Happy Hunting

Wow! Long day, but great day, top to bottom. The top:

Breakfast at 8:00, on the road at 9:00 or so to the Trole (trolley), which we rode like pros. The kids got a big kick out of it - it´s fast, efficient, and filled with the sort of people that fill up every city: hipsters, grandmothers, businessmen, students, people in love. But all Ecuadorian, being those things in the particuar way Ecuadorians are. It was great.

Piled off the Trole and were met immediately in the old city with drums, drums drums! School bands were marching, parading in their uniforms, on the Plaza Grande; people were teeming, dancing in clown outfits as part of the Carnaval spectacle...Just wonderful. We had to go to our second hotel so we could leave our passports in their safe (the hotel we are in has none, turns out), but then we were turned loose in groups of nine (two adults, seven students) for the scavenger hunt.

Which the kids had a lot of fun with. The adventures included rooftop lunches (three-course meal and drink for $1.80), being included in street comedy, being sprayed with squirted foam from spray bottles that are sold during carnaval for the purpose...Lots and lots of fun. Some of you got phone calls during this part of the day - they were required. You have me to thank. Although I only managed to leeave a message at my own home, so I didnt get any messages you might have left for me, and wont until tomorrow. Sorry about that - though if there were a problem, I would think I would have gotten an email. And I didn´t.

Back to the hotel for a bit of rest, then out again for supper, where we ate at a fantastic Colombian place for about $7 each. They made us wait an hour - maybe more - for the food, which had me steaming, but honest to goodness, the food made up for it. Eliza had soup with brain in it, and didn´t eat the brain, but valiantly ate the soup around it. I was very proud of her. And it was delicious, as she´ll be the first to tell you. So was the brain!, as Frannie will be the first to tell you - and Sarah, the second! By the time the meal was over I had forgotten everything bad I had thought about them for making us wait. In fact, I wanted to hug them.

Back to the hotel where we were too tired to tally up the points form the scavenger hunt. The kids were off to bed (with some socializing thrown in beforehand, doubtless), and I came here to do this. Well, I came here to look for a phone to call my wife, but everyplace is closed - and the one that isn´t, the international calls aren´t working. Drat. Sorry, sweetie - I was trying.

Tomorrow at 8:00 on the dot we´re off to Mindo! On our own chartered bus! Once again, I feel so IMPORTANT!

And tired. And dirty. Off to find a taxi back to the hotel - Hasta mañana!