Se van por paraíso.... (They're going through Paradise)

Hey, I'm getting pretty good at this blogging thing, eh?  We'll see if it lasts because this week we are in the Amazon (not the internet site) and there is only one hot spot and 20 people that want to use it.  Today I am a bit lucky because everyone went to dinner, but I wasn't hungry and decided to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi.

Today is our wedding anniversary!!!  It's been such a wonderful year being married to my handsome love, Alec.  We're both sad that we can't be together today, but we know that we will have many years after this to celebrate, even eternity!  So, Happy Anniversary to the love of my life.



Photo credit: Lindsey Orton

I also got to Skype Alec during this free Wi-Fi time.  I am quite grateful that Skype cameras can be a little iffy sometimes because I know I did not look pretty during our conversation.  It is 75% humidity here in the Amazon and I called Alec shortly after climbing a couple flights of stairs in the humid jungle with my large suitcase.  Yep, I was a sweaty, red-faced mess.  It was bad.  I'm pretty sure that all Alec saw of my face was a pink pixilated blur, which would be preferable to my savage-looking face.   Just kidding....not really....

This morning we started out in Otavalo.  We walked to church with the impression that church started at 9:00 AM.  Turns out that information was false.  Church actually started at 8:00, but we didn't figure that out until all 20 of us walked in the Sacrament meeting room in the middle of a woman's testimony.  The only open seats were at the front of the chapel, so we did our walk of shame to the front.  The lady bearing her testimony even stopped and waited until we were all seated to continue talking.  The good news is that Ecuadorians are some of the nicest people I have ever met and they all greeted us with smiles and handshakes at the end of the meeting, even though we totally disrupted the meeting by showing up an hour late.

The other good news is that another ward was meeting in an hour, so we went to the first ward's Sunday School and then to the second ward's Sacrament meeting.  I'm so glad we didn't miss out on the Sacrament!

Being in that ward reminded me so much of my mission that I wanted to go back!  Part of me was ready to pull out a missionary planner and start talking with members to see when they could go out with the missionaries.  I even had my mission bag, Spanish hymnal and mission scriptures to add to the feeling that I was a missionary again.  Good times.

Immediately after church, we got on a bus and drove many hours to Tena, which is in the Amazon.  Here's a map in case you were interested:


The roads here remind me of what Sally said in the movie "Cars".  She said that the roads used to move with the land instead of cutting through them like I'm used to in the United States.  The roads are so windy because they move around the mountains, rivers and waterfalls.  It was a beautiful ride.  I wasn't able to get a good picture, so here's one that I pulled from the internet of how the ride looked.  So beautiful!!:

You can see the road up on the side of the mountain.  Seriously, is this not a type of paradise?  Every time I saw a river, I thought about how much fun it would be to raft it.  I could almost hear my grandpa's voice in my head as he scouts a rapid.  I miss that man.

There was another special treat on the ride, one of my new favorite signs.  Once again, I couldn't get a good picture of it, but it basically said, "Warning, Bear Crossing."  Who knew?  I was really hoping that we would see a bear crossing the street, but we had no such luck.

We arrived at the place where we're staying.  It's so hot here!  When we got in our room, I looked all over for a fan but could not find one.  I was really put out because the rooms were so hot and mentioned that I wished there was a fan to another nursing student.  She looked at me funny and said, "Didn't you know there is air conditioning?"  Haha, I guess if you are looking so hard for one thing, you totally miss something better!  All I had to do was flip a switch and glorious cool air started filling the room.

I'm still not sure what we are going to be doing this week, or if I will have another opportunity to blog in the next few days.  I will make sure to take notes of things to write about.  Thanks for all your support!