Ladies Weekend in YUNGUILLA

Life has been crazy busy while we have been in Ecuador.  I have absolutely loved every part of being here, but it was time for a relaxing weekend.  Our teaching and class schedule was quite different for last week and this week.  We are blessed to be here over the Cuenca Holiday because we had some time off from teaching.  Last week we didn’t have students Wednesday through Friday.  On Wednesday and Thursday we had training/meetings and we had a little bit of time to work on our beautification project.  We had Friday completely off along with Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the following week.  The Cuenca Holiday is a big deal and many things throughout the city shut down.  It’s basically a big celebration of Cuenca; there are people from other cities and countries that travel here to experience the excitement of the holiday. 

We didn’t really do too much for the holiday other than a little extra shopping.  There were a lot more markets set up because of people coming from out of town.  I saw a ton of artwork that was absolutely stunning!  If I had five suitcases to bring home I think I would have bought a lot of art.  There were huge, beautiful paintings for super cheap…in the U.S. these paintings would be sold for hundreds of dollars.  Other than shopping, our family took us to a fair during the holiday.  It kind of reminded me of State Fair and Summerfest combined.  I thought it was so sweet of them to take us.  I’m glad that we were able to go to one fair and experience a little piece of the holiday!



~Waitin for the bus~



Okay, back to our ladies weekend!  Yunguilla is a city that is about an hour or so from Cuenca that is very hot and humid.  We found out about Yunguilla from the fall students who are studying abroad here.  After they told us about it, we went to the travel agency to arrange reservations for the weekend.  We left on Saturday morning and returned back to Cuenca on Monday morning.  First of all, there are no words to describe this bus ride.  It was so insane…I have never seen a coach bus fly through the mountains so incredibly fast.  Maybe when I get home I will have overcome getting car sick all of the time…haha!  Then, the bus dropped us off on the side of a road in the middle of no where.  There were signs for our hotel so we followed a dirt path that lead us to it. 

~Walking down the dirt path to find our hotel~

~Yay, we found it!~

The hotel ended up being much different than we had imagined, but it still suited our needs for a relaxing weekend!  On Saturday night when we arrived, we sat around and played a game and watched a movie.  All day Sunday we laid out in the sun!  It was sooo relaxing and nice to have the sun beating down on us!  I couldn’t believe the temperature difference between Cuenca and Yunguilla.  I have never put on so much sunscreen before.  The sun was so intense because we were basically laying right on the equator.  We couldn’t believe that we were laying out in the hot sun on Halloween!  We were all thinking about how cold it is probably getting in Wisconsin…brrrr! 

 



~Our little cabin for the weekend!~

 

~The view from our front step~



~Greetings from all of us...on Halloween!~

                                                                       



~Rachel and I~



~Laura, Ashley & I~

~Ashley and I were the first ones to jump in the COLD water!~

~Then we got the majority of the girls to join in!~





~Looking at the beauty of the mountains~





After laying out all day we wandered around the hotel grounds to see all of the beauty that we were surrounded by! Ecuador has gorgeous flowers and they are all such pretty colors!  Exploring only took a little bit of time since we were in the middle of no where.  Both nights that we stayed at the hotel, there were amazing sunsets!



 

~BeAuTiFuL sunset from the first night~

~Pretty sunset number two!~

 



~One of many pretty flowers~



~Another pretty flower with a big bee~

We only really paid for two meals the whole weekend.  We did our best to save money and went grocery shopping before heading out for the weekend.  I know this is super dorky…but a lot of us ordered “salchipapas” which is a hot dog with French fries.  I had to post this picture because they cut their hot dogs so goofy here and I just had to show you all! 

~Our main meal for both nights...salchipapas~

~We had a long walk back up to where the bus was
going to pick us up!  It was all worth it though!~

What a wonderful weekend it was!  God is so good!  I am so thankful for the friends that he has provided me with on this trip and all of the blessings that have been given to us.  I miss you all so much!  Only about a month left until I come home!  I can’t wait to see everyone!

Sending lots of love from Ecuador,

Aimee