Hola Amigos!

Hola Amigos!

I will start by saying that I am safe and have been enjoying very much this beautiful country of Ecuador! We arrived in the city of Guayaquil around midnight on Saturday morning (I believe it’s the same time as IN, one hour ahead of MN). We stayed that night at a hotel in downtown Guayaquil. The next morning before we took off, we walked down the street to this park that was full of iguanas! How cool!? Then we made the beautiful drive through the mountains to Cuenca. I have never really experienced true mountains, or driving through them, and although a little nerve racking with their driving tendencies, their beauty is too much for words. For awhile, there was too much fog to see past the road we were on, but perhaps I should be more thankful for that than I know. As we zoomed up the roads, swerving around other cars and piles of rocks that had fallen from the mountain it may have been too much to see actually how far up we were. Eventually, the clouds cleared a bit, and the lush landscape of Ecuador was revealed. By then we were past the tree line, but land was covered with vibrant green grasses blowing in the wind and beautiful trickling streams interspersed about the slopes. Every once in awhile you would see one of the streams cascading off of a cliff as its own single water fall. Que lindas! (how beautiful!)
My family is great. I have a mom and dad (Maria de Lores, and Morris) and younger brother and sister (Sebas and Carolina). They are 16 and 11. They have all been very welcoming and accommodating, but Sebas especially has been a wonderful host. He is really good about talking slow with me and loves to ask me about english words too. On Sunday, he even took me on a little ride on his moped. So fun! And beautiful. Man. I will post pictures when I have more time.
These last couple of days we have been in meetings and getting acquainted with the city. I will post more later, but until then, I love you all!
~Lindsay