A Few New Encounters

I am blessed to have had a handful of opportunities to travel abroad.  Each trip to a different country has brought unique encounters.  Here are a few of my Ecuadorian experiences and findings:

~Ecuador has the most beautiful scenery EVER with mountains surrounding all!

~The weather changes rapidly here. I understand that our weathermen don’t always predict the weather correctly in Michigan, but here, it could be dead sun with a clear blue sky and thirty minutes later there is a down pour. Not sure we could predict anything here. I love it…we have variety!

~Need some amoxicillin? Bactrim? Don’t have a prescription? No worries! In Ecuador, you don’t need a prescription…just walk in the pharmacy and buy it.

~You can legally ride in the bucket of trucks here—even on the main roads! So fun!

~Rats are not uncommon visitors; we have had 2, along with a mouse!

~Construction galore! Adding a plumbing system underground has been quite the event here in Shell. Instead of tearing up one road at a time, the workers seem to tear them all up at once and then go back to fix them one by one.

~Went bridge jumping (not quite bungee jumping, but similar); NEVER thought that would happen!  I have a video, but unfortunately it won't load :(
~Had my first motorcycle ride here—granted, it was for ½ mile, but still!

~In Ecuador, dogs are EVERYWHERE. I like dogs, usually. Some are household pets here, but many are stray dogs roaming the streets. One day Kim and I were walking when I began talking to a child playing a construction hole. Apparently, I looked like I was going to harm the child because the next thing I know, the child’s pet dog, a Saint Bernard, ran up and bit my butt. Thank goodness rabies has not been present in dogs here for about 15 years. Still have the hole in my skirt to prove it haha!

~Babies ride bicycles and motorcycles here…a lot!

~Ecuadorians don’t love peanut butter nearly as much as gringos—very sad; granted, it is $7-8/jar here—CRAZY! I guess I only bring this up because I am pretty much obsessed with peanut butter…I eat it by the scoop.

~It only costs $5 to ride the bus for 5 hours ($1/hr)—what a deal, huh!?

Ashley