One month left

Sitting here in my wife's hammock in our living room it dawns one month left, in fact a little less. One month of being home with the family everyday for more then a few hours. One month of enjoying life the way things were suppose to be. And though I say the way things were meant to be I guess if you live here and need to work you would dispute that fact.

To have to work 8 hours a day for 300$ a month. To live in a home with nothing more then a cement slap for a floor and one room with a bed that converts to a table. Everyone sleeping in the same room and yet they are happier then most of us in North America could ever be. Why, how can that be. They have what they need. A roof over their heads, food for the day, and most important Family. The struggle seems little, but the rewards are large.

We have made some good friends here. Close friends, in fact I would say that it is hard to find friendships like this back home. Its great to be able to just pop in on someone or have someone pop in on you. To then spend 3 or 4 hours playing cards and chatting as best as you can even though you don't know the language that well. Our friends have helped us greatly and we will miss them.

But as much as I will miss our friends and life here there are things I look forward to back home. To enjoy a savory hamburger again, or the taste of a poutine, and nothing like a good breakfast with buds. I look forward to golf and hockey again. Sad to say its not an easy sport to play here as the courses are expensive and for members only.

And I also, sad to say look forward to heading back to work. To see clients and work closely with them. But most of all I look forward to seeing old friends and hope that I can give them a little more insight into the life we have and the things we miss because of what we have.

Ecuador you will be missed.

A crazy weekend

What a weekend. We had some friends down from Cuenca and what a blast it was. On Saturday we returned to Pailon Del Diable. Its quite the waterfall. I've written about it a few times and for the 1.50$ to visit it really worth the trip. If in Banos hop any bus headed to puyo or tena and get off in Rio Verde, once there its a 5 mon walk to the entrance and worth the walk and the money.

Sunday we went to Rio Negro where we had our meeting. I had a privilege to conduct the watchtower in Spanish. It took a little getting use to plus I had to fight the tendency of using french words but we made it through and no laughed to hard. After that we went into the back yard and the was a parrot sitting on the branch in the yard saying Hola! He was not a domesticated bird, he was free one just flying free. We then had a nice little lunch at a local restaurant called Abulos. Food was good and the price was okay. The problem was getting home. We had to wait nearly an hour to actually get a bus to stop for us.

Monday. A trip to the jungle. We returned with our tour guide from last time Sixto. Very reliable, knows his stuff, and is training some new staff. We had a great time. Took a hike through the jungle, visited the waterfall and had a great lunch. No monkeys this time but definitely worth the trip. we tired our friends out but I think they had a good time. If I could I would love to stay here and guide gringos on trips like this. To show them around and see how they enjoy the new scenarie. It is worth every minute. 

Pailon Del Diable 

Zip line baby

We could have spent the night in here

The warriors are ready

And even though our friends were leaving Tuesday we still managed to have a blast. We started with the zip line. Quite the rush 1km out and a 500ft drop over the water. It had to be done once. I took my camera and turned on the video and in the shuffle of getting set for the launch i must have powered it off so I got no footage of the trip down. Which means I'll have to try it again.  We then made our way into Banos for Kone pizza and in the fashion of most Ecuadorian business what was suppose to open at 1 was not open yet at 2. On our way home we got on a bus and a gentleman on the bus beside us had a bottle of water that did not contain any water. He was singing and dancing like there was no tomorrow. Quite humorous for us but not for those on his bus. Then as our bus was backing out he hit the bus behind us. At this point we are thinking who else has a bottle of water that doesn't have any water. So we sit and wait for the drivers to work things out and while we are waiting what happens across the street but a car T-bones a jeep at the intersection. Now they say bad things happen in threes and the fear is what will happen on the way home. Fortunately nothing, BUT, the driver lost time because of his accident so drove even crazier then usual around the 500 foot drop mountains.