Ibarra Trip

Sorry it's been a little since I've written. Wednesday afternoon we left for a little trip. Those who went on the trip were Cris and Jorge, their two boys, Ruth, and Cris's Grandma. We had a great time! We went to a town called Ibarra-that's were Cris is from. However, we made plenty of stops on the way. We went in two cars, and I was in the back seat of the truck; the ride was a little bumpy, but well worth it. We stopped to eat at a restaurant called El Cafe de la Vaca (the cafe of the cow). It's a fun, old rustic place, and the food was really good too. Then we drove to a town called Otavalo, where Cris's mom was waiting for us. We went to the market and did some shopping- and I bartered ! :) Then we went to Ibarra because that's where we were staying for the night. We all had some coffee and bread together, and we also had a cake for Ruth's birthday. After the little ones went to sleep, Jorge, Cris, Ruth, and I went to see Ibarra at night. We had a blast! Cris was showing us all this different places, and we took pictures and talked a lot. At certain points, we were all laughing our heads off at things- ha I guess I can't really explain it, but we had a good time.

Ruth and I shared a room, which was a huge blessing. We had some time to talk and pray together before we went to bed- I am so thankful for her encouragement and godly example.

In the morning we ate breakfast together, and then we went to see Ibarra by day. We saw some beautiful sights, and ate a lot of food! I told Ruth it was ok though because it was in celebration for her birthday. We ate empanadas (fried bread with a meat mixture inside) with some coffee, and then went to try some ice cream! It was really more like a sorbet. The ice cream was made from pure juice- and some of the fruits they had were ones I never heard of, but it all tasted great. It was fun to watch the process of them making the ice cream. They had these big, wooden bowls full of ice and salt. Then they had a copper pan inside the ice where they would put the juice. They had a gigantic wooden spoon they used to stir the juice like crazy! And in ten minutes, the ice cream was ready.

We traveled to another town to eat lunch- yep more food. We didn't stay there too long because there was this festival going on, the festival of San Juan. It's basically these two different neighborhoods of people who have this tradition of dancing and then eventually fighting. Thankfully they hadn't started the fighting when we were there, and we left before it started (the police were out in the center of town watching too).

After some more driving we stopped in Cayambe for biscochos. It's kind of like biscotti, but not quite. It's not sweet, but with coffee it's great! After all of that, we finally headed home. I must admit I felt like I needed to run 5 miles by the end of the day, but food is part of the experience right? Thanks again for all your prayers; I'll write again soon.