I haven’t blogged in quite a while. I decided that for the entire month of December I would take a social media break. It was a culmination of many things – most of which were just annoying things that people post on these kind of sites. So on December 1st I removed all my social media favorites from Chrome and my phone and promised myself I wouldn’t look at any of them for the entire month. Let me tell you, it was great. Sure, I missed wishing people happy birthday and seeing what my friends around the world were up to, but that was about it. Here are some things I did NOT miss –
Political arguments
President bashing
Other party bashing
Healthcare debates
Bitstrips
Hashtags
Instagram pictures of people stuff copied and pasted from the internet
People talking about last night’s episode
Ducky Dynasty
App invites
Status updates that talk about what mundane thing you did
People posting about privacy issues
People posting about drones
Drunk NYE pictures
There are plenty more, and most of these I do mean in jest, but honestly… it was a lovely break.
On the Ecuador..
We’re still living and loving this country. I gave up on my scooter dream when we figured we’d save more money by not buying one and me just taking taxis to and from work every day. I did buy a bicycle though. I bought it off an Ebay type of site in Ecuador and they even delivered it to my house, the next day. Trouble is, while the back looked assembled and ready to go, you are supposed to tighten every single bolt and screw down before you go out riding. People usually buy the bike, take it to a bike shop and have a guy tune it up before they ride. So I got home from work that night and took it out immediately for a spin and… broke some stuff. One of the guards of my complex was nice enough though to take my bike to a shop and get ti fixed and tuned up for me. So the next day I was out riding like I was supposed to. There is an awesome bike/walk/run trail that runs some 20 kilometers and has a few geocaches to boot. I’ve only made it about 5K so far, but it’s fun, relaxing and gets me moving on my own without a taxi.
Work is fine, but I was happy to have a Christmas break. We celebrated a low key Christmas day. Logan enjoyed opening his presents and then thankfully enjoyed playing with them for most of the day. We got out of town on the 26th and headed down south to Banos (yes, bathroom). It’s an awesome touristy, gringo town with hot baths and a bunch of waterfalls, and all kinds of other stuff. It’s a 4 hour trip down to Banos, so I convinced Alanna that it would be good to take a $3.50 bus round trip. The buses around here are a bit crazy… to put it mildly. Alanna was REALLY worried and nervous, but thankfully the bus ride was uneventful for the most part, and our children were well behaved. And by well behaved, I mean that Logan didn’t have a pee or poop emergency.
Banos was amazing. Alanna did all the planning, cause that’s what she does. She booked a gorgeous, American family-run hostal. It was 3 blocks from one of the waterfalls, and we got free breakfast every morning. And the shower water was hot… which is a rare treat here. There were a few things in Banos I HAD to do. One was the swing at the edge of the world. Its a large, old tree house with a simple swing attached to it… that… if you swing out on it you swing off and over a cliff. Very thrilling. We had a taxi drive us up the mountain to the spot, then we preceded to hike up a wet hill with a 4 year old and a baby. Alanna was a little nervous. There were a few people already there when we made it to the top. We waited our turn, took some pictures in front of the tree house, then I jumped on the swing and Alanna nervously snapped some cool pics. Then… ALANNA DID IT. Ok, I basically made her to it, but she’ll tell you it was a blast and is glad she did it. Overall cool family adventure experience. We hiked back down the hill, getting some help from an Ecuadorian dude, then took the taxi down and then up to Bella Vista. Its basically a nice view point spot that overlooks Banos. GREAT VIEW. And there was a geocache nearby so I snagged it.
The second thing our my to do list was to go puenting. Its basically jumping off a really high bridge with a rope attached to you. No, its not bungee jumping. It is literally just a rope. You jump, then swing under the bridge, then get lowered down to the ground. So I had the taxi drop me off at the bridge (Alanna was too nervous to watch.) and headed out to the middle. I watched a few people jump and then paid my $20 to do it. Being a skydiver, I paid close attention to the harness and rigging they put me in, and the stuff looked pretty safe. I climbed over the rail of the bridge, stood on a tiny little wooden platform, counted to 3, then dove head first off towards a river 200 meters below. While it doesn’t give the same rush as skydiving, it was still really fun and I’m glad I did it.
The rest of our vacation we spent relaxing, eating and doing the touristy stuff. Banos is known for their hot baths so we had to give that a try. It was mediocre. The one we went to looked like a giant community pool. The water was warm enough, but sort of smelled like pee and they made you wear shower caps. But again, it was an experience.
The bus ride back, as with coming back from anywhere seemed to take forever. The driver pulled over at one point at a garage and decided it was time for an oil filter change. The engine was basically under the front row of seats, you know… where we were sitting. So they lifted up a door under us and got to work. Alanna was a little nervous. But they finished quickly enough and we were back on the road. We made it home and spent the last few days doing… nothing. Which I was more than happy about. Yesterday, we went over to a friend’s house and swam in their heated pool. Logan had a blast and actually let me throw him in the pool a few times, which I think is a huge step for him. It was Abby’s first time in a pool so we made sure to snap some pics. Last night was low key again for us, though Ecuador is CRAZY about New Years. Firstly, some men dress up like women, widows or something and beg for money by stopping cars in the middle of the street. Also, the locals make these paper mache dolls and then burn them at midnight. It is supposed to symbolize the getting rid of the old stuff from last year. Also, they eat 12 grapes at midnight to bring them good luck for each month of the new year. And finally.. the fireworks. You know how you see one show of fireworks somewhere on NYE? Well I’m pretty sure everyone in Ecuador had fireworks last night. They started around 8pm and didn’t stop until 2am. I gave Alanna some lip locking at midnight and then quickly made my way up to the roof. No matter where I looked for 360 degrees, I could see fireworks going off. It was pretty dang impressive. And it was neat to look down at the street and see people burning a bunch of paper mache figures.
OK, so now you’re all caught up. Happy New Year to you and yours.
And some pics…. in no particular order…
