Ecuador Day 18

Day 18. The days are moving along! We spent the morning in the apartment, doing our "deep cleaning" and just hanging out. Since the internet was up and running again, we were able to Skype with quite a few family members, which is always great. We did the usual lunch and naps and then headed out to explore for the day.

There are just so many little places and parks to see in Quito, it never gets old. And really, the city is so huge it is confusing sometimes to even orient ourselves! I love just driving around and looking at the old buildings, the roads, and the architecture. We planned on going to the fruit and vegetable market again as we were out of produce, but as we arrived, we immediately saw that it was closed. It was really weird because it was the middle of the day and on a weekday. We thought maybe it was closed for lunch or something, but didn't really think that made sense. Instead we had our taxi driver take us to the Ejido Park, just down the road a ways.

When we went to SVP last week, on the way back we passed a park with a huge metal ball thing (you'll see the pictures below). This park is one that I have been asking taxi drivers where it is and what it is called...most have no idea what I am talking about since I would just ask if they know of a park with a huge ball. I had no other way to describe it. Anyway, on the way back from SVP, we finally passed the elusive park and asked our driver what it was. He replied that it was the Ejido Park. Well, upon arrival today at the Ejido Park, we noticed a really nice park with tons of fun play areas and toys, but no big ball. I was rather disappointed as I have wanted to visit this ball again. A few of my OSSO friends and I (when we were here 6 years ago) came to this park and climbed all the way to the top of the ball, then took a bunch of pictures. I am pretty sure it is not made for climbing- today reaffirmed that it is really rather rickety- but we wanted to climb it anyway. You can get away with much more here than you ever would in the US-- another example is that our whole OSSO group wanted to re-enact the opening scene in Friends where they are in a fountain with umbrellas, so one day we found a fountain in the middle of a really busy round about (also guarded by police, mind you) and all climbed in with our umbrellas to take a bunch of pictures. No one said a word to us. Anyway, just a few flashbacks from my time here before.

It was too bad that it was raining today as the toys at the park looked really fun. Hallie wanted to play on them really badly, but she would have been soaked, so we promised her that we would come back another day. We walked around the park and consulted with our map before realizing that there was another little park across the street....and lo and behold, there was my ball! We hiked over there just as the rain quit for a minute and let the girls play on it for a minute. Flor didn't really love it, but Hallie was getting the climbing thing down just as it began to pour again.

Here we are at the entrance to the Ejido Park.

Just walking around the park with Daddy

ahhh! The famous ball!

If you can't tell, Flor isn't great at pictures. She usually tries to hide as soon as the camera comes out. Thus, no good pictures of her here!

Here is Hals making her climb. There is a little ball inside the bigger ball that she is climbing on.

And that is a classic Hallie face, right there.

When it started to rain again, we hailed another taxi and tried to go back to the Market. It was still closed, so something must have been going on there today. We were rather disappointed as we really enjoy our trips there and the produce we get. We made a stop at the Post Office to mail our letters/pictures for our favorite missionaries, and then stopped by a nearby SuperMaxi to get some produce. I wish I knew where another market was, just in case we have days like today where this one isn't open for whatever reason. But, when asking around, that is the only one that people have referred us to. However, I know that we used a different one when I was here with OSSO, so I need to figure out what it is called.

Hailing a taxi from the SuperMaxi proved to be a challenge and we were out in the rain for quite a while before accomplishing it. If I were a taxi driver in Quito, I think I would just drive by the SuperMaxi again and again all day since there is always a line of people waiting for taxis there. Hmmm...maybe my next career? I have seen two or three woman taxi drivers so far...that's it! After we got home and had dinner, we realized that we had left our backpack at the SuperMaxi (they make you check your bags in when you enter the store), so Devin had to go back to retrieve it, which only took another hour. Whoops. Hopefully we won't make that mistake again.

We were able to Skype with my sister and Steve, Sadie, My mom, Mikey, and Lara this evening in Jennifer's hospital room...and that was so nice. Brooklyn is a beautiful little baby with tons and TONS of dark hair! No idea where that came from! Can't wait to get home so that we can hold her.

Oh...and for those of you who are wondering, Flor's going away party got moved to Monday as the orphanage already had something planned for the kids for today. We really hope that our rep comes early tomorrow so that we don't sit around all day waiting for her to come, it being Flor's birthday and all...we would like to go out and do something. Not sure what, but we will figure it out!