We arrived!

We arrived in Ecuador on Tuesday evening July 5th, after an uneventful red-eye through Panama City. We spent a couple of days in Quito, acclimating to the altitude and fruit juice, getting cellphones set up, and dipping our toes into the world of Ecuadorian bureaucracy. I'll give Paul credit here; he spent the bulk of his time on the bureaucracy. I just entertained the kids. 

Yesterday, we dragged our ridiculous amount of luggage to the bus terminal and caught a bus to Latacunga, a medium sized city a couple hours south of Quito, still high in the Andes Mountains (elevation 3,336 meters, 10,900 feet). There, we met my friend, Washington, who had generously volunteered to take us home to La Josefina.  

Despite its recent growth, La Josefina is not actually on most maps, even the all-knowing google maps. It is a sleepy village, nestled in the foothills of the western slope of the Andes, about 500 meters above sea level and is where we will be living for the year (and where I lived as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1999-2001). 

It is no small feat to get to La Josefina from Latacunga. It requires a vehicle with a good transmission and reliable brakes, an experienced driver, and a strong stomach to drive over the Andes (the peak elevation on this road is about 3900 meters or 12,795 feet) and then careen down through the dense fog of the cloud forest into the coastal plains. 

This pass is one of the most beautiful places I have ever traveled, and I don't like road trips. It's simply stunning. Along the way, we traversed the barren treeless plateau of the South American Andes (paramo), caught glimpses of llamas, sheep, and bundled indigenous women and children planting and harvesting along steep slopes. bought fresh onions and potatoes, stopped to get lollipops (I am not above bribery), got literally lost in the cloud of the cloud forest, then on the other side bought two pounds of mora, before seeing firsthand the havoc last year's heavy rains and floods left on the river town of El Palmar. 

Well, we made it. 

And there was a handmade welcome home sign, hugs and kisses, and freshly made ceviche de pollo and fresh chifles waiting for us, gracias to Washo's amazing wife, Lucia.

All three of our children are blessed with my unfortunate propensity toward motion sickness, but they tend to be more cheerful about it than I ever was as a child. Miraculously (with the help of our travel buddy ondansetron), we managed the entire journey without a single vomit, though the vomit bags were never far from our reach.

Yes, my kids are troopers.

Yes, it's nice to be home. It just may take some time to get used to it. :)