After our trip to Banos, we returned to Quito on the 24th. Meredith and I went to the grocery store to buy lots of food for Christmas eve and day and then we cooked and hung out. Chris made a delicious vegetable/chickpea bake for Christmas eve and for Christmas day I made homemade gnocchi with pesto sauce, Meredith made a tomato vodka sauce and Michael made some wonderful stuffed poblano peppers ~ it was a feast complete with homemade sesame cookies ~ batches with and without wheat flour.

Then we headed out again on the 26th (Meredith's birthday). We went to a very small town called Borja that had a hostal right outside it called Cabanas tres Rios (or Cabanas de Larry as the locals call it).

It's in the cloud forest and was mostly for kayakers since it's right on the river. We spent a relaxing few days taking long walks...


reading in and out of hammocks...

and playing dominoes and canasta.

Chris tried fishing on the river but it was super high and rough waters.

We had beautiful views of some of the farms and around us

and the gardens at the hostal were really beautiful and we saw a few different varieties of hummingbirds.