Isabel's Visit! (Part I: Baños, Quito, and Papallacta)

Javier and I returned from Peru and had a couple short days to do our laundry and prepare for our next summer adventure: Isabel's visit!  We were so excited to have the first member of the Cabezas clan to come see our Quito digs before she headed back to school.  We had discussed some options with her while we were back in the States and had a jam-packed itinerary planned for her 10 days!

She arrived safe and sound!! (And sporting the most awesome hat ever!)

After a late night arrival, we went to bed early to travel to Baños the next morning.  Day 1 meant waterfall hiking!
These two crazy kids were braver than I and crawled through a little cave to get this close to the very powerful waterfall (Pailon del Diablo)

Here I am with our visitor on the dryer, safer viewing platform!

Nothing alerts you to Ecuador's safety standards like a quick tarabita ride to the next waterfall!  Isabel seems to be enjoying it though :)

Me and Isabel in front of Manto de la Novia (the Bride's Veil)

Selfies.  Can you see that a bridge was taken out by the water just behind us?  Apparently the community dammed up a second waterfall to push all the flow to this one, but it caused some damage!

We've been to Baños a few times now.  It is a truly gorgeous place.

The next day took us a few hours away to Puyo with Imagine Ecuador.  On the way we stopped for some additional waterfall seeing.

Our first stop was a Quichua indigenous community where we tried our hand at blow gun hunting. (you know, firing darts out of a ridiculously long shaft using only your air)  Here is Isabel's attempt.

And here is our target.  We were better than you'd think...Javier had one of those darts in the chest, mine is sticking out of what would be his knee (if parrots had knees) and Isabel's is in the pole there.  Not bad for our first session.  I mean this parrot is clearly not living so we must have done something right....

While in the community we got the chance to have our faces painted with traditional, natural dye.  Yes, please.

Even Javier got in on the fun.  (We felt super authentic when we ran into some kiddos from the community that were sporting the face paint as well.)

Up next, our canoe ride down the river.  It was incredibly tranquil and beautiful.  We saw a few birds, but mostly heard the wildlife living in the surrounding trees.

We had the chance to take a short hike up a hill for what was promised as a spectacular view.  No complaints here, we could see far down the river and miles of surrounding amazon.

What we weren't told was that there was an AWESOME Tarzan swing at the lookout for those brave enough to jump.  Our guide went first, but I was a quick volunteer.  (I just told you guys about how I hate heights....so why do I love doing things like this?)  While the Casa de Arbol (The Swing at the End of the World) has an amazing view, it is not scary at all.  This. Was.  (Ecuador safety standards....)

But once I'd gone, Javier had to get in on the fun.

Isabel, too, jumped at the chance to swing out into the abyss of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

We finished our day with a guided tour through the amazon.

Awesome teepee trees.

Javier may have taken a wrong step somewhere that left him with a boot and sock full of mud.  (It was actually pretty terrifying to see how deep the mud was where he stepped and how hard it was to get him out....lightning sand)

We ran into lots of crawling creatures.  This one is crawling on Javs.

Did you know that orchids are native to Ecuador?  They are!

Also spiders.  Lots. Of. Spiders.  All very large.

This is Elizabeth who was on our tour for the day.  Don't we look so amazonian with our paint and headbands?

Our tour ended at a gorgeous waterfall.  We all stripped down and took a turn swimming around and through the falls.

On our last day in Baños, we had to take Isabel to The Swing, but it was an unfortunately cloudy day.  It didn't make for the best picture (no view) but still not a bad swing set if you ask me!

It was kind of a rainy day all around, but we decided to brave the zip lines.  Javier and I had never zip lined in Baños and were looking forward to seeing what it was like (versus our Mindo excursions) 

Isabel rocking the zip in this bat position.

Beautiful falls that we were zipping over!

These lines also offered a chance to go tandem on one line.  The siblings that zip together, stay together.

When we returned to Quito, Javier and Isabel visited the Guayasamin Museum.  (Not a bad view from the pool.)

Afterwards, we all headed south to Centro Historico. First stop: the Basilica.

I wussed out again and let Javier and Isabel do the climbing up to the towers.

No Quito tour is complete without a trip up the hill to see the Virgin.  We had some excellent weather for our touring day!

There is a great view of the city from up there!

And in front of Iglesia de San Francisco we played the part of the demons building the church for Cantuña.

That night we bundled up and walked around La Ronda, stopping in to have Isabel try authentic canelazo.

We sat on a balcony and drank our warm Ecuadorian fare with this view.

After our Quito day, we hopped in the car again for a quick dip in the Papallacta pools.  Javier and I had stayed at Termas before, but we had never been to the spa pools.  They were pretty amazing (lots of hydraulic massages) and came with these stylish swim caps.

On the way home, we stopped at school to show Isabel around (and oddly this is the only picture I have of the event)

And finished our tour of fine Quito sights with a stop at La Burguesa for burgers and shakes.

On our way to the airport we decided to cram a bit more sightseeing in!  Including this deep crater that is just past Mitad del Mundo that Javier and I had never visited. (Wahoo wah!)

Gorgeous in the early morning light.

And....of course...the opportunity to straddle two hemispheres cannot be passed

Then we were off on a flight to the coast!  If you think we fit in a lot while Isabel was in the highlands...wait 'til you see what jumped out at us on the coast!!