Cayambe, Isla de Plata

After arriving in Cayambe, we parked downtown and took a walk through a light morning misting of rain to the local cemetary, which was packed with people there for Day of the Dead. In Ecuador, as with a majority of Latin America, Day of the Dead is an extremely important holiday when families come together to visit their passed loved ones in the local cemetaries. The Cayambe cemetary had a festive air as we entered, full of mostly indiginous Ecuadorians with their telltale brimmed hats and more formal clothing than what we're used to on the coast. All were congregating at their relative's graves, if possible directly on top, and having happy picnics which all featured 'Colada Morada', a purple drink (wikipedia calls it a 'spiced porridge') with all sorts of lightly fermented fruits.

Right after the cemetary visit, where Andrea found and paid her respects to a host-sister that was buried there, we went to a local cafe and had Colada Morada and bread for the first time that day. It was delicious, and I drank a large cup not knowing that I had two more to drink before the day was over.

From central Cayambe, we got in the car and headed first to Andrea's first host-family's house, where I was introduced and we hung out in the kitchen for an hour or so catching up. This featured a large cup of Colada Morada with bread on the side, and trying to project my good-boyfriend-Ecuaness I consumed all of mine while Jason and Andrea both were content to just eat a bit.

Jumped back in the car, which we kept stopping as I popped out to take pictures of the volcano Cayambe, which peeked out of the clouds at intermittent intervals. We bounced along a rutted road that twined in between the sweeping patchwork fields of the Andean mountains, and were at Jason's host-family's house about an hour later. Jason hadn't seen this family since his orientation some 2.5 years prior, so it was funny and awkward to just drop by during Day of the Dead, when a bunch of the kids now living in Quito were back to visit. One more cup of Colada Morada and one more helping of bread later, my stomach first started to yell 'No mas!', but we enjoyed the heck out of the visit and Jason pledged to stay in better touch.

From there we headed back to Quito, where we returned the car and watched Monday Night Football! Whoohoo big city.

Two days later, Andrea's friend Elspeth arrived in Quito, and Jason and I headed south from Tabuga (I'd gone back to look after the pets) to meet them as they flew into Manta. Along with our friend Santiago and his Italian car that he drives rally-style around the empty roads of Ecuador, we headed further south to Puerto Lopez, jumping off point for Isla de Plata, or 'The Poor Man's Galapagos'. I readied my camera to take hundreds of pictures of boobies of the blue-footed variety.