The National Cathedral in Quito Ecuador

Sort of reminds me of Europe

Couldn’t get into the Presidential palace so took a break

Contributing to the local economy, plus made my shoes look good

Brick oven pizza

Almost sisters

Waiting for Buddy to start

Buddy Guy is a legend and the concert was fantastic, almost 3 hours of great guitar and the blues. Will make for a long drive to Chicago, but well worth the experience.

✈️ is ready, luggage being loaded

We’re loaded as well.

Bumpy landing into clouds as we landed in Panama 🇵🇦 waiting for next flight to Quito.

What a wonderful and beautiful welcome once we cleared customs,

JJ, Odra, JJ Sr, Anita and Nico were there to greet us,

Off to see the Panecillo.

Beautiful view and the city by night 😍

Quito by night

Then it was off to the Rotunda, late on a Sunday night without all of the tourists.

Found a small cafe for a light dinner and drinks

Started our day with a trip to the “Middle of the World”

It is beautiful w

A nice warm shower is a wonderful way to start Our third full day in Ecuador.

Not only are they wonderful hosts but they are incredibly talented. Turning styrofoam blocks into incredible works of art.

Carving glueing crafting incredible 3’ by 3’ by 2’ nativity scenes.

Just incredible

Many different designs

They even connect many together to form full city scapes. They have won many awards and have their work selling for thousands of dollars and displayed in the National Museum.

God our kids are funny

We went to Sky Katawana near Pachamama and donated lots of school supplies where we intend to do volunteer work.

Francesca was incredibly grateful and welcoming

School supplies

Francesca

Our Ecuadorian daughter

Street art in Baños

Fun continues

Bridal falls

What we do best

Water falls

Zip lining here we come

Hooked up

There she goes

Away they went

MaryAnn holding on for dear life

Maria let’s go

Nico y yo are ready to fly

I don’t think Superman has anything to worry about

Falls

Group zip lining

Long hike to waterfalls

It is beautiful wet and great

At bottom notice no pictures goin up

Started our day driving from Ambato to Cuenca

Stunning views of Chimborazo all decked out with a cape of snow 😎

We stopped and visited the oldest church in Ecuador.

After a six hour drive we finally arrived in Cuenca and found our hotel we had made reservations at, got our room key 🔑 and boarded the Elevator to the 5th floor. The elevator overshot our floor by a foot and stopped. Odra, Maria and I were stuck for an hour while the 🚒 bomberos were trying to figure out how to break the door down, Odra es having a meltdown as one of her worst fears was being recognized, Maria was getting mad but trying to hold it together for Odra, her Mexican temper was momentarily held in check, I was trying to make jokes and keep the situation light 💡 (even though we were in the dark). Finally after an hour the maintenance man showed up and opened the door with the key. Needless to say we moved hotels.

A much nicer place.

Walked around a bit , I learned of a jazz cafe here in Cuenca, so I dragged our entire group along. Wine 🍷 music 🎶 and candlelight

Beer 🍺 more music 🎼 and good food

A little bass,

Some great time keeping on the drums,

And just a little Woody Allen-esque on the piano 🎹 but the Jazz Society Cafe was well worth the price and time.

Not normally a fan of bus 🚌 tours we took one today just to get a quick overview of Cuenca.

Students learn about their history at the cultural museum. We toured with them and learned a lot also.

After the tour we went for a long walk

52 churches ⛪ in central Cuenca and we didn’t even try to find them all. But every corner we turned it seemed we found another.

Finger puppets seemed all the rage.

JJ and Nico

Found more puppets

Reminds us of European architecture

Cool doors

Beautiful windows

More

Beautiful altar

Anita and Papa JJ decided to copy us

A little upset?

We had a wonderful dinner in a restaurant near the main square, and returned for more jazz at the “Jazz Society of Ecuador” for music and drinks 🍷

We mostly rested, caught up on laundry

Los papás e

Maria looking cute in a sombrero 🎩

Ready

Set go

Choclarerra

Los lobos de marina

The most western point of South America

Las mamás

Los papás enjoying the weather

Los tres amigos

La ciudad Salinas

Odra family

Las amigas

Why we are here

Odra

Amigos y familia

Amigos y familia

Nosotros

Anita y JJ

Un regalo que lindo

Maria y un regalo

Cultural dances

La bufador

Sounds of the sea

The Pacific Ocean in Olno Ecuador

What a great time m

Just to cute

Playing

Resting

Never to much rest until the music started

And then there was dancing

More dancing

And a dip

Breakfast

My first portable tattoo

Symbol of Ecuador

Lunch 🥙

More food

Drinks with lunch, we started drinking before we remembered the photo

Ah someone else remembered the before and

During pictures

Then there’s the beach

Down the line we go

Maria was or wasn’t in pain, hard to tell

Feels so good

Next

Laughing was heard when feet got their due

What a great time

My turn

JJ

The women first argued about who got to attack me then they all laughed as they took turns

What more needs to be said?

Nice art

Beautiful town

Beautiful wife

A surfing 🏄‍♀️ statue w

Great little surf town

We’re not ready for the waves

But we look 👀 good

There is even a vegan restaurant

A surfing 🏄‍♀️ statue

Wall art

Better than graffiti

But maybe a little exotic

Breakfast

The patio

Trying to convince ourselves that we have to leave Lola

Driving away

One last palapa stop

Goodbye to the numerous beach towns

Soup

Salesman

Our beach 🏝 front restaurant

Hello Guayaquil

Hard to get it all in

Rode the LaPerla

Walked through old Guayaquil

Tired feet

Still beautiful smiles

But First we stopped at Amaranto a really great vegan restaurant in Guayaquil

Plate lunch 🥗 to die for

Really good food

Our backseat trío

Dancing and singing for the six hours of horrible uphill traffic

The traffic sucks we only averaged 27 kilómetros per hour

But at times the scenery was wonderful

Rural Ecuador

Maria says go away

Main cathedral looking up in Ambato

The Saint holds an infant in one arm, and the model of the church that was destroyed during an earthquake over 100 years ago.

Ran into cub scouts and Boy Scouts in the downtown square

Then we walked through the botanical garden of Ambato

Cacti’s

Flowers

More flowers 🌺

More

Interesting way to plant ground cover

Avenue de palmas

Lunch

More food