Cayambe

Hello everyone! Last time I mentioned that Marcia (I work with her in the resources room at La Got de Leche school downtown) had invited me to her home in Cayambe. Well, she did and I went and had a lovely time. She said I could bring someone along if I wanted to so I brought fellow volunteer Audrey--as soon she saw us Marcia said to me "I thought you'd bring her," which I think means it's obvious that we're good friends.



Anywho, when someone invites you over to their home, they want you to be with them the whole day. We got there in the morning and weren't getting on the bus to go home until it had long been dark out. Cayambe is a small town a little over an hour away from Quito where the flower industry operates heavily. Marcia's husband works for a flower grower and he spent about an hour showing us photos of flower arrangements. It was cute.

If you ask me what we did all day, I'd have to say we talked, drank coffee, made lunch, went to a cemetery and talked more. We went to the market for lunch supplies and Marcia told me to get anything I wanted (everyone else would be having chicken, so I decided to make a nice big salad, which is something I don't get to do very often).

This is aji. It's delicious but if you're going to eat it
you better know what you're getting into.

This was the day after Dia de los Muertos so the cemetery was full of flowers and other offerings. The holiday isn't celebrated in Ecuador as it is elsewhere--it's much more somber here, though not at all sorrowful. I took a few photos as discreetly as I could get away with...

It says "don't throw trash."

The outside of Marcia's house.

That's all for now. My high school girls have invited me to the park on Sunday (we're all really excited about it) so I'll let you know how that goes. Until then, take care!

Love, Mare