much walking

hi all
We started our day going to the mercado (market) . Here there is much in the way of vegies, fruit, meats, cooked foods and juices many of which I have never seen before and we have to try everything. Today however, Rachelle is still sick and here at the mercado is a healer/natural medicine. She gave us medicine yesterday which helped and again today and this time I went too, complaining of dizzy head ( altitude not state of mind thank you very much). It helped a great deal. She was very good and tomorrow we see her again, the cost to have her help was a ghastly 30 cents. We also had fabulous fruit juices and again wonderful lunch.
We went to the new town and got used books because I read 3, this was really bad, as the books were very expensive, and as we were talking with the owner´s husband, he was a mass of contradiction in that he is american and sees much wrong in Quito, and will take his child to be educated in america but will retire here. He sees much crime but we haven´t seen a thing, fact I have never seen such helpful or honest people and there has been many times where they could have taken advantage of us, you know like not giving correct change back etc. The one thing that he did say that is very true is that the taxi drivers are a bit naughty and to correct that indiscretion you ask if their meter is on and working and wow, it is suddenly so much cheaper.
In Quito it is illegal for them not to have it on or be broken. I guess they have been pulling this little trick for a while.
Rob and I ditched the kids in the hotel as they were tired and forced hard labor, of putting them to work on their schooling and we went church hunting. Wow, in its prolific time, Quito was hugely oppulent. Although many building are in a sad state of disrepair, the churches show still much gold in the churches and gold covered carvings as good as or better than any european church as I have ever seen. It made me cry in one of them where there was mostly painting. It is enough to almost convert you.
We bought fabulous art, in new town slightly abstract but very nice and inexpensive. We will go on friday to Otovalo where the indigenous people sell their crafts/arts/foods etc. We also want to visit the volcano that erupted when we came in. It didn´t really cause any damage just got everyone really excited. This of course all depends on Rachelle and her health.
Talk with you all soon
Robin

beautiful Quito

Hi All
Here we are again, Rachelle is sick. I think it is a combination things; altitude sickness, stress, change of, well everything. The phone here is not expensive, nor is the internet. The food and thetaxi´s can be if you are not careful. We miss the dog but here in oldtown Quito she would not be allowed, they don´t want you know what on the streets. We will stay a while yet till Rachelle getsbetter. Our heads are still swimming with the altitude, also the shortness of breath is a bit of a problem. We went today to the huge Statue of the Virgin Mary she must be 4floors tall. We took a taxi up to her and thank God we did, it was very high up and combine with the altitude we would never had made it. We went to the local city museum and boy in it´s day it must have been one of themostoppulent cities. Well,people are waiting to use this computerso see you all later.

Same Day different thoughts

Hi Again:
This is for all the people who want to e-mail us. Give your name in the normal area but in the subject part please put in something that I would relate to or understand. There are alot of people out there who send out all sorts of stuff and if I don't know you or recognize you I will automaticly delete, sorry IT WHAT i do to stay sane.
Thanks
Robin

we are almost there

Hello all
Yes, we have started our journey. After a frenzzzzzzied last night of moving out of the house, we found that the trailer we had bought was not okey dokey, in fact it was a wopsy daisy. The trailer and van combination was not working so plan B came into effect. Therefore we will not go with the dog to mexico and endure scorpions and snakes. This is plan B, we get into a plane with several transfers and land our tender and tired behinds in Quito, Equador. I feel like a Monte Python movie, "and now for something completely different". We have said our fairwells to many folks and the dog is going to visit auntie Marcy and uncle Dirk in Enderby for about 7-8 weeks. We are waiting on baited breath for Rachelle's school books and repack for backpacks. We have convinced the kids that there should only be the neccessities, therefore the reference books for drawing and the oh so fashionable extra clothes are out. There were several other omittions but they were just tooooo private to mention. She is 16 after all. The game plan following is that we will come back to Canada and stay for the summer and enjoy the Okanagan one more time so that Rob and Rachelle can work and increase the funds for travelling.
Oh my god I forgot, we did a cleanse that is so amazing, I will discuss it later, but I will say this I am sure that I passed living cancer. Royal Body Care is the main name, wowowowowow. I will not be carrying old stuff of this last part of life and it went happily out the back door.
Talk with you all soon.
Robin