28 not so great. . .

At the beginning of June, Mike and I each celebrated our birthdays. Some say that bad luck comes in threes so we'll hope that this is true. It started with Mike's Dad letting us know that he would not be able to join us in Peru and would have to reschedule around 9PM very near when my actual birthday occurred. Although we both understood we were both disappointed. Thomas, Mike's brother, would still be coming down but I had lost my blue circle traveling buddy (in the skiing sense, not their airport security line skills). Whereas Michael and Thomas are more of black diamond travelers erring on the side of extreme and moving fast, Mike's Dad and I enjoy taking it all in. The next blow came the following day when our camera was stolen within 20 minutes of bus ride from Cuenca. The rest of the day was spent in the police station and then on a later bus replaying what things we should have done differently to prevent the theft. However, hindsight is 20/20 and there was nothing we could do- the camera was gone. We finally arrived around midnight on the other side of the border in Tumbes, Peru. Clearly it had been a long day and we were both looking forward to a good night's sleep and a hot shower. We arrived at the hotel and took out our Peruvian money. We handed the owner a 100 sole bill that we had gotten back in April and were told that it was counterfeit. Luckily he said we could just pay tomorrow since going to an ATM at that time of night would not be safe or fun. Well the first 28 hours didn't turn out so great but we're hoping for better luck now that Thomas will be with us to add to the fun.

From Banos

This being said our birthdays were quite fun before the bad luck began. For Mike's birthday we were in Banos, Ecuador enjoying the hospitality of Mary Beth's Ecuadorean family. They took us on a waterfall tour, to the hot springs, and Sarah made a birthday dinner complete with cake. The excitement of Banos was increased with the sounds of the exploding volcano nearby. Because of the volcano the town was a little less crowded than normal and it was nice to be with locals for a change.

My birthday was spent in the beautiful town of Cuenca. We stayed in a wonderful hostel and I awoke to find two dozen roses in our room that Mike had gotten from the local flower market early in the morning. Many of the roses in the US come from Ecuador and they were very beautiful. We spent the day exploring the city's churches, a mosaic exhibit, and shared a delicious piece of chocolate cake. That night we walked to dinner. We picked a restaurant on the second floor of the corner of the plaza. This turned out to be the perfect spot. We sat by the window and fifteen minutes into the meal a celebration began of Corpus Christi in the plaza below. Fireworks and floating candles were lit before our eyes. However, it was not uncommon for the fireworks not to go straight up and they seemed to land right in the crowds of people gathered below. We watched safely from our balcony and just enjoyed the moment. It was truly magical evening that we won't soon forget.