my latest painting . . . clouds over quito

And a few more pictures, while we're at it....
I went away last weekend for a 'girls weekend'. 6 of us set out to shop, eat, drink wine and get in a little hiking at Cotopaxi.



We were really lucky that the clouds moved off the glacier and we had a wonderful view of the volcano Cotopaxi while we hiked around at the bottom.




Here's a couple more pictures from the trip ~ there was lots of laughing and fun ~ and Chris got to stay home and paint!

Here's the very cute place where we stayed ~ they were very hospitable to us and let us hang out around the fire.

Here are some pictures from our annual Halloween party ~ it was our third one here in Quito. We had some great costumes and it wasn't too rainy (so people could go out on the terraces).



Don't ask what Chris and I were dressed as.... we're not absolutely sure ourselves but it was fun.



We had Angels...





two wild and crazy guys


and a banshee



the hosts

so i've been managing to get some painting done
as well ...

We had the excellent opportunity to re-visit Blacksheep with Steve and Dani - and it was (once again) an awesome experience. Here are some pics from that trip...

llamas at the inn

and the epic journey from the volcano back to Balcksheep

dani and sharon making their way around the crater of the volcano - sooo windy

and coming down from the rim into a little village

what a great pic of steve!

and here's the crazy cliff walk (although it wasn't that crazy tis time...thank goodness) that we had to take to get down into the canyon

here's Dani contemplating life in all its glory

a sheep on the way home

and through the town and back to the inn

This has been a tough time of the year, as it always is for teachers - so that's my excuse for not posting - justifiable or not

a few pics from Deweese Island

so here's some more pics from the summer - hopefully we'll get back to the now soon

Here's the farm in Virginia where we had a fantastic time!

and we, by crazy coincidence and sharon's wiley ways we managed to visit Heather and YJ in Austin Texas - and their beautiful baby Eamon

hey everyone - we had an awesome stay home and really felt even closer to everyone than we did when we lived there

we're going to try to give everyone a glimps into our experience through a bunch of pictures

we love you all and thanks for visiting...we'll update you on the Dani and Steve visit next - peace and love ~ and as always, double click to enlarge the photo (highly encouraged)

so this is Quito before we left - crazy red sky, no?

i think i'm going to miss the sky the most when we leave this city for good

the next few pics are from our trip to panama - sharon has better pics, but they're not on this computer

We're still trying to catch up on all the missed blogging ~ so, even though it happened months ago I wanted to post some pictures of my mom's visit to Ecuador back in February.

She came during our Carnival vacation and since that's typically a time when people throw water balloons and spray foam at people we decided to head out of town.

We went to the town of Otavalo which has the largest indigenous market in Ecuador. Here's a picture from a balcony of all the stalls.


We spent our time shopping in the town but stayed at a mountaintop lodge just outside of the town and it was beautiful.


We had a house to our selves and a guy who came around and stoked the fire periodically. We spent a lot of time drinking wind and reading books in the living room by the warm fire.



We ate our meals in the main lodge (which is right behind mom in this picture) and they served pretty decent vegetarian fare.



The place was really gorgeous ~ flowers everywhere (notice all the dahlias?) and we took a long hike around the ridge of the mountain ~ I was impressed with mom's endurance especially since she had only been in town for 2 days and was hiking at over 10,000 feet! We saw some beautiful views and at one point the trail ended in a very nice couples' garden ~ oops! They didn't seem to mind and pointed us in the right direction.


Here's one of the llamas that were hanging around the lodge ~ I think they're so cute. There was also an adorable cat and a tiny puppy.



After this trip I had to return to work so mom came by and visited Chris and I at school.
Here's a picture she took from outside my classroom...


She visit my classroom and got to meet some of my very cute students.


She also spent a day on a tour of the old town Quito visiting all the beautiful churches and squares and learning some of the history of the place.
Her tour also went to mitad del mundo ~ the middle of the world where they have a big monument and museum on the equator (Chris and I still haven't made it there)





We managed to get a few nights of bridge in with our friends who used to play when they were in the peace corps in Nepal.

And for a last hurrah we headed for one night to the cloud forest. We stayed at the eco lodge where Chris and I have been a few times (the pictures might look familiar). We love the owners and they make the most delicious vegetarian food and the place is so relaxing.



As mom and I were hanging out waiting for the communal dinner we ran into a couple who were staying there and we eventually figured out that I had met the guy 15 years ago when I was living in New York City and he was a friend of a friend and had actually stayed for a few nights in my apartment with his girlfriend at the time! Imagine running into each other in a tiny town in Ecuador ~ small world....
We took a wet and muddy hike to see all the flora and some fauna of the area ~ here's mom and our guide ~ it's a big place for bird watching.




We went across the way to the butterfly farm...



If you remember the pictures from a previous trip you have to cross the river mindo to get to the lodge via a home made cable car type thing.