Mindo, 7 Years Later

From the moment I arrived here, 7 years ago, I loved Mindo.  It is warm, it is tropical and it jut has a certain charm about it.  In these seven years it has seen some major changes.  It has proper roads now and a load more 'trendy' restaurants.  It is great to be back here for the weekend and even better that we are able to spend it with Luis's family.

A great dinner Friday night with his parents.

I beat Luis's Dad (easily I might add) in curenta, his National game.

The entire crew arrived today.

The bar where I met Luis.

Seven years on, I can say things have definitely changed a bit!

Cumbaya

When I lived in Ecuador I always knew that I should have lived outside of the city in the valley of Cumbaya.  For one thing it is lower in altitude and therefore warmer.  It is much smaller and I do much better in small environments.  It has been great staying with Lourdes who lives in Cumbaya and spending more time here.  The last few days have been spent in between home and some of the lovely places in the town.

Sunday we were meant to be off to the Black Sheep Inn with Mayra, but the rental car company was a disaster and we had to postpone the trip.  But something good came out of it, and we got to have a lunch all together (almost kid free) in a lovely Italian in town.

Tuesday we went to Quito to see Luis's parents and then took a drive to our old neighbourhood. Above is our old street and house (we lived in three out of the four flats) and the park across the road.  Nothing really has changed since I was there last.

We then went to a vegan restaurant for lunch.  It was super sunny and Sebastian wanted sunglasses but I had forgotten his.  He looked like quite the rock star with mine on for the day.

Yesterday, me and Sebastian spent the day at home.  He had a great time on the slip and slide, which was super nice as I loved mine as a child.  He is also enjoying his favourite snack here, brocolli.

This is Lourdes house, I had never seen it from this angle before and thought it made for a beautiful photo.

Sebastian is having a great time with his Ecuador cousins.  He is becoming slightly bossy though, we will have to reign that in!

Juan P's Confirmation

We are so busy that I find it hard to write a post.  But this is a good thing.  Sebastian is having a lovely time with his cousins and I am very busy running behind him.  It is also great that we will be here for a few events, Juan P's confirmation was Saturday and we have Luis's Mum and Sebastian's birthday celebrations yet to come.  Saturday was a lovely family lunch and it was great to meet some of Xavier's extended family as well. 

His sister did an amazing job and it was like being at a fine dining restaurant.  Everything was fantastic and it was great to be able to capture some family photos.

No Probllama

We woke up to a fabulous morning and all the llamas back at the property (the day before they were out in the fields before we went to bed).  It was brilliant to wake up and be able to feed them.  The property also has ducks, chickens and the friendliest dogs, Sebastian loved it.  

Cotopaxi is amazing.  We did not get the clearest morning but it is still stunning to see.

These two mountains are the other direction and are not often visible together, it was quite spectacular.

Llama fun!

A wonderful little two day get away.  We really had such a good time.

Rondador Cotopaxi

We decided to take Luis's niece, Anto, on a small trip. She misses Luis tremendously and we thought it would be nice to spend sometime just with her.  Cotopaxi is the largest active volcano and we thought it would be nice to go to the National Park where it is located.  We stayed at a lovely small hostel called Rondador Cotopaxi.  Sebastian loved everything about it and was so excited form the minute we arrived.

We had the whole hostel to ourselves and as our room was on the ground floor it was easy enough to put Sebastian to sleep and have some quality time together.