Last Night in Ecuador

Janene and I are in the hotel in Guayaquil on our last night with the GSE in Ecuador. Tomorrow Bev and I return home and Ben and Janene have booked separate tours to the Galapagos. Our trip has been amazing. At this point a list of the names would take far too much time but we are extremely grateful to the hospitality of our Rotarian friends in Cuenca, Loja, Zaruma, Pinas and Manta. You guys made this trip an unforgettable experience!!!

Cuenca introduced us to a liquor called zhumir which we drank warm. We drove to the Cajas which is a beautiful national park where llamas roam, and sometimes dance like in the video. There are many lakes and there is an outdoor chapel near the entrance to the park. Cuenca also gave us the chance to visit a museum of religious artefacts in a monastary in the old part of the city as well as the Panama hat factory (this is where we must remind you that panama hats are actually only authentic when made in Ecuador). At the factory there is a woven wedding dress. We are told quality varies as does the price depending on the tightness of the weave. More expensive can be $800-$1200 and can be rolled so tight that they can pass through a wedding ring.

These pictures are of the dress and the hats drying after being washed and bleached.

Our last day in Cuenca we were treated to a trip to a small city that specializes in silver jewlery as well as taken through an orchid greenhouse. The greenhouse also had some very noisy residents that we fed oranges to after the tour, Here I am with our hosts daughter Christina and one of the birds.

Loja was our next city. It was a short but wonderful visit with a great group of people. President of the club, Galo and his lovely wife Maria took us for a walk in the amazing city park that has replicas of famous buildings around the world. We were shown a great number of municiple projects by the wife of the mayor who we met with in his office in the afternoon. We also were treated to a concert by a band of musicians with special needs and a trip to the University which included the ceramics factory. Here we are with the mayor.

After leaving our friends in Loja we moved on to Zaruma then Manta for the conference with a night in Salinas in between. Hopefully we'll get some time soon to update you on our last cities but for now bed is calling....