Saturday, May 9, 2009

Salinas & Leftover Randoms

Today we went to Salinas. It is like a beach resort place. You don't hear very many people say that they are going to Ecuador for their beach va-cay and there is probably a reason for that, but we still definitely enjoyed ourselves. The water was pretty cold at first, but most of us just jumped in and got over it and it felt great after a few minutes. We swam around a bit, played catch the football (aka full water bottle) in the water until we found a frisbee, met some guy who let us borrow his snorkeling gearand then we all went on a boat ride. They let us stop the boat and jump out into the water. It was a two-story (is that proper boat lingo) boat and I was hoping so badly that they were going to let us jump off the top, but I didn't know if they really would. I should have just remembered that we are in Ecuador, where legal liability issues aren't really a major concern because they definitely did let us jump from the top. It was probably still only like 15 feet from the water, but super fun. I dove all three times. Thank you Shelly for the Tahoe diving lessons.


I promise I straightened out more before I hit the water :)

So fun. After the water adventures, the Junta paid for us all to have this nice buffet lunch at one of the resorts. You cannot imagine how excited we all were to see vegetables, and even ones that weren't fried! Delicious.

After the two and a half hour ride home we ran into our hotel, each had 5 minute showers and were back down in the lobby within 25 minutes ready for the health fair we were doing for one of the stakes here. I don't have any pictures yet of the day at the beach or the health fair, so I will put those up on here as soon as I get them. The members were all so cute. They were all dressed up and seemed super excited to have us there. I taught the nutrition class with another girl in our group, Cassidy. It was fun and they all seemed to get a lot out of it. It was adorable they were all taking notes and had awesome questions. After the class, we gave them all these giant food pyramid type posters and they asked us to sign them for them. I love these people. They are so loving. They make you feel so special.


To finish off this week, I would just like to do a short picture post of a few of the random things this week that have made me realize. . .


WHY I LOVE ECUADOR


Beautiful cathedrals and cute kids who want to take their picture with you.

arroz y menestra

Iguana Park (Erin--does this remind you of me and the birds in Venice experience)

PS I wish I could watch you as you twist your head to try to watch this. Sorry about that.

6 comments:

alexandria said...

Love the new look for the blog! I also really love cathedrals in foreign countries, they are some of my favorite things to see! Looks like you are having a blast, I am totally jealous of the beach resort!

Ana Steinagel said...

Hey Katie, I was blog surfing this morning and I came accrss your blog! I loved reading it. It looks like you're having an amazing time over there. I'm sure the people are so greatful that your helping them. Thanks for sharing your adventure.

Becca's Blog said...

Katie...now I can leave a comment. All I did was change your comment settings to "embedded below post" to "pop up in another window". Anyway, you can change it back if it bugs you, but now at least I can leave a comment. Maybe others had the same problem too.

Erin said...

Katie Kate Kate. I took a long break from blogs, and look how much happened to you! I loved it all, but I am only making this one comment. I love peeps in Ecuador, and I love that you get to work with people on such a personal level, it's amazing. I love that you are getting to be a missionary too! I am mad about one thing though. And it lives over on your blog list. Chris and Erin? Really? I am offended. We are Erin and Chris to you, missy! JK do what you want. But don't think I didn't notice who apparently comes first in your mind. Sicky.

Erin said...

Oh, and the video is not working, so we will watch it in a few weeks, but from the little freeze frame I could see--yes. But you look like you're having more fun with the iguana than with those amazing pigeons.

KILEY said...

Kate, nice form in the dive. I am impressed that you jump right into to foriegn waters.