Ok I am back. Sorry about that. Its Valentine's Day soon and the fun is beginning. After the altitude sickness passed everything was better. We arrived here on Sunday night (10:30 pm) and left for the beach bright and early the next day. Because it was dark when I got here I didn't get to see much of the landscape but I had PLENTY of time on the way to the beach. The trip was 5 hours through the mountains. This means up the mountain, down the mountain, around the mountain and start again. It was by far one of the scariest roadtrips ever. Not to mention that I was SO well hydrated in order to prevent more altitude problems that I had to pee for 4 hours!!! The scenery here was nothing like a road trip in the states. The few villages that we did see were so populated with people selling things on the streets. Other than that we saw many people just sitting in front of their huts, or tree houses, or concrete bunkers. Very few gas stations as NO PLACE TO PEE!
The beach was great, we stayed in Esmeraldas at Same Beach in a place called Casablanca. SO PRETTY. It was set in the side of a mountain and everything was white and blue. We all know I am allergic to the sun, so I carried around a bottle of SPF 50 everywhere. I am the only person who left the beach with LESS color than when I started. Now I look like a real Gringita. On one of the days we went to Mompiche, which is a pretty much undeveloped beach about 40 mins away. It was populated with a few other Gringos that were backpacking. I also tried Ceviche, which would amaze any of you who really know me. This is shrimp cooked with citrus juices, onion (purple) and tomatoes. I never even imagined that I would like it but I have had it twice since! Lol One other thing, you always have to have change handy because there are kids EVERYWHERE that will help you do anything (i.e. back out of your parking space) and then put their hand out. There is an abundance of poor people in this country!
We are back in the city now. Yesterday we did some shopping at the market of crafts and jewelry and visited a BEAUTIFUL church made out of gold dust. It took hundreds of years to build it and it has been built for 315 yrs. We were the only people in it. It was overwhelming and brought tears to my eyes!
Today we went to the Middle of the World and we also took a Teleferico ride (cart hung from cable) to the top of the Pichincha Mountain. We were at 11000 feet above sea level. So amazing.

Everything here has been great. I wish all of you were here to experience this with us. Hernan's family has been great. They have treated me very well and the language barrier has not been an issue. We are having a Christmas celebration tonight at his sister Gidany's house. The rest of the week is packed with things to do. I will try to update more often. I am going to attempt to post some pics on this blog.

LOVE YOU!!