Let's go!

Since our last post Jess and I have sat in various airports enduring numerous delays, only to arrive here in Ecuador a couple short days after finishing the Inca Trail. To those of you concerned with Jess's health, you should be happy to know that she is a lot better...back to her loud, talkative self. Apparently it was not the altitude that got to her, but a nasty parasite...cured by a weeks worth of antibiotics.

Before heading out of Cusco back to Lima, we celebrated the completion of our trek with some members of our "familyyy." We had tons of fun, making it really difficult to bid goodbye. With just 1 short day in Lima we walked around the city, looked through some markets, and got ready for our travels to where we are now....Ecuador.

Thanks to the generosity of my cousin, Lorena, and her family, we have been getting on quite well since we arrived. Immediately after arriving in Quito, Lorena's uncle put us on a bus to Ambato, where Marcelo (her brother) picked us up. Our main problem is our inability to grasp spanish and understand most things happening around us. We knew we were going to Ambato, but we didn´t know where to get off of the bus or who was picking us up. Lorena's uncle told us all of these things and we nodded in agreement...but had absolutely no idea what was going on. What we have come to realize is that if someone says "let's go!" that's our cue to get up and go...don´t ask questions, just do it (not that we could ask questions if we wanted to). Although initially experiencing some confusion, we have seen some great stuff in the past couple days. We went leather shopping at some outlets, took a long journey in the back of a pick up truck to visit and get soaked by the "Pailón del Diablo" waterfall, walked through the touristy but beautiful touristy town of Baños, and explored the nightlife of Ambatto with Marcelo and his friends sporting bright yellow Ecuador soccer shirts. Here is a picture of Lorena´s mom about to walk onto a crazy unsafe bridge...if you don´t know spanish...the sign basically says you will die a horrible death if more than 5 people go at once.

And here we are at the waterfall...we were like two giddy little kids running through a really big sprinkler.

We liked Baños so much that we decided to return on our own today and will be spending the night. Tomorrow we head to Riobamba in order to take a train early Wednesday morning...the Nariz del Diablo. Apparently we get to sit on top of the train in order to see some great views of the mountains. Can´t wait!