On the Road Again After a Week at Home

Pleased to have hassle-free, on-time flights carrying us back home from Ecuador our family enjoyed connecting with hometown friends right away. Knowing we'd only have about one week in Peterborough before leaving again, we decided to stay with friends in neighboring Greenfield instead of moving back in to our packed-up home.  We were warmly welcomed by the Hannings family.

We enjoyed the social aspect of frequently eating dinners together. Baths were a treat--especially bubble baths in the jacuzzi tub!

Stacy completed the spa treatment by painting the boys' nails in glow-in-the-dark colors.

While we were in Latin America, we relied on Valli to process our mail and check on our house. Rob helped take care of some electrical work I'd left unfinished in our basement. Their helpfulness didn't stop when we arrived. They loaned us vehicles, cleared a bedroom in their house for us, and made us feel Valli's welcome words were genuine: "Mi casa es tu casa."

We packed a lot into the week. We took care of things like lawn mowing and annual planting at our house. The boys kept a busy schedule of play dates catching up with friends. Shelly and I both enjoyed connecting with local friends whether for a lunch, a bike ride, or a low-key home visit. 

The one Saturday we were in the area happened to be Peterborough's annual Children and the Arts Festival--a favorite of our family. We connected with many friends while roaming the streets that were closed to cars. Of course we caught the parade.

Faces painted and ready for the parade to come by.

This year's theme was dragons.

The boys played impromptu tag with various friends.

And we enjoyed the free programs the festival offers, including face painting, clay modeling, and an amazing marionette show. What fun!

Also important to accomplish during this week was preparation for the second chapter of our sabbatical adventure in which we will drive cross country with a heavy emphasis on camping in our national parks. We had to collect our gear from its various storage locations and purchase a vehicle worthy of carrying it all plus towing a camper that we plan to pick up half way across the country.

We've managed to fill it up and hang four bikes off the back.

It's Memorial Day and our road trip has started in Maine. Our first month should carry us through 17 states visiting friends and family. After that, it'll be time to camp our way around the western states. We'll post the good, bad, and ugly as our road trip unfolds.

12 Souvenirs We're Bringing Home Today

Today we begin our homeward journey. If all goes as planned, it'll involve three countries, three planes, two vans, one bus, zero beds, and about 24 hours of travel. Based on our travel from the U.S. to Guatemala and our stuttering attempts to get to Ecuador we don't expect everything to go smoothly, but we do assume we'll be able to survive whatever gauntlet we encounter.

We're bringing home the same two checked bags and five carry-ons we've toted around for three months on the road. The souvenirs we're bringing home can't take up much room. Here are twelve lasting ones that take no room at all:

1. The Sound of the Shore

Day and night, we've listened to waves crashing on the beach for seven weeks. We'll miss the real thing, but will play this soothing "noise machine" in our heads for months to come.

2. Sunset Images

Sunsets must be one of the universal images of beauty.  We've never tired of turning our eyes westward over the Pacific in the evenings.  The peaceful, steady retreat of our favorite star is at once reassuring and mesmerizing.

3. Love of a Dog

With a cat as the queen of our New Hampshire home for the past 9 years, it's unexpected that we fell for a dog in Ecuador. Parting today is difficult for us and perhaps at least a little disappointing to our four-legged friend.

4. A Bug for Action Sports

Already lovers of skiing, biking, and anything that makes their mom nervous, our boys have now dabbled in new sports like surfing and paragliding.  Can't help but wonder if rides in fast boats, pick-up truck beds, and cable cars don't also add fuel to the fire of extreme adventure burning in our family. 

5. Mental Postcards

We can fill a virtual scrapbook with mental postcards from some must-see places in Latin America. The Middle of the World. Click. The procession during Lent in colonial Antigua. Snap. View of Quito's Old Town from the belfry of the Basilica. Click. The volcanic panorama afforded by expansive Lake Atitlan. Snap. Vibrant colors from the markets of Guatemala. Click. Even as these mental postcards might blur a little over time, the personal stories behind them will endure.

6. Familiarity with Spanish

Shelly and I have achieved enough competence in Spanish to venture about Latin America without the need of a phrasebook. That we use only present tense verbs hasn't seemed to hinder our ability to navigate public transportation, shop for basics, order from menus, and have simple conversations with new acquaintances. 

The boys seem more guarded about their abilities but it's with pleasure that Shelly and I listen to them have entire conversations with each other in Spanish. They don't realize how much they've absorbed through exposure. We hope this is a souvenir they'll appreciate as they grow.

7. The Warmth of the People of San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala

Though our Latin American experience has been one of what some call slow travel, we have encountered hundreds of people from public servants to shopkeepers to friends to professionals.  In our experience, the people of San Pedro were the warmest to us. Our slowly developing language skills were tolerated. Despite the low economic strata of nearly all whom we met in San Pedro, we felt neither begrudged nor superior for the coincidence of our birth in a first world nation. In short, of the local people we've met in our travels we felt the most mutual genuineness with our warm friends in San Pedro.

8. Friendship with the Garcia Family

Many of you have already read our detailed account of our Guatemalan host family and know that we are lucky to have a special bond with them. We've stayed in touch with Mayda since leaving and know that we'll be back to visit her family some day. Our relationship with this family has helped us gain a special insight into Mayan culture and the challenges of modern Guatemalan living. Hopefully an ongoing relationship with Mayda and Mauricio will elevate our understanding to a dynamic, four-dimensional view.

9. Appreciation for the Comforts of Home

There might be nothing quite like being sick in a foreign land to help a traveler appreciate the comforts of home. At any given moment the specific comfort topping the list might be abundant hot water or better plumbing or access to familiar foods. Hard to tell how long that appreciation will last, but with a plan to spend several of the next months camping we might continue to appreciate what we don't have.

10. A Chill Pill

One of travel's gifts is perspective. When we think of the stresses that filled our minds back home we sometimes realize the relative luxury of having "first world problems." We have never had to stress over finding enough wood to cook the day's tortillas.

Similarly, we can see how hyper-vigilant we are about safety in the U.S.. Industries seem built on marketing fear--especially related to children. Though some may find us neglectful, it hasn't been hard to get used to riding in vehicles without car seats for the kids (or seats at all some times). We've ridden bikes without helmets (gasp!). We'll abide by the laws of the land when we return home, but as a general rule common sense seems a better place to start.

11. Insatiable Curiosity

Another of travel's gifts is an expanding worldview. By participating in other cultures, our family has learned how some people live differently than we do. But more importantly, we fly home knowing that we've only scratched the surfaces of cultural and geographic diversity. Which begs the question: What else haven't we experienced? 

We're fortunate to have amassed a collection of souvenirs that we'll cherish for years to come. Perhaps the one we'll cherish most is the last:

12. Family Confidence

At the onset of our travels, we expected that lots of time together experiencing cool things would be valuable to the strength of our nuclear family. What we've found even more fortifying has been handling adversity. Though not fun at the time, events like our missed flight to Ecuador and our crazy arrival in Guatemala tested the mettle of our family and showed us that we can still thrive in tough situations. It gives us the feeling that together, we can do anything. 

The Life of Leisure

How do you measure a year?

Our previous posts testify that we could measure our coastal Ecuadorian chapter in bike rides. In waves ridden. In balls fetched. In shells collected. In 80+ degree days. In sunsets. 

Despite some bumps in the road, it's been true leisure . Below are more recent additions to the ways in which we could measure this slice of our sabbatical pie.

Fun in the Sand

Buried treasure in Montanita.

Choco decides the debris hut we're building is for him.

Sand soccer is popular in the villages at low tide.

Finding Things

The boys love shell collecting, cleaning, and sorting.

Capturing critters is fun too.  Crabs, hermit crabs, snails, fish, beetles. . . .

Some things we leave where we find them.

This guy was tricky to spot.

Kayaking

Atticus puts the floaty back on for ocean kayaking.

Baxter likes it as a dive platform.

Riding the waves in is the trickiest (and most thrilling) part.

Swimming

Racing for balls in the pool with a friend.

Horsing around in the pool.

Sunset swim at Puerto Lopez.

Exploring

Remains of indigenous people unearthed at Agua Blanca in Machalilla National Park.

The savages we found in the park (after they bathed themselves in mud from the sulfur pool).

Our cameras haven't been great at capturing the diversity of birds nor focused on the most quiet moments of book reading. Suffice it to say that on-camera or off- we've thoroughly enjoyed this Eden. 

When my watch battery died a bit ago, I realized how superfluous the watch is in this lifestyle. Perhaps the defining element of this leisurely chapter of our sabbatical year is that it isn't measured at all. It just is.

How Old Do You Have to Be to Paraglide?

This week we were curious how old you had to be to paraglide in Ecuador.  Our hosts drove us to the most popular spot for paragliding locally so that I could try the sport for the first time.  But of course our adventure-seeking children wanted to know if they could try too.  Well. . . .

Lift off for Marshall.

And a calm flight over the ocean.

Shelly joins the fun.

And she flies with the birds.

The view from her lap.

Baxter excitedly waves to Mom and Dad overhead.

Atticus catches the attention of a TV cameraman when he tries on some gear.

Why not hook him up all the way?

And send him on his way!

All smiles.

I guess five is old enough!

And of course Baxter is too!

Baxter sails above it all.

Double thumbs up!

And a fourth safe landing for our family.

Of course about six seconds later we heard, "Can we do it again?"  Perhaps another day.  One flight each was a pretty good start.  So if the boys are flying at ages five and seven, it causes us to wonder what Shelly mused out loud: "What are they going to be doing as teenagers?"

It's possible our boys will have a warped sense of "normal" and of "adventure" later in life.  But for now, we're enjoying making the most of this unusual year that is our sabbatical sojourn.

The People You Meet

When we stayed in Guatemala for seven weeks, we loved the local people we met.  We wrote a bit about our teachers but mostly about our wonderful host family.

After nearly four weeks on the Ecuadorian coast, our interactions have been much more frequent and substantial with gringos than with local Ecuadorians.  Our hosts here, Marsha and Shell, hail from Arkansas but moved here 4 years ago to retire.  As they built their beach house with extra guest rooms for their visiting family and friends, they realized they could add another floor and use the house to host paying guests.  And so this bed and breakfast was born.

Shell is a former bank president who likes to keep busy with projects.  In addition to overseeing the building of this beach house he has bought, remodeled, and sold other property along the coast.  He's a story-teller and willing guide for his guests.

Marsha holds the stronger command of Spanish and helps direct the day to day operations of the house, which includes managing a staff of two housekeepers and two groundskeepers.  Her background as CPA helps her keep the finances of running this business and of the other real estate ventures in the black.

Our three hosts: Shell, Marsha, and Choco.

Above all, Marsha and Shell are consummate hosts.  They anticipate needs, continuously improve the experience, and go well beyond what's expected.  We've been impressed by their subtle generosity.  It manifests in many ways such as when Shell dropped by our room to ask the boys if they had left two LED light sticks in the yard.  The boys said no, but Shell said they could have them anyway.  It was clear to Shelly and me that Shell had gotten the light sticks for the boys but just didn't want to make us feel indebted.  Classy.

Because of these great American hosts, many of the other people we've met here have been Americans as well.  We've met many expatriates living nearby as Shell and Marsha seem to be a central part of that community.  Most of these expats have chosen to retire on the coast in Ecuador though some still live in the U.S. or Canada six months of the year for professional reasons.

We've met entrepreneurs from the States who have started businesses in Ecuador.  Most of the younger entrepreneurs live in Ecuadorian cities like Guayaquil and Cuenca where there's a bigger population base and access to resources like quality education.  Coastal visits are vacations for these people.

Another batch of people we've met are paid by you--American taxpayers.  DEA agents, consular staff, and security officers enjoy hitting the coast and the familiar warmth of the hosts at our B&B.  With fascination we've listened to their world-travel stories, their perspective of Ecuador, and details of their careers we'd guess most Americans have no idea about.

Also funded by you, even if at much less expense, are the peace corps workers we've met--fourteen in all so far.  Only one volunteer, Pam, is assigned to this village but she has twice hosted other volunteers from around the country for workshops.  Pam's assignment is to educate and empower women in La Entrada to build viable businesses of their own.  Her first venture is a collective in which she taught the local women how to make and market recycled paper goods.

What we've discerned through these interactions is a kind of "third culture" that's neither Ecuadorian nor American.  It has elements of both brought in and at the same time seems to create a fantastical culture that doesn't really exist--a culture where people take what they like from two different cultures and try to have the best of both worlds.  This third culture is quite alluring, but we suspect it's elusive to many.

Interspersed among all of these foreigners, we have met and engaged many Ecuadorians too--the staff here, Ecuadorian guests, our surf instructor, shopkeepers, and villagers.  We've used those opportunities to practice our Spanish.  Hopping on local buses, hiring guides, and navigating menus has been much easier thanks to our intensive time in Guatemala.

But in all candor, this stretch of weeks is less about cultural immersion and more about taking in what this locale has to offer.  And it's a cornucopia!

Deciding What's Next

We have one week left on our original booking at the lovely bed and breakfast in La Entrada, Ecuador.  What then?

It feels like we lost some time here with Atticus contracting the chicken pox virus.  With him not able to go in the pool or to be around other vulnerable people, we've created a bit of quarantine for him.  We've used the emailed guidelines of our home doctor to create a safe regimen.

Swinging in our hammock.

A very literal oatmeal bath.

Cruising the empty beach on the Huffy.

Playing in the sand.

And hanging out with his buddy Choco.

In a few days, Atticus will enjoy being able to eat meals with other people, swim in the pool, play with kids, and visit nearby attractions.  We'll relish that freedom too.  But all in all, it's not a bad place to have had to recuperate!

So what to do. . . .  Should we extend our time here so that we can resume surfing lessons, visit local sites we've not yet seen, and continue to enjoy the relaxing atmosphere?  Or should we spend a few weeks and more of our sabbatical budget exploring altogether different places like Peru or the Galapagos Islands?  Travelers have to use their time and money either to cover a lot of ground or to soak up more fully what a few places have to offer.

Though making decisions like these isn't easy, it's nice when the choices are all good ones.  

Despite the urge to explore more of the continent, Shelly and I have chosen to stay put using La Entrada as our home base for the next 30 days.  Would you have chosen the same?

Here's choosing to "live deep and suck all the marrow out of life" on the Ecuadorian coast!