By Yvette Ecuador #1 Dear Family and Friends, Yes! we finally left after a wonderful summer in Spain, where Maura and Julie experienced their first burst of spanish during 6 weeks of Spanish summer camps. After many efforts to make plans for our 'year trip' we decided not to make much of a plan!! And just go! So we flew on August 30, and started way too luxurious in the world business class of KLM from Amsterdam to Quito, Ecuador. How relaxed was that, before hitting this crowded, polluted and pretty dangerous city. Already in the plane, we got overwhelmed by kidnap stories, robberies etc. Wow! How are we going to do all this,traveling with our two blond girls and still be safe? While staying in the Marriott the first days safety was our biggest concern and we slowly started to get more informed and to feel how we wanted to travel/live in this country. Conclusion, we need to stay in good hotels and travel in well known taxis, etc. Never walk with too many valuables and don't walk at dark. We were lucky on the 2nd day in Quito and found a well organized, dutch owned, cozy spanish language school, a 10 minute walk from the hotel. We decided to start classes here and to stay in the Marriott instead of looking for an apartment. We have everything here, space, internet, which we need for the girls homeschooling online, sport facilities and it is safe. Maura and Julie are taking one to one Spanish classes, which makes them talk more! They like it and are pretty focused and motivated. And I joined them too and I love to practice my spanish again. In the meantime they are also getting their homeschooling program started by first making mind maps,so the teacher can adapt the program to their needs and to the way they like to learn. By the way, Quito is at an altitude of 2850 meter, so your body needs to adapt.. and this takes time. So we tried to take it easy the first days,but unfortunately it hit Gerardo. It looks like the altitude triggered his SVT (heart tachycardia) and so he ended up in the ER because of his 130 heartbeat on day 3 in Quito. Luckily the hospital was very goo and well developed with doctors who did a really good job! His heartbeat came down after 4 hours but went too far down and it took a while to get it back to his normal 40-50 beats per minute. It was quite scary for a while, but he knew what it was, since this is the 2nd time. We see it as a warning sign and will be more cautious with the altitudes here, since you can go up to 4.800 meters and higher if you like. Then the ladies of the house all got a stomach bug which is part of eating in a developing country ! Our first trip out of the city was to Mindo which is a small village 2 hours from Quito. That was super fun,ziplining, tubing, abseiling, a chocolate tour and more. And that's where Maura turned 14!
(julie will write a bit more about that fun trip to the rainforest) On the way back to Quito, we stopped at the Museo La Mitad del Mundo, which is right on the Equator. So on her birthday Maura stood on the Equator with one leg in the northern and the other leg in the southern Hemispere. A special feeling! We just planned our next adventure and are off for a week to Otavalo and Ibarra, 3 hours north of Quito. We wish you all the best and lets stay in touch. Lots of love, Yvette, Gerardo, Maura and Julie
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