Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

We had our first visitors from home -- my dad (David Zopf) and my stepmother (Sandy Crow), known to the kids as Grandpa David and Grandma Sandy.  Dad and Sandy were in Ecuador for almost a month -- first visiting the Galapagos, then some of the mountainous regions around Quito and Cuenca, and then down to us.  They had a great trip, and it was really good to see them.

 Annalise giving Grandpa a hug

Grandparents with a goofy child 

Annalise and Grandpa playing with the tadpoles in the Mission pond

Grandma and Annalise walking down a path at the mission

Panoramic of the mission compound

We hung around Guadalupe for about a day and a half, showing them the town -- the clinic, the kids' school, and a few other things.  That took about an hour.  :)

The next day we went swimming, and then went to an ecological hotel / reserve called Copalinga, which is right outside of Zamora (about 45 minutes from Guadalupe).  It is known mainly as a bird watching place, and though we are not really birders, we did have a good (and lazy) time.  There were some awesome humming birds, and some cool butterfly species.

This thing, which looks for all the world like a half eaten leaf, is actually a moth:

Check out these amazing butterflies that landed on our water bottles:

So cool, right?  The top side of their wings is black with a blue stripe.  Very pretty.

It was a hot  day (and in the Ecuadorian sun, it feels about 10 degrees hotter than the air actually is), so we went swimming at the river, and brought a picnic lunch down there.  Annalise found a nice rock to sit on to dangle her feet in the water.  Emmett and John found a sweet rock to jump off of, with a deep pool in the jumping spot.  It was pretty awesome.

There was this constant stream of yellow butterflies flying down the river, like a butterfly highway.  It really was beautiful.

One of the really nice things about having visitors from home, was having someone to witness our experience down here.  Sometimes it feels like we are in a bit of a black hole, and having some concrete contact with our family and friends back home feels really good.  Please feel free to email us -- we would love to hear from you all!