to the San Jorge Eco Lodge to walk their trails looking for birds. I was not disappointed!

I also visited the serpentarium to see the local species of snakes. Once we arrived in Shell, I was lucky enough to meet a man who supplied most of the animals on display there. In the past he would pay indigenous people $1 to bring the snakes they came across to him instead of killing them. He would keep them in his own collection or release them in a safer area away from people. Eventually he was no longer allowed to give anything in exchange, so unfortunately more snakes are being killed again. The time came to give up his collection, so he sent the snakes to Quito for display and educational purposes. 

Asher was very curious about Ecuador. In this photo he was writing down the population of Quito and comparing it to Florida, a fun world schooling memory for me.

Five years

April marked FIVE YEARS since we sold it all and hit the road, and at this point we are currently living in Ecuador. How did we wind up here? I'll come back to that. We ended up spending four and a half years living in an RV full-time while traveling the US and Canada soaking in the gorgeous views and history North America has to offer. Our plan for year 5 was to spend more time exploring other countries, but that was postponed to spend much-needed time with family. We picked a spot near family that we could use as a home base when we aren't traveling. Last year we spent 6 months at our home base and 6 months traveling- our longest trip away being a roadtrip from the east coast to Las Vegas and back, plus a couple trips up to Ohio. We added two new states this year: Oklahoma and Arkansas, which leaves us 3 states short of the full deck: Minnesota, North Dakota and, weirdly, South Carolina.

This year we dug for diamonds in Arkansas, discovered a new favorite hike at Tent Rocks in New Mexico. We watched our kids gaze for the first time into the depths of the Grand Canyon. We kayaked with manatees and monkeys in Florida. In Ohio we held BlueJays and the largest bullfrog in history, ok, maybe not, but he was huge. I saw a Snowy Owl, a Kirtland's Warbler and a Shoebill Stork this year. We hosted two exchange students, one from Spain and the other from China.

We became active in recruiting potential bone marrow donors after meeting a very special mom and little boy who are desperately looking for his match. (See if you're a match HERE.)

We had some interesting things happen, like the time Asher had a scorpion on his neck, and when the kids were invited by a pilot into the cockpit on one of our flights.

Back at the cabin, we adopted two snakes (a ball python and a baby corn snake), a black bear became a regular visitor, a dog vs water moccasin showdown resulted in the death of both participants, and an alligator walked thru our yard!

We hugged our sweet Bella for the last time and left our sweet Asa with my mom. That was super hard, but again, we expected to be mostly traveling internationally which would not only be difficult, but not in her best interest.

We toured the offices of ITEC where they opened our eyes to a new way of sharing the gospel. This lead to an opportunity for us to join ITEC on a trip to Kenya to train locals while the twins enjoyed quality time with their grandparents and cousins. While there we learned much about Kenyan and Maasi culture. We went on safari and saw giraffes, monkeys, rhinos, and of course amazing birds. Then we spent time in Uganda with old friends.

We've been wanting to learn Spanish and give the kids more cultural experiences. An opportunity arose for us to help at ITEC Ecuador for 6 months, so here we are. Details of our life here will follow in future posts.

Jinja {Uganda}

Stef and Jared's beautiful home was originally built by a Westerner who wanted to be comfortable during his five year commitment. Stefani's own creative touches make if feel warm and inviting. And then you have the lush backyard, which ends at the Nile River! After our busy week in Kenya, I was very happy to relax in their backyard, and watch birds from their deck. Did I mention this trip was the first time we've ever been away from our children? As a result, we spent quite a bit of time just looking out over the Nile while enjoying the silence! Over the course of the week, I identified over 60 species in their yard, plus we had sitings of Nile Monitors, River Otters and beautiful lizards.

I'm familiar with Belted Kingfishers in the US, which are predominately solitary birds. Here we were in Pied Kingfisher territory, and they live in small family groups. It wasn't unusual for me to spot 4 or 5 of these black and white birds perched on a single branch together. I could easily spot 20 at any given moment while looking out over the water! 

One evening as the light grew dark, I stood in the yard watching as hundreds of bats emerged from their daytime roost and went out in search of food. Suddenly I heard a light thud and at my feet was this little guy. I believe he hit the electrical wire above me and it knocked him right out of the sky. He was stunned but a short time later he had recovered and moved on. 

The Source of the Nile Bridge was under the final stages of construction 

while we were there, and is now open. It's a structure that begs you to look at it.

One morning we stopped at the Kombi Koffee VW bus on our way to pick up milk.

...and then we were off to buy milk from these gals! 

We watched as they separated the cream from the milk. (on table to left)

They also have these giant jackfruits growing in the yard! I found out jackfruit is the largest tree-growing fruit in the world. The fruit averages 25lbs, but can grow as large as 100lbs! 

This is the main street where the grocery and other stores are located. Picking up groceries isn't as easy as we're used to. Here, it's necessary to stop at two, sometimes three different stores to find what you need.

We took the scenic route to a farmer's market geared towards Westerners. We enjoyed burgers while the kids played in a bounce house. I was so impressed by all of the items they carved from cow horns, I ended up bringing home a pair of Africa-shaped earrings.

Walking thru the three-story Jinja Central Market is a sensory overloading experience! 7000 vendors compete for your business with tons of fresh food, clothing, really, just about anything you could need.  on the second floor are rows and rows of women sitting at antique sewing machines, some making new items from fabric, others are taking apart old clothing to create something new. It felt a bit like what I assume a "sweat shop" would look like. But when talking to Stefani about it, she was quick to tell me, those women are the success stories. It takes training to become a seamstress. These women have completed training and are now able to make money to support themselves and their family.

On Sunday we attended service at Arise Africa. As we stood outside, a tent shielding us from the sun, we worshipped God together. Then we listened as the pastor recounted an event in his life where we felt the most vulnerable to his circumstances. Throughout that desperate situation he still chose to fully depend on the One who made us and cares more than we can fathom.  

This was taken before the service, all seats were filled by starting time.

Jared gave us a tour of Ekisa Ministries, an organization that exists to improve the quality of life for children living with special needs in Uganda. Here, children with disabilities tend to be isolated and marginalized. Some even believe their disability to be a curse. Ekisa strives to help families and communities see the value of every person. They mainly serve children living with Hydrocephalus, Cerebral Palsy and brain damage resulting from malaria or meningitis. While Ekisa does care for 22 children in their residential care program, they have nearly 100 in their community care program. This provides services and training for the families so their child can remain at home with them. Those in the residential program are either working toward being reunited with a family member or adopted into a new family. Ekisa runs a school for children from both the residential and the community care group. Ekisa's empowerment programs provide business and financial training courses plus start-up loans for families who want to open a business to be able to afford medical care for their child. Jared has already begun to see a shift in the acceptance of these children in the community. They're now gearing up to participate in their 4th Night to Shine, a prom experience for people with special needs, created by the Tim Tebow Foundation.

<--------- click NEXT to see more of our time in Uganda.