Segundo Día de Ecuador...

Sunday morning we went to church in Quito to a ward that Ben served in. It was probably one of the most spritual meetings I've ever attended. The sisters there were so sweet. They all came up to me and greeted me with a kiss on the cheek. They just radiated this amazing spirit and I was holding back my tears the entire meeting. It's amazing to me that even though I couldn't understand the language, I was so touched. I already loved the people of Ecuador and could see why Ben loves them so much too.
After sacrament meeting, we talked to the Bishop and the Elders that were there serving. They seemed excited to talk with Ben. We snapped a few pictures outside the church.


Later that day we went to the Quito Zoo. All animals there are native to Ecuador and/or South America.

Here's just a little of what we saw...

Time for dinner...

Jaguar

Giant Galapagos Tortoise...

Riding Jorge, the Giant Galapagos Turtle...


While everyone was checking out the animals, I was slightly distracted by the flowers everywhere! So pretty and so different than anything we have here.

Lazy Ocelot...

Spectacled bears are the only surviving species of bear native to South America.

I think that they're weird looking. I think the mouth and eyes look almost human...

That evening we hooked up with Chuck and Melissa took a taxi (a very squished taxi) to Plaza de la Independencia, located in the heart of Old Quito.


Carondelet Palace, Ecuador's "White House"


Hotel Plaza Grande

Side entrance to La Catedral (the cathedral)

Goofin' around...

At the cathedral doors, which were really cool. You can't see by these pictures, but they have Peter holding the keys of the priesthood. Cool...





Ben proves that he can still hold Chuck like a baby...

Wild Hydrangeas were everywhere...heaven!

Back by popular demand!!

I guess I didn't realize that there were people actually reading my blog until I stopped posting. So, due to a few requests (some by my own husband) I thought I better pick this hobby up again.

The biggest and best thing that's happened lately is we went to Ecuador! Finally we got to go back to Ben's mission and it was perfect. We loved it and I don't remember ever seeing Ben that happy...honestly. It was like he was home. It was amazing for me to hear him speaking nothing but Spanish (some thought he was a native or a Mexican). It was also a lot of fun hanging with Chuck (Ben's BFF and our college buddy) and his wife Melissa. Chuck still makes us laugh harder than anyone!! Another fun thing is that Ben's sister Anne got to come too. Thank goodness I had two gringo girls with me that also spoke only English 'cause Chuck and Ben were all Spanish all the time. It was like having the TV stationed to Telemundo constantly...and I loved it. ;) Ben and Charlie lived in the same house for 12 months but were never comps. Then after the mission, Ben talked Chuck into coming to school in Salt Lake and that's where we all met up.

We were in Ecuador for 10 amazing days and the trip was so incredible that I really can't fit everything I felt and heard on this little post :) So, I'm going to try to break this into days so that it's not quite so overwhelming.

Day One

We spent the day just kind of checking out the city, Quito. We were wiped out after our red eye flight but I was also so excited to see everything. We walked to El Jardin (the garden), which is a total American mall. Finally Chuck and Melissa got to Quito in the evening and we were so excited to see them. We walked back over to the mall and had a delicious dinner at Crepes and Waffles, a delicious South American resturant. I finally got to taste manjar, a yummy caramel sauce. I have wanted to try it since I read the recipe for it in the Worldwide Ward Cookbook, 3 years ago.

Earlier in the day, we took the Teleferico, which is a gondola lift.. It runs up the east side of the Pichincha Volcano and gives an amazing lookout of the city of Quito. It is one of the highest aerial lifts in the world, rising from 8,850 feet to 13,400 feet. And you travel to that height in about 8 minutes! Just to give you an idea of how high we were, Salt Lake City's elevation sits around 4,200 feet!!

It was cold and we were right in the the middle of the clouds.



Ben overlooking the city he loves!!



So far Ecuador was looking and tasting good!!