Last Saturday we spent a little time watching a local women's soccer game. In a Latino country where the men seem to dominate the sport, it was encouraging to see the ladies out there giving it their all! Alas, shortly after this short was taken there was a big downpour, so I think their match was rained out.
That day (about 9 days ago) was the last day of rain we had -- we are having a hot and dry spell now. (I suspect this is pretty different from what the folks back home are experiencing.) So the next day we decided to try to combine our weekly grocery shopping outing with a trip to a swimming pool -- and we found an awesome one! It's called Hosteria El Arenal, about halfway between Guadalupe and the city of Zamora, where we grocery shop. We have figured out that we can take the bus there in about 20 minutes or so.
Emmett quickly figured out how to relax.
This place has good food and cold beer (for the grown ups), and even a functional water slide! Fun for the whole family. This place definitely has potential for future weekend getaways.
The kids had an awesome time. They are working hard, trying to get used to their new school and learning Spanish -- so they deserved some real fun.
This past weekend we went further afield, to a town called Vilcabamba. John's birthday is this week, so we thought we would have an actual getaway and explore the area a little more. It took us about 5 hours to get there on multiple buses. We stayed at a place called Hosteria Izhcayluma, which is run by some Germans, and is crawling with tourists from Europe, Australia and the US. It was kind of a trip to walk in and see so many white faces! All the staff there are multilingual so we didn't even really have to speak Spanish (though we mostly did).
Vilcabamba is in a valley south of the city of Loja, and is itself home to many expatriates who are apparently attracted there by the really nice climate (warm and dry, but not too hot). It's kind of a funny enclave of bohemian, yoga and meditation oriented folks -- as opposed to most of Ecuador which is very Catholic and homogeneous in its religious practices. For example, the church in the middle of Vilcabamba is very prominent on the town square, as is the case in most Ecuadorean towns.
But then we saw this mural of the Buddha on the wall of the Vilcabamba Meditation Center (the first time we have seen any such thing in Ecuador).
The hotel itself is a really nice place, very relaxing, with hammocks everywhere. The kids quickly disappeared into them, rarely to be seen again.
We did manage to get out for a nice hike, and saw some pretty countryside. The climate in Vilcabamba is much drier than in Guadalupe, where it is greener and more humid. It also reminded me of the hiking we have done in Western Washington, where the vegetation is SO different from here.
And last but not least, I think I may have found Dr. Pepper's long lost Latino cousin:
Hahahahahaha!
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