A Message from Ecuador for My Best Friend

Feliz Dia de la Madre Mom! Thank you for everything you do. You are always there for me through everything, and you really are my best friend in the whole world. Te Amo!

Octopus anyone?

Octopus ceviche. I tried one bite, and it was not my favorite. Octopus is a little on the chewy side. Ceviche, which often has shrimp rather than octopus, is a very traditional Ecuadorian soup made with lime juice and seafood, which is often raw. This was cooked. Raw octopus would be even worse.

La Playa!

We spent today on the beach at Salinas, which is kind of a tourist city. It was really fun to play in the warm ocean. The only problem with visiting the beach on the equator was that I got completely fried by the sun.

Just like home!

This house even has a white picket fence! No matter how poor you are, you can still make your house clean and pretty. These people do the best they can with what they have.

Many of them paint their houses to make them brighter and more attractive. This is where my sister, Katy would live in this town. The house is bright green, although that didn't completely come across in the picture.

Some Similarities to our community...

This may be a poor community, but they have many things in common with us. For example, people still have flowers to make their yards more beautiful...

Un Dia en la Comunidad

This is basically what the houses look like in the communities we are going into on the outskirts of the city. Dirt streets, no running water, no indoor plumbing. Most of the houses are built on stilts because there is a major problem with flooding in the rainy season. There are still swamps everywhere. Not exactly the kind of place where most of us would want to place our summer homes.