But the highlight of the night was our ride back. We decided to ride the Ecovia to go home, something that Lynn has been trying to get me to do and I’ve been avoiding. The regular bus is not bad but the Ecovia is packed whenever I see it. Not just standing room only but more like a can of sardines, all swished together. But, this night it wasn’t too crowded as we got on and most of us were able to get seats for the mile or so ride. As we were approaching our stop I remembered Lynn saying that you need to get by the door as you approach your stop so you can get off so that’s what I did. Sister Greer was standing right next to me and we both exited together. As we turned around to wait for the others to get off we saw the door close on them. They had been behind and helping the dueño, who was moving fairly slowing, to get off and the doors closed on them, cutting them off. It actually looked quite funny, with the dueño pounding on the door and I could see Sister Kaneen just kind of wave at us as the bus took off. I wished I had my camera out and could have taken a picture of it. Sister Greer and I decided to wait outside our apartment building to make sure they were able to get back. They had to go to the next stop which was several blocks down the road. Sister Kaneen and Sister Platts returned on the next bus but the dueño didn’t want to get back on the Ecuvia and wanted to walk back so Sister Nuttall and Sister Allred walked with her. As they were coming back and were crossing one of the intersections there were two emergency vehicles trying to go through the intersection: one from one direction and the other on the crossing street. There were cars in the way of one of them and it was honking it’s horn, trying to get them out of the way. They don’t seem to have the same laws that we do in the US requiring vehicles to clear the way for emergency vehicles. They have to get through however they can. All the other ladies finally made it back and we all had a good laugh at the experience. But, I am more convinced than ever to avoid using the Ecovia as much as possible.
We have two missionaries who have visas that will be expiring the first week of November. It had been decided that we should try to get them renewed a month before they expire to allow time for the process to be completed. The Quito mission has four who also need to be renewed. Lynn and I prepared the packets. Bro. Chamorro, who helps Lynn with getting all these government issues taking care of, said that there was a new paper or letter that is now supposed to be included in the packets. He has been trying to get what is needed. Each week we hope that they can go to get the process started but something keeps happening to delay the process. They thought that they could go this last week and at least get the process stared even though they still didn’t have the necessary letter. Bro. Chamorro called to tell the government office that he was bringing in six missionaries and they said that only four could come at a time. They decided to do the Quito missionaries this week and the two from our mission next week. But, it was all to no avail because when they went in they were told that that the necessary paper or letter had to be with the packets before they could even start the process. It’s one of the most frustrating things that Lynn has to deal with is how often they change requirements and policies with anything having to do with the government; everything from visa renewals to the empadronamientos. He is learning to take it in stride and tries to see the humor in the whole thing as he and Elder Nuttall work together on getting the necessary things accomplished so that the missionaries can do what they were sent here to do, share the gospel message with the people of Ecuador.
Friday and Saturday was our trip to Baños. It was a fun trip, though it did rain part of the time to put a bit of a “damper “ to our trip. We left at about 8:30am Friday by taxis from our apartment to the bus station where we took an inter-city bus for $4 each to Baños which took about 3 hours. They showed a very gory movie on the bus that none of us enjoyed, but we passed interesting scenery along the way and arrived in Baños at about 1pm or so. It was a few blocks from the bus station to our hotel, La Floresta Hotel. After signing in and getting settled into our rooms we found a nice restaurant for lunch, explored the city and signed up for a bus tour for Saturday to see several of the falls and sites along the way.
As we were walking around Baños, seeing what there was to see, we came upon two sister missionaries from the Quito mission. They were excited to see us and introduced us to a couple of their investigators and one convert that happened to come by.
One of our stops as we were exploring was to see the Church of the Virgin of the Holy Water (Nuestra Senora del Agua Santa). The town of Baños is famous for this magnificent Basilica, a place of pilgrimage for those seeking to thank the Virgin of the Holy Water for her many miracles. It had a beautiful courtyard and inside the cathedral was very beautiful, pretty much like most we have seen. I didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures, as they were having a service while we were there. There was one plaque that interested Lynn. It honoring the virgin Mary as the first disciple of Christ, she being the first to be witness to his Holy birth, or something like that.
As we were walking along seeing the sites my feet were hurting and I would find places to sit for a minute. At one point there was a plastic stool just outside of one of the shops and I sat down on it. No sooner did I sit then the whole thing kind of shattered under me and I fell to the ground. It was a bit embarrassing but I didn’t get hurt. I’m glad no one got a picture of that. It would be soooo embarrassing. After that Lynn and I went back to our room and I took a nap. When they others went to dinner later that evening Lynn and I weren’t very hungry so we didn’t join them. All through the evening you could hear explosions as someone was setting off rockets or something. As Lynn went for a walk he noticed a man who would set off these rockets, move on to the next street and set off another one, moving from street to street. I’m not sure what the purpose was. They started up again the next morning before 5am. It was a bit annoying, being woken up with the noise.
Saturday, after Lynn and I ate breakfast, which was provided for as part of our room, we went for a walk to the bottom of one of the falls which not too far from the hotel and at the edge of town. He had gone there the night before and told me about it. It had a fountain of “holy water” (as mentioned above in regards to the Basilica) and there was a hot springs swimming area.
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| The fountain of the "holy waters" |
We then went back to the hotel to pack up our things, sign out and pay so we could go to the Geotours office to catch our tour bus ride, which we were told would leave from their office at 10:30am. We had a little bit of time so we checked out some of the shops close by. Lynn found his perfect hat. It was reversible, black on one side and light brown on the other, for about $10. It’s a good replacement for his grungy one that has seen better days.
As we waited there someone came and got us and had us follow him. He took us right back to our hotel where two buses came and picked us up right across the street. Someone sure didn’t have their information right. If we had known we would have stayed at the hotel and saved ourselves the walk to and from the tour office. The buses were double decker buses with the top open.
There was a family on the bus with us that we came to find out had a connection to Sister Platts. As we were visiting with them we found out that the wife had served a mission hear in Ecuador. She met her husband here. He is from Ecuador. After they married they moved to Alberta, Canada, where she’s from. Sister Platts has a son-in-law that is from the same area in Canada. As it turns out this man is good friends with the father of Sister Platts son-in-law and, in fact, had been his home teacher. It amazes me how small this world is and no matter where we go we will run in to people that we find a connection with.
The tour was fun and had interesting places to see. The first stop had some cable cars to go back and forth across the river. They also had a zip line. Lynn and several of the others went on the cable car ride. I chose not to as I’m a bit scared of heights. Lynn wanted to go on the zip line as well but they had a limit of 200 lbs. so he couldn’t do it.
We made several stops along the way and got some good views of the waterfalls. About half way through the tour it started raining and we had to try and fit everyone in the bottom level of the bus to be out of the rain. For the last stop to see the last waterfall we had to walk to see the falls. I went part way and the further it went the more I could see that I would have a tough time so I turned back. Sister and Elder Kaneen didn’t go either. The others said the trail was pretty tough but seeing the falls was worth it.
As we got back from the bus tour we had to hurry and get our luggage, which we had left in the office of the hotel, and go to the bus station to purchase our tickets for the bus leaving at 5:20pm. We had an hour to get a bite to eat and found a nice little restaurant that served us quickly and had good food.
One of the shops we visited as we had time to kill was a shop where they made things out of the tagua nut.
Here’s a little background:
The tagua nut is a dried seed from the tagua palm tree, which grows in tropical rain forests of South America (Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Brazil).
Tagua is also known as natural ivory or vegetable ivory, because its similarity with ivory (it's hard, unbreakable, resistant and beautiful), but tagua is natural, they don't have to kill elephant in order to get it.
The tagua nut comes in a fruit that carries multiples nuts. Each nut has a shell that contains the seed. This seed is the size of a chicken egg and is covered in a thin brown skin.
The nuts are sun-dried for 4 to 6 months before they can be worked with. Once dried, tagua can be carved and polished to a bright shine. Tagua's natural color is white but it is easily to dye and can be found in different bright colors or pastel light colors.
While we were in the shop there was a craftsman who was working with the tagua and I got a short video of him making a button, which he gave me. I’ll see if I can send the video so you can see how it’s done.
For our ride back on the bus Elder Greer requested that they not show a movie with gore. They showed “The Ultimate Gift”, which was good. It’s a good thing I’ve watched it before since it was in Spanish, even the sub-titles. He should have requested with no sex in it as well since the second movie was horrible. I’m not even sure what the title was. I tried to sleep most of the time. We got back about 9:30pm. We were able to have the bus stop just a few blocks from our apartment building. Even though it was a fun trip it was nice to get back to our own, familiar beds.
One thing I really have a hard time with as we do some of these trips is using the public restrooms. It was the same way in Mexico. This trip was no exception. You are required to pay, usually fifteen cents, and get a few sheets of toilet paper and no seat on the toilet. This one at the bus station was a unisex restroom with open urinals, but at least some of the stalls had doors. This is besides the fact that they don’t want you to flush the toilet paper down the toilet. You are supposed to put it in the garbage can provided. I would avoid using them except there’s not much of a choice. When you gotta go ya gotta go and three to four hours is a long time to wait.
We got word today that we have another grandchild expected in May. Ammon and Heather are now expecting. With Jarom and Michele’s baby expected in December that brings our total to 40, counting our two step-grandkids. We are so excited to welcome each new member to the family. We feel so blessed as our family continues to grow. There is nothing in this life that means more to us than seeing our family staying strong and faithful and making good choices in life.
A short update on Ammon and Heather’s son, Matt as per Ammon:
“Matthew has recovered well from his stay at the hospital. There are no lingering symptoms that Heather and I can detect except that sometimes he says his head hurts or he feels dizzy, we worry a bit and he gets better.”
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