Getting Ready to Leave

¨Hola¨ Y´all,

You may notice that just as I am about to leave Ecuador I have leqrned how to use the apostrophe (on at least this keyboard, anyway). Each keyboard here is different as regards some of these little things.

This is probably the last blog I will post from Ecuador. Tomorrow is packing day and I leave early Wednesday morning and I have to be at the airport here at 6:30 AM.

I had a great trip to Otovalo this weekend. The shopping was great fun and I found a little restaurant there that had a group that played Andean folk music in the evenings.
Sunday morning I took a taxi to Ibarra, a town about a half hour north of Otovalo and went to chrich at the Episcopal church there. The church was virtually full with about 100 people I would guess. The priest there is a very good preacher and gave the best sermon I have heard since I got here. The music however, left a lot to be desired. While the priest is a good preacher, he is tone deaf and, shall I say, he is rhythmicly challenged as well. He just can´t follow a beat. And on top of it all he sings far too loud for one who is way off pitch and way off beat. I guess he sings loud because no one else sings. And I suspect they don´t sing because they can´t follow the priest. In fact the music in every church has been ¨challenging¨ in one way or another, to say the least.

After church I took the bus back to Quito. I had not problems on the bus this time. I made the decision not to take a camera, just to reduce the stress of the trip. There were some times I wished I had had it, because there are many indigenous people there and they are fascinating in their traditional clothing. But on balance I know I made the right decision.

I met an Australian couple in Otovalo and had lunch with them in a little restaurant near the market. I asked them if they had visited the animal market, that I had visited on my first trip to Otovalo. They said they had been there and really enjoyed it. As a joke I asked if they bought any animals, and to my complete surprise they said, ¨Well, as a matter of fact, we did!¨ Apparently they bought a little piglet from a lady, took come pictures of it and them promptly re-sold it again. They said they lost $1.00 in the transactions, but had a great time doing it. What a riot!! Aussies are just a different breed, that is all I can say.

I will wash clothes today from my weekend trip and lay out everything. I need to see how it all looks when I add in the stuff I bought here to see what fits in my luggage and what doesn´t. Then I will have to make some choices. Some of the clothes I brought are old junky things that I have multile versions of at home. If dumping some of that stuff will allow me to avoid having to buy another suitcase, and pay the extra airline fee, I will do that. If that isn´t enough I will have to go buy another suitcase and pay the extra luggage charge. Paying the extra charges is only part of the matter. I fly from Quito to Miami and change planes there for my flight to Phoenix. In Miami, I will have to reclaim all of my checked luggage, go through Customs (those lovely people) then re-check it all for the flight to Phoenix. Having extra luggage in that circus is not fun.

Bishop Ramos has offered me the use of his chauffer to take me to the airport. That is a wonderful thing. It saves me from having to stand on the street with multiple suitcases, etc, and flag down a taxi at 6:00 AM in the morning. He truly is a terrific person. Tomorrow evening I am having supper at Chris and Trish´s house with the Bishop. It will be a great ¨farewell¨evening.


I will not try here to sum up this blessed experience. It will take me some time to sift through it and reflect on it all. It has been a journey of the heaart and soul as well as a physical one. It has had some incredible highs and a few lows as well. Such is life no matter where you are. I am glad I will have this written record and my photos to help me relive it all for a long time to come.

I thank you all for sharing this journey with me. I have felt your prayers and and your spirits and hearing from some of you that you have enjoyed this journal has given me a great deal of pleasure.

Figuratively speaking, I have been ¨on top of the world¨, while, quite literally, I have been here at the ¨Middle of the World¨. And I am ready to return to be ¨on top of the world¨ there as well.

Love to you all,
and for the last time,
Adios from Ecuador,
Glenn+