The Galapagos Islands

Tiempo con familia

We are currently in Colombia, using some bus time to write a blog post en route to the city of Medellin. Just over two weeks ago we arrived in Ecudor after a horrendous border crossing which involved ending up in an abandoned carpark somewhere in the border town with four big Peruvian guys demanding exorbitant amounts of cash from us. With calm but firm Spanish, and fears of weapons appearing or finding cocaine hidden in our bags, we walked away unscathed and with almost all our cash. In addition, we discovered we had left the GPS tracking device on the Peruvian bus and by the time we arrived in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil, some 10 hours later, the SOS had been set off and our parents, the emergency response team in Texas, NZ Foreign Affairs and Trade, our insurance company and the NZ police had been alerted.

Needless to say, we arrived in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, relieved to be coming into the safety net of an Ecuadorian family. We had arranged to stay with the family of our friend Evelyn from Port Macquarie, Australia. We were met at the airport by Eveyln’s father and youngest sister Nataly. We were a little nervous that we were going to impose on them, and that we would have trouble communicating solely in Spanish, but the family were incredibly warm and welcoming. Immediately we hit it off with the three sisters, Katherine, Karen and Nataly and their parents Mario and Yolanda. They were so good to us, feeding us delicious meals, hiring a car to take us around for two and a half days, and generally looking after us.

On our first full day with the family we set off to tropical Mindas. At Mindas we walked through beautiful bush to some waterfalls and, as it was a public holiday, there were hundreds of people swimming in the river. It was quite a sight! We practised our Spanish with the Bayas family and it was wonderful to be able to spend time with these beautiful Ecuadorian people, and see Ecuador in a different light to most tourists. We had lunch at a pueblito on the way home, huge plates of pork, mais, yucca, and garlic sauce, then icecream at a heladeria near their house. In the evening we went to el Centro Historico, the colonial town centre, looked round the streets, churches, and tried an Ecuadorian hot fruit drink in a little café. The next day we had a fun trip to the equator, complete with crazy photos much to the amusement of Evelyn’s father!

We felt so privileged to spend a few days with this lovely family. They completely went out of their way to accommodate us, providing us with delicious food (including Evelyn’s famous cerviche!), hiring a car to take us around, and taking time off work and study. They gave us the most positive view of Ecuador and the Ecuadorian people and we were very sad to leave them after three days.

Our other family visit has just ended this morning as we said goodbye to our friend Carlos’ family in Cartago, Colombia. Again, these people went out of their way to put us up, feed us and show us a good time in Colombia. After a little confusion over the address, we arrived at Carlos’ mum’s house two days ago. She insisted we stay the night, at least four nights at that! She was a wonderful lady, and she chatted away in Spanish about her family showing us many many photos of the people she was talking about. This was another great chance to practice our Spanish and, with her patience, we coped much better than we would have in the past. We met many people in Carlos’ family – mum, sisters, nieces, nephews and every day more photos were pulled out to show us different family events. We spent the day out at a little town called Solento in the Colombian countryside. This was some of the most beautiful countryside we had ever seen – green, lush, and tropical hills and valleys.

With promises to return, which we hope we can keep, we are sad to leave this part of our journey behind. At the end of each day with these families we have fallen into bed from pure exhaustion at speaking Spanish all day, a language we are now comfortable with, but still requires a huge effort. In many ways, these days we have spent with Carlos and Evelyn’s families have been the absolute highlight of our trip. Thank you Carlos, Evelyn and both your families for an experience of a lifetime! xx