Here is another picture of Audrey's and Josue's birthday party last Saturday. We actually had a few balloons and a cake that we had made in town for $7. Add a couple of sodas, some roasted guinea pig, potatoes covered with a rich peanut sauce, some corn that was boiled and peeled, and some fried chicken and you get a fantastic party.

From the house we have magnificent views of the two nearby volcanoes, Imbabura and Cotacachi. The following two pictures were taken from the backyard (where the corn and the peas are alternately planted). The first is Imbabura, and has some kind of sacred significance. In the morning, the sun rises directly behind the mountain, which is awe inspiring on clear days when it appears as though the volcano is erupting with a brilliant flash of light. Apparently Imbabura is relatively easy to hike, so we can hopefully do it as a family. The second, Cotacachi, is to the north of us. It regularly receives snowfall. When it rains at home, the next clear day the top half is white with freshly fallen snow. I have heard that Cotacachi is harder to climb, and if it is warm, the last hundred meters or so is very dangerous with a lot of falling rock. If it is frozen on top, one can summit without too much difficulty.


This is Suzanna, the mom of the house. She is such a great person and has taken care of us with much carino. She cooks a mean soup, and we are continually treated to hot tasty soup on cold nights. She also cooks a kind of cracked corn, that looks like big unpopped popcorn but tastes a bit like plain corn nuts. It's called tostado. Here she is with a bunch of bananas that we just bought from a truck that comes by once a week. We bought a bunch (literally) of bananas about three times this size for $4.
The older lady here is Suzanna's mom, the abuelita. She is probably the most relaxed person we have ever met. She whipped up a huge tub of dough to make what they call tortillas, which are much thicker and smaller than Mexican tortillas. Regardless, they were tasty. Not sure why, but for some reason they only make them over an open fire on an antique pan. Also here is Adela, who is (I think) 9 years old. This fire is where they cook everything that is not on the stove. There is a roof right above my head, which leaves the little room filled with smoke around half the time. Directly behind the cinder blocks to the rear is the guinea pig pen. I wonder if they could tell when we were cooking their cousins and the smoke went wafting over the blocks....