out of the city!

First of all, please bear with me.

I could only post five pictures so I'm doing this in two stages.

(Me thinks I must get these on here in lower quality? Maybe then I can post more?)

I also know that I have to upload (or download??) them in the reverse order of how I want them to appear and I have a little trouble with that in my brain.

Goodness knows it is hard enough to think from beginning to end, and now I have to try to get my brain to think form end to beginning.

A little too much strain.

Oh, and second.

My family is almost all healthy now.

Cade and Mia both got sick at the beach - fun times.

They stayed home from school on Thursday and Friday - it was actually kind of nice.

I mean - not nice that they were sick - nice to have them hanging out at home (it helped that they were nice and lethargic...). But now they are feeling much better.

I am the main straggler.

Lucy still hasn't gotten sick (looking around for wood to knock on...).

So happy times are (almost) here again.

Back to "out of the city"...

Tuesday, on the Day of the Dead, Maddy and I went with our neighbors and another family to Otavalo and a few other little towns around there.

I want to shout it from the roof-top:

"I finally got out of the city!!!!!!"

Four months and I finally had an adventure.

I was snotty and sneezy and coughy (yes, I'm sure that is a word..... just because it has a red dotted line under it doesn't mean anything. Stupid computer dictionary).

I think our neighbor kids were grossed out every time I had to blow my nose (I was as discrete as I could but there is only a certain level of quietness that can be attained when emptying you sinuses, you know....).

But I still went and had a fabulous time.

First we went to Otavalo - a small town that is known for their hand crafts. While there are tons (tonnes, for those of us from metric type places - aka: the majority of the world. Don't get me started why the US is the only place that holds onto imperial.....) of different types of things available, I, at this point, only included one picture. I'll get another one on the next post.

Little bitty men for a little bitty hand-made chess set.

I think of little gnomes.

Gnomes would make a cute chess set, no?

Maybe "cute chess set" is not what gets people going.

Speaking of cute and little.

Cute, little beggar lady.

I like her.

She is cute and little.

And she begs.

And she is persistent.

She came up to me four times in a matter of half an hour asking for money, even though I gave her some the first time.

And I am pretty sure that she didn't mix me up with anyone else.

It wasn't a high-gringo population kind of day.

I think she just liked me.

I like her too.

We were really hoping to find someone who ordered this lovely dinner and would be willing to see if they would allow us to sit down by their meal and take a picture.

Although I don't know if I, personally speaking, that is, would have been bold enough to ask anyway.

So instead, I just snapped a shot of the menu posted outside.

And I needed to include the person looking at me as I took the picture.

Quote: "Just another stupid gringa taking another stupid picture."

What I am trying to show you here is the "Cuy".

Pronounced like when you slide down a slide and say "weeeee", but with a "q" in front of it.

Cuy means guinea pig.

Now look under the word Cuy and you will see what looks like a BBQed guinea pig, on his back, looking like he is waiting for his belly to be rubbed, laying on a bed of what should be his food.

Only it isn't his food, it is yours.

That is because he is laying down, he is BBQed (or cooked in some matter), with his head still attached, eyes probably looking pleadingly into yours, waiting for you to eat him, along with his food.

Yummy.

Another interesting sight.

And this isn't even the best angle of the statue.

This statue is in the middle of a round-about.

I saw it, grabbed my camera, and when we came back around snapped a quick picture over my shoulder.

But the first visual is what I really wanted to get.

Full boobage.

The whole thing exposed.

I guess it is a rather common sight - women nursing very very freely (and hey, don't get me wrong, I'm all for nursing, but must we expose ourselves for all to see? It can be done rather discretely, as I remember).

But is it necessary to immortalize it in gigantic form?

Moving on.

We must finish this tour with something absolutely precious and adorable.

It is almost like the country of Ecuador should hire her to greet every foreigner.

That would greatly increase tourism, I would think.

She is simply perfect.

I met her at this lake we went to - it has an island in the middle where the guinea pigs roam.

Free range guinea pigs.

(by the way, I neglected to mention that I spelled guinea pig correctly the very first time without any help from spell check).

Anyway, I'd be very happy to adopt her, but she had parents.

And Eric wouldn't have been happy to find a fifth child when he got home.

So I left her there.