Ecuador Day 9: Otavalo

Today is going to be mostly like a photo journal because we went on an outing and we took alooooot of pictures. While my dad and Sharon are here, we decided it would be fun to drive to Otavalo, a town about 2 hours away. Little did we know (and/or remember on my part- I went there 10 years ago), the drive is veeeery wind-y and veeeery scary. It goes over and up and down mountains and valleys and ridges and you get the point. Our trusty Ramiro got us there safely in his van, but not without a few close call barfing incidents from Hallie in the back. I think her ploy was really just to get out of the back seat, because as soon as she said barf, we did some immediate scrambling and put her in the front with us, in straight shot of the air coming in the window. Luckily, there was no barf. Barf is bad enough, but when it is in someone as nice as Ramiro's van, that's worse. 

Anyway, so much for just a photo journal today. Already. My dad is sitting here telling me that I should write books because I am so long winded. He thinks I could knock out a book every 3-4 months. But just because I am long winded does not mean what I knock out is quality material if you know what I mean. So I think I will stick with social working for now.

The drive provided quality shots of Cotopaxi behind us. We were so high up we could see it quite well. For those that don't know, Cotopaxi is a volcano here in Ecuador that is currently stirring and looking a bit more active than it has for the past 130 years. It was spewing a whole lot of white smoke today. My co-worker Laurie at the hospital will appreciate this picture (will someone show it to her-- I know she is technologically challenged). Before we left, she was concerned that I would die in the volcano eruption, but when she found out the whole family was coming, she decided it was alright as long as we all died together. Ha ha. Isn't she so friendly? 

That at the top there is Cotopaxi. The best I could do from a rapidly moving vehicle.

Hallie getting what she wanted- the front seat.

 Ramiro proved to be an excellent tour guide. He told us all about all the active and inactive volcanoes in Ecuador as well as the various landscapes to be found here. He also told us all about the lakes in the area and stopped at this beautiful lake close to Otavalo for us to take some pictures. It was amazingly beautiful. We live in such an amazing world. There is just beauty everywhere.

I think I will live here. Yes, please.

This picture is courtesy of Jace. And about 15 more just like it.

There was this little resort next to the lake that we stopped at for the picture opportunities (and to use the bathroom, which the people were less than pleased about. We weren't paying costumers, afterall)

Devin took this picture. Don't we have beautiful girls?

Oh and just a repeat of instagram. I totally should make postcards for a living. So long social working. I am pretty sure that picture is postcard worthy at least.  

And then we arrived at Otavalo and I took one actual photo during our time there. Whoops. Otavalo has an open air, big market in the middle of the town. It is really fun. I enjoyed it probably the most of anyone and could have stayed a few hours more. But my father is no shopper and Devin tolerates short amounts for me. So, we stayed an hour or so in the market and then had lunch in town before moving on to the next destination. But not before we bought a whole lot of hand made Ecuadorian goods. I love this place.

We picked a random restaurant in town and it was a winner. It was delicious. No idea how they stay in business since we were the only customers in there (and we were there almost 2 hours). But yum.

 Our next stop was a waterfall on the way to a town called San Antonio that we wanted to visit. The waterfall was just a short little hike from the parking lot, so it was a fun and easy thing to see.

What's funny about this family photo is that we are all present. Can anyone see Jace? Hahahahahahaha

This little stream ran down from the waterfall. There were a number of people in there swimming about. Fun. Next time we will join them.

Grandma Sharon with the kids

Not sure why I look so weird, but at least he's cute. 

At the bottom of the hill by the bathrooms (not pictured) and a cow (also not pictured)

 After the waterfall, we went on to San Antonio, otherwise known as "wood town".  This town has shops with amazing wood carvings of anything you could want. I couldn't help myself and purchased too much. But when it comes to awesome talents that I don't have and helping people make their livings, it's justified right? We asked one shop owner if he knew a Mormon in town who made carvings of Mormon temples (when I was an OSSO volunteer, we went to see this man and he made beautiful wooden temple carvings. I didn't buy any for myself at the time; I only purchased them as gifts. I have always wanted one for our house). I knew that the man doesn't have a shop; he only works out of his home, but word of mouth is good and the shop owner pointed us a few blocks over. Our trusty Ramiro leaned out the window of the van to the first person he saw and said "Where is the Mormon?" and she pointed him across the street. Sure enough, there he was! His wife was about jumping up and down with excitement at seeing us. When I was a volunteer, we had to put our orders in and then we would pick them up weeks later when we came to town. So today we were just at the mercy of what he had in stock. He had 5 temples carved, but one was Provo and one was Idaho Falls. Couldn't have been better! Idaho Falls is where Devin and I were sealed and Provo is where Flor was sealed to us. So we got both. The others he had were Alberta, St. Louis, and Bogota. Really random. We were thrilled to have found him and his awesome temples.

After all this adventuring, we were ready to head home. We had a quick dinner of pancakes (I know, we are fancy) and then got the kids to bed. Tomorrow we are off to the Equator.

Just a few notes on Mishell as that is probably what the two of you who are reading want to know about. Today we saw a little more attitude come out in her. So far, she has been super super easy going and pleasant for the most part. We had one little discipline issue last night, but it resolved quickly. Today she was just kind of grumpy and had an attitude all morning long. If we tried to talk about it with her, she would just roll her eyes and look away. After lunch, she perked right up and when we asked what was wrong, she said she had just been hungry. Lesson learned. She gets hangry like me. We reassured her that it is okay to tell us if she is hungry or if there is something else going on that we can fix. If we can help, we will. I am sure that there is so much she is thinking and feeling too. So many changes in such a short time, it is difficult to have to talk about it all the time too. But, besides this, she has seemed very happy and has not made any mention of her old home or friends there. I still expect this is coming, but I am trying to follow her lead and not push her to feel things she doesn't at this time.

Time seems to be going rather slowly here. It seems like we have been here a month, but it has just been over a week. Regardless, I hope things pick up soon and we are able to make headway on the process and get ourselves home! Wouldn't that be nice?