My Last Full Week in Ecuador

Greetings all,
The calendar is closing in on my return date of March 5. This is my last full week in Ecuador and I feel very mixed emotions. I have enjoyed virtually every minute. I say virtually and will explain that in a minute. And I inted to enjoy these last few days to the fullest. Today I am going back to Mindo to spend a little time with some friends I made there and to photograph the fabulous butterfly farms they have there. I may also get another chance to photograph some exotic birds there.
I attended the diocesan convention on Friday and it was very interesting and a valuable experience. Their convention is incredibly small, compared to ours. There are about 40 delegates including both clergy and lay. Consequently everthing is done much more informally. Interestingly they were revising their Constitution and Canons and I learned that those have to be approved by the Ecuadorean Government. I did not have a chance to get more info about that, for reasons that will become clear below, but I am curious about this. Much of their time was spent trying to restructure the subdivisions of the diocese, which they call districts. They have the same issues Arizona has had to deal with over the last three plus decades that I have been in the diocese, that is: how to structure a diocese that has a large central locus and a number of small ¨rural¨ congregations that are separated by enormous distance and even culture.
And now to explain why I say I have enjoyed virtually every minute. Friday night when I arrived back at my apartment I felt ¨funny¨, like sick at my stomach funny, and within an hour I was really sick. I will spare the ugly details, suffice it to say it was one of those times when you are half afraid you will die, and half afraid you wont also. I didn´t sleep at all Friday night. By Saturday morning the ¨action¨ had pretty much stopped and I got some sleep. I slept all day Saturday and Saturday night and Sunday morning. By Sunday afternoon I began to feel a lot better and today I feel FINE.
I have decided to follow through with my plans to go to Mindo. It is a very laid back place, much quieter and warmer than my apartment, much lower in altitude ( about 4000 feet, as apposed to 10,000 feet here) the hotel is very comfortable, and I know all of the food there is sanitary ( I am a little ¨gun shy¨ about that right now). So since I feel well, AND I REALLY DO FEEL FINE NOW, going there for a few days seems like a very good idea.
I am still not sure if our plans to go to the Amazon this weekend will work out. That is still on the drawing board. We will just have to see.
Well, Adios for now.
Glenn+