Big Rock hard MEN

¡¡¡¡¡Columbia!!!!!!!

Ok yes rumor sand the news reporters had it right, we went to Columbia. Our visas were going to expire, so we had to leave the country to get them renewed. Obviously, Columbia was our first choice :D
So we set up a couchsurfer in Popayan, Columbia and made our way to the border. After some complications, argument, and a relieving stamp, we crossed into Columbia and took a bus to Popayan. We arrived at 4 am, so we hung out at the terminal until a reasonable hour to call our couchsurfer.
Emma´s house was fun. We spent the time the couple of days in Popayan exploring the centro, trying Columbian food, going to thermal hot springs that reaked up sulfur (great for the skin), enjoying live jazz at a bar. She was definitely hositable.
We then made our way to San Agustin to see the archealogical ruins, one of the most important ruins on the S. American continent. After a vicious bus ride with many security stops, we made it. THe next day we did a 3 1/2 hr. walk through the park and saw the big rock hard sculptures that were pretty impressive. The next day we did a 5 hour walk through the Columbian countryside to explore the waterfalls and other ruins spread about the countryside. They were beautiful days.
Now that we´ve restored our visas, we´re back in Ecuador where Julie will be staying in Riobamba for 2 months at a University to teach English and I´ll be headed off to continue exploring Ecuador. Until next time

p.s. Join couchsurfers!!

Farc

Hopefully that title doesn´t scare anybody but... today we arrived in Quito again because we are headed out to Columbia tomorrow. Not to worry...i think :)
Our visas are going to expire soon and Columbia is much closer than Peru, so off we are! We are passing through the safest border town, Tulcon and making our way to Popayan to visit the San Augustine ruins. They are one of the most important ruins in the south american continent! Should be fun. WE{ll probably stay there for around a week, depending on how are plans change and all. But i{ll keep you updated...until then. Love everybody!!!

Banos (literally bathrooms?)

Hiddey Ho...
We are here in beautiful Banos!! Enjoying the valleys, waterfalls, and thermal hot springs. Yesterday we rented bikes for $5/whole day and did a bike ride with Julie´s old host brother from Quito who came down. We hoped on the bikes and did a 25 km decent toward the town of Puyo. There are 7 waterfalls along the windy beautiful valley road. The last one beign the most beautiful, Pailon del Diablo. An impressive 100 rushing waterfall that drops into a rocky pool. You could actually hike behind the waterfall and experience the wet awesomeness. But before we had reached the last waterfall on our bike trip we stopped at a bridge. And little did you know there was bungee jumping... and us being craziness enough bought a ten dollar ticket....strappped in and Julie and I jumped off the 50 m bridge toward a rushing river. What an exhiliration!!! It was awesome- excitign to cross things off our list to do before we die (although some of the things on our list could be the cause of death :D ) haha. It was quite a blast.
That night we met up with the people we met in San Pablo, EWB. and went to a cool bar with live music and got to play the bongos, drums, cow bells and just jam and sing all night long. It was quite a fun night!!! We´re enjoying Banos and it´s cool cafes and atmosphere and then are heading ot Puyo later today to check it out... ciao ciao

Alpaca?

We finished our tan project with Engineers without BOrders in Pilingui San Pablo. We met that amazing group of people and have made some great friends, they are a lot of fun. But we finished that up and have now moved onto Banos for a couple of days to get out of the cold and take a little break.
On the 19th we plan on heading to Quito for a day and then to Columbia for a week to renew our visas...don´t worry we´ll take all the precautions, and we´ll be safe :) I´ll keep you updated on how it goes.
Hope life in the states is happy and healthy, just like us!
And mom, hope to see you soon when you come to visit. that reminds the invitation is open to anyone who wants a vacation, it can be arranged to come visit us!!!
p.s. alpaca are in the family of llamas and were in abundance in san pablo, they are adorable, and make good sweaters....oopps

...San Pablo....

We left Guayaquil and headed inland
We are now ¨¨stationed¨¨¨in San Pablo, home of Casa Condor. This village of 48 people is stationed right at the base of Mountain Chimborazo, the peak on earth closest to the sun. It´s about a 19,500 ft. mountain, and our village is at about 12,500. But because weare on the equator, there isn´t snow in our village, just windy and chilly as heck!!!
We met up with a group that just got here from Colorado, Engineers without borders, and there are doing a 2 week construction project here building a HUGE thousand of gallons tank to hold and suppply the water from the natural spring on Mt. Chimborazo. It´s pretty awesome. They recruited us as volunteers, and we are having a blast!!! They are some really cool people and the manual labor is fun, so our next two weeks are filled :p It´s definitely different than the coast, chilly chilly here but beautiful all the same. My camera is temporarily (or permanently, don´t know yet) broken, so we´ll see how that goes. It´s a bummer because the land is BEAUTIFUL!!!!
ciao

Craziness!!!!

Alright the past week has been crazy!!!! woohoo
I don{t remember what i wrote about last, but i guess i{ll try and continue from there.
Our friend Ruben from Esmeraldas who we stayed with had invited us to his birthday party back up in Mompiche (the aesome little fishing village we stayed at) and this party just coincidentally happens to be the Fiesta de la luna llena (festival of the full moon) as well. So after some consideration, Julie and I decided why not take the 10 hour bus ride from Guayaquil to Mompiche to enjoy a weekend vacation from our vacation. So luckily we didn{t have to travel with our big bags, we left most of our stuff in Guay. and headed out with enough for a couple of days. After the 10 hr bus ride we arrived to Atacames (the beach north of mompiche) on a friday night a 10 pm- the streets we full of people and music and sand!!! it was crazy. We went dancing a little, drank a batido (fruit shakes mmhhmm) and walked around in search of a cheap hostal. Stayed in Atacames a night and left that morning to Mompiche...
Luckily a truck stopped beacuse we were hitchhiking to save money (don{t worry it{s mostly safe) and this truck just happened to be going to Mompiche to drop off sand for construction...what luck!!
So we reached Mompiche and said Hi to all of our friends!!! We also looked for Cloro to stay in his awesome house again, but unfortunately he already had other visitors. So we we lucky enough to stay with our friend Morongo who owns a bar at the end of the beach. We spent the day in usual Mompiche lifestyle, walking the beach, eating, sitting in hammocks, talking to our friends, swimmin....it{s beautiful!!
We went to Cloro{s for dinner and had a bonfire and roasted up some fish- it was delicioso!!!! woowee. After munching down the fish, we headed over to the full moon festival. There was a bunch of people there, dancing, bonfire, just having a good time. We met up with some of our friends and made some new ones. It was a BLAST!!!! Luckily there is another one every month, awesome!

(writing a couple days later... )
The next day we went to a little pueblo with our Esmeraldas friends and went to Portete beach. You have to swim across the river to get there, but it is worth it. It was definitely a blast, but not a good idea ot go without sunscreen!! eekkk We had a lot of fun. We spent the next couple of days continuing the Mompiche lifestyle and helped out in our friend Morongo´s bar. We are planning to return to Mompiche in a month and a half or so to open up our friend Cloro´s bar!!!! Julie and I will be running it and it will also include a place for us to stay. So after we head inland in a couple of days to Riobamba to do our volunteer work for a month, we´ll head back to Mompiche for a 1-2 mos. to run our bar.
We finally, after much confusion and frustration with the bus terminal, made it back to Guayaquil at 6 am. We spent that day preparing for our weekend bike trip with the same group we met through the repelling trip, ciclistas sin fronteras...bicyclistas without borders. We headed out friday morning to Cuenca, which is elevation 12,000 ft. and it gorgeous!!!! Friday day, we got our first taste of mountain biking. Nothing kicks your butt harder that biking uphill for 10 km at that elevation...extreme!!! But the view was gorgeous, and however difficult- it was worth it!. We then rode downt the mountain into Cuenca, about 17 km away- acceleration!! adrenaline! woohoo freezing!!! (by the way 1.6 km=1mile) We made our way to the hotel that night and ate and rested because we were going to need our energy for our 25km trip manana.
We got up the next day and headed out to the trail head for Incapirca, Incan ruins. This trip was amazing!!! We rode through hills, valleys, rural villages, beautiful ecuadorian countryside, and tons and tons of mud!!! It was amazing. It was intense, probably one of the most extreme things I´ve done (since I haven´t been skydiving- MOM! :D ) but it was definitely worth it once we reached the top of the mountain right before sunset and got to check out the amazingness!!! It was absolutely gorgeous (facebook pics are coming!) We enjoyed to beauty, but eventually had to head back (it was freezing!)
The next day we went to the International MTB mountain biking competition for all of south america. I thought what we did was intense, these people take it to the next level!!! Columbia won for the girls and guys competition...figures- Columbia!! Eventually we headed back to Guayaquil, and hear we are...
until next time! Ciao

4 men 4 women 4 beds

Hola Hola!!!
Well still here in Guayaquil enjoying ourselves very much.
We have visited the park of iguanas which is filled with iguanas
walked on Malecon 2000, teh huge board walk project
walked on Malecon del salado, the older smaller version
went to the zoo here and saw some really cool stuff, you could get really close to the animals. I was actually holding a wolly monkeys hand! and later was standing 5 feet away from a sleeping lion! it was crazy. we went with some freinds we met here through a couchsurfing friend. We just meet tons of people, they are really nice.
We also did a trekking and repelling trip with a friend, Geovanny, we met on couchsurfers. He is a part of bicycling club here in Guayaquil, so a couple of people from his club and volunteers from teh red cross who had the equipment and knowledge went. The place was called 7 waterfalls, it was about a 45 mins hike into a amazon looking jungle. We passed a couple of waterfalls before we reached the one we were going to do repelling on. It was about a 30 ft waterfall that dropped right into a clear pool of water surrounded by a rock wall, it was amazing. They set up the repellinga nd Julie and I both repelled down the waterfall, attached to the rope! It was awesome, adrenaline rush too, especially when i almost slipped! phew. It was quite a day. We plant to spend a couple more days here in guayaquil, and have a couple of things planned, so it should be fun.
We are still staying at our friends house. One of the boy´s mom and sister arrived from the Galapagos yestereday and so now it´s definitely a full house, people sharing beds all over the place!! Don´t worry....i´m sleeping with julie if you have any questions, in our own room! Geez!!!