I won a prize!

June's last day, was a pretty great day!

Me and my prize!

We went to Parque Carolina... and had the most fun!

The highlights:

* we sat on green green grass under green green trees and watched proud little kids ride around on horses
* I joined a public aerobics class and forgot to be shy
* the aerobics turned out to be a great workout, I got my groove on (finally, I was do for some good bodyshaking) AND I ''won'' a football
* I went down the slide (haven't done that in ages and it was SO much fun)
* we had the giggles on the seesaw
* we shared my very first candied apple from one of the many food stands
* Tim showed me his powerfull monkey skills
* we got cups of free water and refilled our waterbottle (I love free water!)
* we shot some hoops on the basketball field (and I kind of kicked Tims ass :) )
We went back ''home'' tired, with joyfull spirits, our football and a narly sunburn...

What an awsome day!!!

Tim and Katrien in Quito

After the lovely Mindo,
Tim and Katrien came back to Quito.

Tim and Katrien are having a wonderful time,
walking around the city, meeting wonderful people, ...
They planned a trip to the Amazon for the weekend...

Tim got sick,
Katrien cooked them a healthy meal.

Tim felt better,
they rescheduled their jungle adventure.

Tim and Katrien are enjoying their extra weekend time in Quito.

Katrien loves the veggie restaurants they discovered in ''New Town'',
Tim is spending some time on his fabulous writing.

Tim and Katrien are loving Quito.

Tim and Katrien are loving each other.

Best breakfast spot

Our hostel in Mindo (Casa De Cecilia), Ecuador (which we left today to go back to Quito) serves breakfast in the morning for a small, reasonable price.
So, every morning, after my yoga session,
we head over to the breakfast area
and I have my fruit, yoghourt and granola
with a cup of lemon grass tea.

There are always birds, butterflies and one day even an iguana's to spot.

Yesterday, this one payed us a visit.

Best Breakfast Spot... EVER!

Makin' 'n tastin' chocolate

Saturday the 23rd, was one of my favorite days of this trip!

We had a resting day after hiking the day before...

and... made our own chocolate.

But most importantly:

ATE the chocolate we had just made!

Here's how it went:

This is the cacao fruit.
You cut it open and take the beans out.
Those beans have to dry/ferment for a couple of days.
This was done for us.

Then, the beans get heated up,
so they burst out of the shell,
or the shell is easy to take off.
Our guide heated up the beans,
while stirring them so they don't burn.

Here you see the beans without shell.
That's when we got to work.
They came off really easy and it was a relaxing job...
The smell at this point was delicious...
You could tell this was going to turn in to chocolate
and we started to get excited!

And then the real fun started!
We pushed the beans through some sort of blender...
and chocolate came out!!!!
A luscious chocolate paste!
Pure!


 

We heated up milk and
brown raw cane sugar (called panela).

Our cacaobean paste went in...

And then, the feast started.
Our guide chopped up fresh fruit for us
(pineapple, banana, strawberry and apple)
and we started to dip, plunge, drop, ...
that already delicious fruit
and made it even more delicious!

No comment...

It was pure enjoyment!

 

Loving the leafs!

On our walk to see hummingbirds...

we saw none..

But we saw a tarantula (yikes!!!)

and leafs, leafs, leafs!

And... we loved it!

Lieve leafs...
Ik heb jullie lief!

Dolle dots

Big banana leafs,
thank you for the shelter from the rain.

Love... nature... love!

Rain in the jungle is...
awsome!

Nature is...
ART!

Goooood foooood!

From Quito, we took a day trip to Otovalo.
A surprisingly cute town, with lots of shops and a famous indiginous market.

What made the trip worth it?
The great food!

We had
dough balls (kind of like ''smoutebollen'', but less oily)
fried platanos (a type of banana)
a cup with some sort of bean, with tomato sauce, fried corn and banana chips and some lime juice
...
mmmmm
and of course, we took some stuff ''home''
That pineapple made a delicious breakfast!

Tim, his hat and the dough balls.

Me and my fried banana.

Quitting in Quito

My first post without a picture...

It's symbolic...

Quito is robbery and pick pocket central
(so we have heard from the tourist horror stories)

and I am afraid to take my camera out. 

Although I never really felt unsafe....

We enjoyed the city,
but I felt less aware walking around,
less open and less focuesd!

I am in Ecuador!!!!
Really?
I can't believe this, really!