Bienvenidos a otro país

After an enjoyable weekend of being able to spend time with all the family helping with the garage sale since Rosita and her family were moving to New Jersey and of being able to explore parts of Quito that sat underneath my nose (things that were close by such as the only thrift store in Quito -- I was disappointed though since there was really nothing there --- there is not a lot of donating or thrift stores because so many people need so much plus I have a hunch the Catholic Church plays that role). So once my first restful weekend in quite some time was over, what better thing to do then to go travel again to start the week. Fer's dad, also known here by me as "mi papi inmenso" since he calls me his little son as a joke, (In case you dont understand the joke after translating from Spanish, Fer's dad is not at all tall like me.) asked me to go with him by trailer to Columbia to visit some sites and just to experience what it was like to be in a big-rig since I had never been before. (The family owns the company for the rigs. The transport sugars and I think another liquid compound I cant remember to make candies, beer, and toothpaste.) I said of course I wanted to go and we were off Monday morning.

That morning we loaded up and headed to the Tulcan in the north of Ecuador just bordering Columbia. We passed through beautiful mountainous countryside and when we finally got to Tulcan, we visited a cemetery in which thousands of huge bushes were carved into shapes, people, and animals. Then, we toured a little of the city a went to bed

The next day we drove into Columbia to visit the city there and to see a beautiful church designed with the same style as Notre Dame in Paris. It was very beautiful. From there we traveled back into Ecuador to pick up our trailer in customs and headed our way back to Quito where we arrived that night.
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The new rig we drove. Fer's dad did a very good job driving and could see his years and years of experience. On the way back from Tulcan, he made a typical 8 hour trip with a loaded trailer in 5 hours! However, we did get pulled over twice. Once for speeding and it being detected by radar and one for passing in a no passing zone. I was pretty surprised to see police pull people over since all the time there are traffic violations occurring. As far as the being pulled over goes, I also got to see how the police operate. Two big things that are different are they pull people over but the police car goes in front and that violations are "erased" by paying the police directly.
A view of the mountain Cayambe on the way to Tulcan
Here is the famous cemetery of Tulcan and here is the single worker who does it all. He is the son of the person who started it years ago. It is absolutely impressive and amazing that one person does this since there are so many bushes that are so big and not only need to be pruned but need to be made sure that they stay healthy. It was about 5:30 and this guy was still working away.
Here is me with a bird


















Ok so the first picture is of the cemetery again. You will have to see the others to get an idea of how many bushes there were. The second is in the morning in Columbia where we had breakfast. The waiter was extremely friendly and was making the whole restaurant laugh. Fer's dad told me everyone was like that in Columbia. Also in the picture is my breakfast. Meals in Columbia are huge and extremely filling. That night before, I had a typical Columbian dinner of beans, rice, eggs, fried platano (fried green bananas), steak, two types of different sausage, avocado, some vegetables, and I think something else all served in big plate. For that morning, I had beans, rice, eggs, a flat bread made of corn, platanos, steak, some shredded cabbage, and french fries along with a huge glass of fresh juice they call here tomato tree juice and a huge glass of hot chocolate. (I have had hot chocolate with milk every morning I have been here to ensure I at least get one glass a milk a day) I left the restaurant very full


















Here we are on our way down to the church in Columbia. On the wall you can see countless plaques, all of which are miracles in which people want to say thank you for after having prayed through for the intercession of the patron saint there, which I want to say is Mary.

A view of the church from far away. It sits in a deep river valley.




















On the right is Fer's dad and on the left is the inside of the church.











So as I said before, guinea pigs are not used as pets here. Try to guess what they are used for.
Here was an interesting sign I saw before leaving Columbia. These people are currently leading guerilla warfare in parts of the country to try to overthrow the government there.
A neat picture of 3 Columbians riding their wagon pulled by horse. There were lots of cars in Columbia, but also there were quite a few horse-pulled wagons.