Around Ecuador

Below are some photos of our life around Ecuador!

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Pete and Joseph watching a parade in downtown Guayaquil. The parade was for celebrating Simon Bolivar, the man who helped liberate South America from Spanish control.

Some of our condo-mates sharing a meal together on the patio. Left to right: Valerie from Brazil (originally from the US), me, Pete, Joseph, Rory and Jo from South Africa and Lena from Brazil. Everyone is so great and we are enjoying the community-feel of our new neighbors!!

The Malecon 2000 in downtown Guayaquil. This is a long walkway along the river with shops, restaurants, an IMAX theatre, a botanical garden, a petting zoo and other fun things to do.

Another example of the houses in our neighborhood. Pretty fancy. I love the blue sky!

 One of the houses in our gated community, Puerto Azul. Notice the foothills of the Andes mountains!

One of the parks in our neighborhood.

 This is a lunch we enjoyed today at the school, made for the new teachers. Yummy! We had delicious Ecuadorian cookies for dessert.

A very cool tree that we saw downtown on the Malecon 2000.  

Awwww - the most awesome, fun couple from South Africa - Rory and Joann Brown. Rory (or Mr. B) teaches P.E. and Joann (Jo) teaches 2nd grade. They are so fun and I am thoroughly enjoying their South African accent and vocabulary for certain words. I hope they are not getting sick of me laughing at their language! For example, a grocery cart is a "trolley", the school office mailboxes are "pigeon holes", a car horn is a "hooter" and a barbeque is a "barbie" or "brie" (pronounced "bry"). I love it!!!! :) They are so fun!!

One of the many beautiful palm trees here. I really like this "fan" one!

I love the orange wall! WOW! Let's see - from left to right...Valerie, the new music teacher who taught in Madagascar (her husband is from Brazil - she has lived in the US - mostly the Northwest), Gary and Matthew with their mom Gali - they are from Columbia and have lived in St. Louis...

and of course, Pete and Joseph!