What does a Peace Corps house look like? Well the other day I spent a night at my buds A. and L. in their site down on the coast to share in some fun fiesta times. Here they are in their living room. The house is brand new and they are the first to live in it. Pretty, good, PREEEETTY GOOD. We had fun that night despite almost getting blown up by a firework that never left the ground. Ecuador rocks.

More exotic alpine plantlife from up on Cerro de Arcos. Can't wait to go camping in another cave up there some time.... windy and cold, just gotta be bold.

Here is where I was yesterday, in a parroquia outside of my site taking pictures of the festivities... they have a famous virgin there, the virgen of the Remedios. Supposedly cures people and stuff. SOme of the folklore and dancing was really interesting... I will see if I can post a pic for ya.

That's Mojo, a fellow volunteer who is staying at my place for a while as Peace Corps set shim up with a new site. We were playing around at some little waterfall and decided to climb up above it to see what was higher up. What we discovered was a 500 foot (at least) high series of cascades, plunge pools, and exposed rock to explore.... there were caves to crawl through and slides to shoot down and butterflies to identify and a cool dead horse. All part of this complete adventure! We almost got attacked by some weird bees that were living under a leaf I was trying to photograph. Glad we escaped THAT adventure... Hopefully next time I go here I will have my grappling hook so I can scramble around more safely!

I know what you're thinking, but don't say it out loud. Everyone's thinking it but noone's saying it. Sooooo funny.