"It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
~Ernest Hemingway
Sorry for the great delay in writing, we have been on quite the journey and have had little cell reception or Wifi. I am trying to remember where we left off and am thinking it was Coco's birthday party. Our sweet girl turned 5 while in Ecuador and we had a blast celebrating our beautiful girl, thanks to the assistance of our sweet friend Sebastian who graciously opened his restaurant for the festivities.
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| Her beautiful birthday dress |
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| Bringing suckers to her classroom for her birthday celebration! She was so excited... |
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| Sharing her treats! |
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| Celebrating at Sebastian's restaurant. He had cupcakes made and pampered our little girl! :) |
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| Somebody LOVED the fruits!! :) |
Sebastian is also actively involved in improving his community and gives back in both his time and money. He incorporated a program at his restaurant that patrons can donate money towards a cup of coffee for someone who is in need. The other amazing thing is if children are in need he will give them milk and toast.
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| The sign is indicating that he has 5 cups available for someone in need. |
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| While we were there two little boys came up and requested the toast and milk. |
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| So of course Jared and I felt our heart strings tugging and donated also. :) |
We wrapped our time in Cuenca and said our farewells to friends and began the curvy ride over the Andes to Guayaquil, where our journey had started. We had arranged and reserved a van to pick us up the day of the move, but as we sat on the curb with our life piled onto the street, no van showed. Jared then tried to call the van company but had no response. He had to jump in a cab and head across the city to find out what had gone wrong. We were told that even though we had a reservation they had canceled our trip and that email confirmations don't confirm a thing. Jared tried to arrange another van, but was discouraged when he was told that the law said no vans could transport tourists at night. So Jared hired a local man to drive us in his truck.
Luckily it was a dual cab and we could comfortably sit inside, however all of our stuff was now exposed to the elements of the moody Andes weather. We bought a tarp and tried to cover it as best we could as we dared to cross the pass. With rain surrounding us in all directions, we thought for sure we wouldn't make it without a down pour, but miraculously (THANK YOU GOD) we made it to Guayaquil safe and sound with NO rain!!
As we arrived at our priceline hotel we were in awe of the conveniences, it was a beautiful hotel with amazing service and were in awe when they randomly upgraded us to the top suite. After not having much water pressure and even consistent hot water, we were in heaven. We ordered room service and I enjoyed every bite of my fettuccine Alfredo and passed out 20 minutes later. The next morning we began our journey to the coast to Solango, Ecuador!
THE COAST
We arrived at the "crazy, hectic" bus terminal and bought our tickets to the coast. The bus line was incredible and clean, which was such a relief. They even have personal attendants that walk up and down the aisles to see if you need anything and were also impressed with the showing of a movie. After the bus ride we then took a taxi the 20 minutes to the hostel we would be staying at for the next 4 days.
We were amazed at the beauty of the Pacific Ocean coast line and the warmth of the water. We had the resort to ourselves as most of our stay was during the week and allowed for little interruption of our peace and quiet. It was truly the perfect ending to our amazing journey.
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| The resort has a restaurant in the shape of a life size pirate ship. |
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| Coco exploring the ship. |
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| With her map in hand taking the helm! |
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| Board walk to the beach |
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| Our diva |
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| Happy girl! |
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| The beach was full of beautiful stones and cool crabs |
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| People lazily riding horses |
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| Someone loved EVERY moment |
Our last night we walked to the little town and enjoyed the sunset and reflected on our amazing trip!!
STATES
We left the coast and began our LONG journey to our new home. After a long bus ride back to Guayaquil we boarded the plane the next day for our return home. We arrived at the airport VERY early and began the process of going through customs, only to find out we had extended our VISA's by 1 day!! REALLY? We had penciled out the days over and over and were sure we had calculated the 90 days correctly after an hour of waiting in immigration we quickly found out we weren't alone as other Americans were being detained and informed that they too had over extended. We ALL were in awe and couldn't figure out how they were calculating the days, either way they eventually let us on through and on to our gates.
Finally, we began to board our flight to Miami, only to hear MY name being called over the loud speakers... Really? Now, what.... I was kindly escorted (ALONE) to the basement of the airport to a room which had two officers and a K9 standing with my luggage in front of them... As one officer gently opened each piece the other intently watched my expressions as he sifted through my belongings... After the intense combing they escorted me back to the terminal and allowed me to board the flight! Poor Jared had no idea where they had taken me... To be honest it was a little intimidating, but in the end like the rest of our trip we had no troubles...
FLORIDA
We arrived in Florida to a hectic schedule filled with the packing of our stuff from our storage units and the quick goodbyes to family. I want to apologize if we were unable to visit with many of our dear friends, we were very short on time as Jared had to get to Montana to start his job. We ventured 2300 miles towards our final destination of Montana.
MONTANA
After 13 years living elsewhere, we arrived to my home state of Montana this week and unloaded our belongings into my parent's barn (its great to have free storage. :) We've begun to look for housing and are LOVING being back in "God's Country". We have had limited Wifi and I have yet to get a new phone, since mine was stolen in Ecuador and to be honest, I have enjoyed being disconnected and am dragging my feet towards reconnecting. Ecuador brought so much peace and stillness to my spirit and truly led us towards our goal of simplicity.
We are excited about our newest adventure and eager to start our life here. Thank you all for following our journey to South America and back and hope if you ever get the chance to step out and follow a dream you do it!!! God Bless and thanks for all your prayers and well wishes...
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"
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