Together again! In the Parque de Carolina

I am happy to report that the Landys are all together again!  I (Kate) arrived late at night on Monday August 15th.  We are a family who are seldom apart, so the 3 1/2 weeks of separation -- with John and the kids in Quito, and me back in the States -- was tough on everyone.  I am very happy to be here at last.

Today after a morning of Spanish school today, we had a fun time in the Parque de Carolina, a large city park in the center of Quito.

The kids had been dying to try some paddle boats that are set up in a man-made lake in the middle of the park, so we headed over in that direction.  Emmett, who wisely brings a soccer ball to every park, not-so-wisely promptly kicked it into the water.

Some nice local folks in a paddle boat got it for us.
As you can see, the park is beautiful, and the whole city is surrounded by mountains.

So, we got our own paddle boats and tooled around for a while --

In the middle of the water, there is some pretty cool sculpture of colorful hummingbirds hovering over the lake.

Annalise and I got totally soaked by a fountain - which she thoroughly enjoyed!

Afterward, John and Emmett kicked a soccer ball around for a while, and Annalise found some fun kids' play equipment -- for $1.25 the kids can have fun with a trampoline (seems like the local answer to a bouncy house), and a little ferris wheel.

The nice (but slightly cranky) man who got Annalise in and out of the ferris wheel was asking me where we were from, and how long we were staying in Ecuador.  I suspect he is a life-long resident of Quito, which is a large and cosmopolitan city.  When I told him that we are going to be living in Zamora-Chinchipe for a year, he was dumbfounded.  I think it is a little bit like telling a life-long New Yorker that you are going to live in the hills of West Virginia.  The overarching question is, Why in the world would you ever do that???
Well, what the heck.  All in the name of adventure.