Hello Ecuador

It's been a couple weeks since we updated the blog. Our last couple of weeks in Medellin were filled with fun with our roomies. We had a great Christmas dinner with our friends from around the world, Gina from the Leavenworth, WA. (yep believe it or not) Eilidh and Sandy from Scotland, Magnus from Denmark and Travis from Texas as well as our new friend from Seattle, Casey. Some of us went paragliding again on Christmas Day and the day after we took a trip up to Guatape (a beautiful little town up in mountains, where we zip lined and walked up 740 steps to the top of a huge rock. We were again sorry to have to say goodbye but that's the way it goes when traveling. Hopefully we will see each other again down the trail and we can stay in touch on the computer. We flew out of Colombia on New Years Eve. At the airport we got there nice and early so as to avert any problems. We went to check in with our airline and they said we could not board unless we had a return ticket out of Ecuador! We had heard of some people having this problem but it seems to be an issue with some airlines and not with others. The agent told us we could buy a bus ticket from Ecuador to just over the border of Peru. After two hours of trying it seems you cannot buy a bus ticket online that crosses the border, it has to be bought in Ecuador. Our old roommate said that he avoided the problem by using a website that prints out a fake ticket. I looked for half an hour and finally found the site, not knowing if this would work or not. We looked up a real flight for three months in the future and filled in all the blanks on the website form, hit print and voila we had a ticket. Now we were not sure if they would take it. Leiann showed the ticket on her I-pad to the agent who didn't look twice and we were on the plane, yay! We cleared customs in Ecuador without issue and a taxi took us to our room, no issues except that across form our hotel the music (at 11:45) was blasting but hey it is Latin America and it's New Years Eve (Happy New Year!). During our stay at our Hotel (which is a little more like a hostel with private rooms, we met Jake. We talked to Jake at breakfast and found out that he was a former minister and was bringing his family to live in Ecuador. He had come down to check things out first and find a place for them to stay if all looked well for them. We had already rented a place with an extra bedroom so we invited Jake to stay with us as we believed that that's what God would have us do. It has worked out great so far and we enjoy our discussion about spiritual living, exploring new places and what God has in store for us.
We have now been in Cuenca for four days and so far we love it. We have rented a nice apartment with two bedrooms, two bath, 1800sq ft, place with a security gate for $380 a month including utilities (we pay for the internet, $35 a month). We have been running around getting our bearings, finding out where the grocery stores are, bus lines, taxi's, strolling the town, and finding a place to watch the Seahawks! There are 16 cathedrals in town not counting the small churches. The old town is very cool with lots of history) (oldest church was started in 1557). There are several town squares and parks. There are four rivers running along and through the town. Cuenca sits slightly over 8,000 feet so even though it sits at the equator it is cool (45 low max at night to 80 high max during the day)We will most likely stay in Ecuador for six months with a break to go down to Peru for a month, so seven months total and we have to leave the country or get our citizenship. We are only allowed to stay in Ecuador six months max in any 365 days. Stay tuned for more adventure as we head out to the Galapagos islands, explore Inca villages, visit the Amazon and take a trip to Machu Picchu.