On Friday we took Sinead and family to the Old Town. We walked around, climbed some church stairs, had delicious chocolate break, then ice cream served by their Easter religious figure, and dinner on a roof top. I can say AI planned a great little adventure. What did we all do before it! The recommendations were great. It was a lovely afternoon and evening together.
We made an early start Thursday morning to head to Cotopaxi, the worlds largest active volcano. We wanted to get there before the views clouded over. Sadly it was clear sailing until we arrived at the restaurant we intended to see her in all her glory. But what a place, they had this strange pirate boat and ferrris wheel that they put us on. It was a surreal experience. We then made the call to try and drive up to in the National Park and hope some of the clouds would pass. I had never driven up before. We made it to 4800 meters and then the car could not make it much further. As they had just flown in even being at that altitude was not advisable so we defo could not walk. But is was a great adventure with amazing views and we did get to see a bit more of her. We then headed for a great lunch and then back to Tumbaco for a family dinner with the Andersen's being the guests of honour.
Tuesday we were invited to Luis's cousins house for dinner. It was the first time I had been to their apartment. Beautiful views of Quito. They made a really nice spread of building your own poke bowls. It was such a good idea, especially for a large amount of people with all different eating habits. I am bringing the idea back to Bangkok for sure. Wednesday was an exciting day as the Anderson's from The Bahamas were arriving. It had been four years since we had seen them. We spent so much time with them when we lived there, they were well in truly our family. And of course still are. It was so great to see them, we picked them up at the airport and dragged them to dinner (even though they were so tired!).
I do not think I have ever watched so much football in two weeks. We got back from Mindo just in time to see England move to the final 16. Friday we went to an Argentina restaurant to watch Argentina vs Cape Verde. As one can imagine I was not overly popular being the sole person cheering for Cape Verde. What a game, I am still not quite over the result. Saturday we watched the end of Canada's fantastic run and finally Saturday night we watched England progress to the quarters. What was even more amazing is the whole of Ecuador was behind England as they were so angry at Mexicos behaviour in their match. It is much easier only having England left but we have a lot of Spain fans in the house to keep the focus on football.
Terrabambu lodge did not disappoint again. Especially with our favourite family of Toucans. The pools, the atmosphere, the staff and food were all great. Our final full day we went to the waterfalls again. A harder hike than we have ever done before with Sebastian passing 4 waterfalls and ending up at a beautiful one for swimming. He did very well on the way there, he was not as keen on the way back.
