Our vacation on Ecuador coast

Two weeks ago Kate returned to Tacoma for one week to work and I stayed in Guadalupe with Emmett and Annalise.   Unfortunately, both Annalise and Emmett took turns with a stomach virus so we especially missed mom's tender loving care.     After everyone recovered, Emmett, Annalise and I traveled to Quito to meet Kate.    Whenever we tell friends from home about our in-country journeys, people are amazed about how long it takes to travel to other parts of Ecuador.     Our family vacation to the Pacific ocean on the coast took 4 bus rides and 2 plane rides.   Ecuador is approximately the size of Nevada but because the country is so mountainous, traveling by roads usually is very indirect.    Sometimes there are delays caused by landslides and alternate routes due to road closures.     Traveling by bus is very lively.    The buses are usually full and often people board a bus solely to sell their wares, homemade food or elixirs.    When someone tries to sell you a potion to improve your health after you have been sitting on a bus for hours it soon feels invasive and oppressive.    Many bus drivers decorate their bus according to their own style.   Sometimes a bus is adorned with colored faux fur, other times with suspended stuffed animals.   During our recent ride to the coast, a bus driver posted a sign that welcomed ladies to the "lovenest".   Fortunately, music is played which adds a festive touch.   When movies are played, usually they are violent action films.   People often use buses to transport produce to markets; we have shared a bus with chickens and once a goat rode underneath the bus with our suitcases.    Most people exclusively rely on buses for their long distance travel so the bus system is an integral part of people's lives.   Most rural people do not have suitcases, but rely on grain sacks or boxes to carry their belongings.    Incidentally, today Kate saw a patient who traveled 18 hours to visit the clinic.  

Embroidered on the back of all the seats on one of the buses we rode

the view from our hotel in Manta, where we stayed one night before the last 2-hour bus ride to Puerto Lopez

A bamboo house (with a political poster for the upcoming election).   The coastal climate and flat terrain is very different than the Amazon foothills where we live in Guadalupe

Another bamboo house

Emmett and I riding in a tuk-tuk with a suitcase wedged between us traveling the last mile to Puerto Lopez

Entering our coastal destination, Puerto Lopez

Annalise arriving at Puerto Lopez

Puerto Lopez

Emmett and Annalise on the long bus ride home 

bamboo house

One of the buses we traveled on (there is no WiFi zone)

Shrine to La Reina del Cisne in Loja bus terminal 

a shrine to collect alms at the Loja bus station