Finally, Some Pictures from Ecuador

I've finally downloaded the pictures from my camera to my computer. Here are some of the first ones.

Okay, so this is the obligatory tourist "the view from my hotel room window" shot. However, since most of Quito sits at approximately 9,200 feet above sea level, that mountain at the edge of the city rises up from there!









This is Mison Nueva Esperanza, about an hour or so west of Ambato, in the Pilahuin area. Here we were at nearly 12,000 feet up. The unfinished building is the church the community is building themselves. As they earn/collect/save enough money, they build the next section, providing all the labor themselves.








These are some of the people of Nueva Esperanza, who are Chibuleos. You can identify them by the men's red ponchos with braid trim and the white hats worn by both men and women. Their priest, Raul, is the man standing fourth from the left. He travels between his five missions by bicycle--in the Andes, he travels by bicycle!







Here you can see how much work they still have to do on the church: finish the roof, put in a floor, install a ceiling, windows... It will take approximately $12,000 to buy the supplies to finish the church building.










Not too long after we arrived, some of the men carried in the table and benches, and a couple of women laid the cloths over them. A few minutes after I took this picture, we were invited to sit down, and they served us a lunch of potatoes with a scallion sauce, cheese, and cuy (yes, that would be guinea pig). The surroundings may have been spare and unfinished, but the hospitality was warm and open.






That's my boss, Ruth-Ann, on the left. She's a Yankee fan, and look what we found even in the a remote part of the Ecuadorian Andes. The young man was very shy, but did agree to have his picture taken. He really wanted to get back to the volleyball game with his friends.








After leaving Nueva Esperanza, we drove downhill for about 15 minutes or so to Mision Resureccion, in the settlement of Resureccion. Here Ruth-Ann is giving some small gifts to the children who greeted us here. The people in this village are Salasanca--black ponchos and different hats.








This would be me. The picture was actually taken a couple of days later. Our driver, Javier, pulled into this scenic overlook and said it was a view that we absolutely had to see. As usual, he was right. However, we did have to watch out for sheep droppings. People keep animals even in the city limits. We saw goats being herded down a city street in Quito. I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a picture.





I'll post more pictures as I sort through them.

Peace,
Jeffri