This afternoon we drove from Miami to Naples, across the Florida Everglades. Along the way, we stopped at Buffalo Tiger’s Everglades Airboat tours. We have seen these airboats periodically on TV and in the movies, and this was our chance to see what they were like to ride. This tour guide had the highest rating […]
Lock and Load
Yesterday we went to a pistol firing range for the first time. Today we upped the ante, and went to a machine gun firing range called Lock and Load! We started out with nearly an hour of explanation of what the various gun choices were, and then training on how to stand and fire. These […]
Bulls Eye
We went this morning to the Stone Hart shooting range in Miami, and each fired 25 rounds of a Glock 9mm pistol for the first time in our lives. We have watched cop shows and action movies for years, and wondered “is it really that hard to hit something?” We decided to go try it […]
Tornado!
We flew from Cuenca to Quito, then on to Miami today. We are here to handle some legal issues that required being in the States (more details on that next week). When arriving, our first stop was a local Citibank branch, to handle closing out an obsolete account. While there, the wind whipped into […]
I Could Feel The Soap Melting…
I could feel the soap melting in my ears, after the vicious attack of el diablillos (aka “the little devils”) as we wandered into an unexpected battle zone. Carnaval had begun! ☺ Evelyn had seen some barricades going up earlier today on Parque Calderon. After dinner at Cesar’s (a friend’s restaurant around the corner that […]
30 Days of Madness
The last night of election campaigning included several fireworks displays, including this one shot from our living room window. Ecuador has an interesting election cycle — I think the USA could learn something from their process. Nobody is allowed to campaign until 30 days before the election. All campaigning must stop 48 hours before the […]
Volcano Erupts
Volcano erupts (image courtesy El Mercurio newsaper) Truck in our parking lot with fine layer of volcanic ash We lived in Beaverton, Oregon in 1980 when Mt St. Helens erupted. We could see the eruption from our house, and ash covered the town several times over the following weeks. Today we had a small […]
Vilcabamba
We took the bus to Loja, and then a taxi to Vilcabamba for a few days this past week. We have heard quite a lot about the area and decided we wanted to check it out. As is common on inter-city busses in Ecuador, the driver put a DVD on for entertainment. Usually it […]
Our Life in a Box
Our container was loaded today in Berkeley, and will now work its way towards our new home in Cuenca. It is both a relief, and a bit humbling to see everything we own fit in little more than half a 20 foot shipping container… Either way though, our life in Ecuador is starting to more […]
Visa Indefinida
We got our resident visas today! We are now legal Ecuadorians! We were also told to pick up our cedulas a week from Friday, which will be the final document to complete our legal integration into Ecuador. The process took four hours today, and seems that it shouldn’t have taken more than an half hour. […]
