Category: cuenca, ecuador
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School ends and begins again
Tomu and Jade had an end of the year celebration at the Pumapungo Museum. Jade was overjoyed to wear the white dress they required, and was bummed that we only rented it. We found out in July that their school was closing because of a lack of funding from the Ministry of Education, so we…
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Comings and Goings
I guess part of the expat life is making new friends, saying goodbye to them, and then making new friends again. Of course our Cuencano friends are still here, luckily! 🙂 June was a rough month for us, as first our Alaskan buddies moved back home on June 10th, and then our friends Steph &…
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Accidents Will Happen
It’s our one year anniversary in Cuenca and I wake up in the hospital. Quite different than our planned celebratory dinner as a family because as we all know…shit happens. There was no regular path to this moment, instead a series of accidents and bad luck. The good news is the surgery is behind me…
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Colonias vacacionales
In English: summer camps. Tomu and Jade had July & August off from school, and after about one week, we were ready for them to go back to school! 🙂 So we looked into some summer camps to get them out of the house for some time each day. The first one was on a…
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Quito & Mindo
We went on a quick 5 day trip to Quito & Mindo, which is a 2 hour bus ride west of Quito. We opted to fly to Quito rather than do the 8-10 hour bus ride. Riki had visited Quito in 2007, but the kids and I hadn’t been yet. We figured it was worth…
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Benito & crew come to town!
My dear friend Benito came to visit us for three weeks in July. He came with an entourage: his husband Cliff, his co-parent Jeffers, their son Jonathan, friend Josh, and in-laws Papa David & Nana Barbara. Benito and family would like to live in a Spanish speaking country for a year in the future, and…
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Ma Chin turns 70!
Luz and I flew back to Washington State in June for my mom’s 70th birthday party, while Riki held down the fort in Cuenca with Tomu and Jade. Have I mentioned what a rockstar of a partner and father Riki is? My Ecuadorian friends are so impressed with Riki’s ease, ability, and willingness to take…
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Bike Shenanigans
We bike a lot here in Cuenca. Riki bikes pretty much everywhere—he meets me downtown for breakfast, and I take a bus while he rides. He rides up in the mountains all around Cuenca. I mainly stick to where we need to go, and to the river trails because the drivers here are not very…
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Camping
We like to spend time in nature as a family. In the States this often means car camping with family or friends, with our annual 2.6 mile roundtrip backpacking trip to Third Beach at La Push added in. Often when we car camp, we do it in Leavenworth or Vantage because we are really there…
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“You don’t get to decide!”
By the time the meeting adjourned with Juan Arco, the director of the Macas Airport, his niece, my friend Adam Gebb and Marcelo who is our Shuar guide, the weather had drastically changed since our arrival after a beautiful 4+ hour drive from Cuenca. Transiting Parque Nacional Sangay on a windy mountain road the park…
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