catching up

Well  it has being a while since my last blog, and to be honest i have been kind of lazy about it.

 

So to make things short i will not say that much about Ecuador since Dan, Cory and Jordan have wrote so much about their experiences there.

 

Mmmmmmm well yes im going to say one thing, the country is awesome, and we were able to meet a lady that housed Che Guevara in Cuba in 1951.

 

Well we are currently in Arica Chile, we just got here from Peru this morning and so far we are loving it. The first thing we did when we got to Chile was get a taxi from the bus station to McDonalds, we were so hungry that we all got 2 cheeseburgers each. After that we got to a hostal, I had a good shower and we walked around the city for a little while, ate pizza, fed a dog and went back to the hostal again.

 

Well now let me get back to a few days ago, well to be more exact lets back up a week ago. On october 23 we got a bus from Loja Ecuador to Piura Peru. When we got to the city i was just praying to God, dont allow us to stay here, im not trying to be mean or disrespectful but Piura was full of trash on the street and it looked so dirty that i just wanted to get out of there. So we all came to the agreement that we should go to the next city Trujillo Peru, and the story was repeated again and thanks to God we all agreed to head on to the next city, Lima, and well in was not such a big difference between the past two cities and since we need to fly back home from Lima we decided to continue more to the south, so we headed to Pisco Peru. We were all aware that so far Peru was not our favorite country to stay in but we needed to do something there so we got a hostal and stayed there for almost a week, it was not because we loved it so much, but was because there was so much need there. We were able to do the biggest good deed so far in this trip, a home makeover peruvian edition. (Im sure most of you guys are aware of that, if not check the web site lol)

 

Peru is not one of our favorites (except Machu picchu ) but is the one where we were able to be close to the people and got to see how people live there, and also is the place where we did a lot of physical work building Jimmy's house.

 

It was not all bad in Peru, we were actually able to visit Machu picchu this past Monday and the place rocks! funny fact (Jordan pooped on the Machu pichu ruins) unfortunately Dan was unable to go with us since he was sick with a stomach infection. We were hit with some stomach infections in peru, but thanks to God we are all fine now or a least a lot better.

 

Well i promise not to go another two weeks without posting our experiences since we only have 10 more days on this trip.

Pics from Ecuador

1st Time in the Snow

El dia de ayer fue un buen dia, y el dia anetgrior mucho major.

Pero primero que nada dejemme comentarles lo que paso ayer, por primera vez visite la nieve. Y fue en la Montana Cambaya en el Ecuador. Aunque vive por mas de 10 anos  en California a unas 4 horas de las montanas de Big Bear por una razon u otra nunca me fue possible visitor Big Bear durante el tiempo de nieve, por los ultimos 8 anos e vivido en Baja California y al igual en la Rumorosa suele never en estas epocas, nunca me avia tocado visitar en tiempo de Nevada :) pero la espera se acabo el dia de ayer gracias a Diego, quien cordialmente nos llevo por los andes asta la Montana Cambaya. Nos tomo alrededor de 3 horas llegar entre calles empedradas y terraserias llegamos a nuestro destino. Y sin pensarlo dos veces Cory, Jordan y yo, comensamos a scalar asta encontrar la ta anciada nieve :) y lo hicimos. (desafortunadamente Dan no nos acompano asta la nieve ya que su asma no se lo permitio, y Diego solo nos dejo cerca de la cima y se quedo hai esperandonos) aparte de scalar, hacer angeles en la nieve, tomae muchas fotos y guerrear con bolas de nieve, despues de hai nos dirigimos a comer una tipica comida Ecuatoriana que consiste de Carne de purco marinada, papas, maiz frito, maiz cosido, aguacate y slasa de queso, y para decir verdad esa comida fue muy deliciosa a todos nos encato, Diego es una gran persona en nuestro regreso de la Montana, como na hay tramsporte le dio raite a 4 adultos y a un bebe a la ciudad, ellos querian pagarle sin embargo el no lo permitio, (el solo decia es una forma de ayudarte) y eso no es todo despues de la comida nos llevo a un marivilloso laga llamado Cuicocha aligual a provar un helado natural echo 100% de la manera Antigua, este hombre si que es grandiose trato de ensenarnos lo mas que pudo de su pais en un dia.

Yesthurday was a good day, and the day before even better.

First of all let me tell you the for the first time in my life I been to the snow, and it was at the Cuayambe mountain in Ecuador, even do I live for more than 10 years in California 3 hours away from Big Bear mountain for one reason or another is was never to get there during snow season :) even now the I live in Baja California there is snow on the mountains on the west side on Baja. But the wait is over thanks to Diego who gladly took us near the mountain so we can claim up to the snow, it took almost 3 hours to get there in the bumpy road but after the ride Cory, Jordan and I were able to get to snow and take some amazing pictures, make snow angels and even get in to a snow fight, Cory and Jordan against me :) (Dan was unable to get to the snow due to he's asthme :( and Diego  just left us close to the top and he stayed there waiting for us)  after that Diego took us to have some typical Ecuadorian food the consist of marinated pork stews, whole potatoes, fry corn, cook corn agucate and cheese sauce for the potatoes and to be honest the food was delicious, Diego is such a great guy :) and our way back from the mountain since there is no public transportation Diego give a ride to the city to 5 adults and one infant dropping them in different places, they were willing to paid but he will said the is a wait to help you :)and that's not all he also took us to the Cuicocha lake who by the way is beautiful and to eat homemade ice cream which is made the old fashion way and is delicious :)  

El sabado fue incredible, nos levantamos despues de las 6am, el Pastor Julio nos recogio en el hotel despusito de las 7am y nuestra odisea comenzo, despues de un trallecto de mas de 2 horas pudimos llegar a algunas comunidades indigenas las cuales isguen con sus tradiciones ancestrales, sin embargo el Pastor Julio y su Iglesia estan llegando a esas aldeas con el Evangelio de nuestro Senor Jesucristo, al momento cuenta con cuatro pequenas Iglesias en cuatro de las comunidades, y la verdad es incredible como esa gente lo quieren y lo respetan, sin duda alguna el es un hombre de Dios dedicadi a las misiones cual su meta es tener una iglesia en cada aldea con un lider de la region no de la ciudad para que ellos continuen la encomienda.

Saturday was awesome, we got up after 6am and Pastor Julio pick us up from the hotel after 7am and after more than 2 hours in bumpy we were able to get to some indigenes  villages the ones had continue with their ancestral traditions. But Pst. Julio and he's church are reaching these villages spreading the gospel among them and planting churches in their villages raising up new leader within the same community so far he has 4 churches in four different villages, to be honest I was impressed to   see how these people respect and love Pst. Julio and the means only one thing the he's doing an awesome job there with this communities, the most inspiring thing the he's doing, even do he's able to send leader to take care of the church in the village he's raising a leader in each village so they can continue to do things on their own wit out the Pastors help, I think the is so unselfish and awesome.

Mi amigo Mateo.

En la primera aldea que llegamos conocimos a Mateo un nene de aproximadamente 4 primaveras, descalso hijo de los lideres de la iglesia de hai. No se necesito mucho tiempo para darnos cuenta que este nene era muy especial y todos nos quedamos maravillados de el, durante el tiempo que pasamos en la aldea no se despego de nosotros, y como llevamos dulces para repartir llamaba asus amiguitos para que agararan dulces y al Pastor Dan le llevo una Papaya (su forma de agradecer en estas comunidades es regalando algo a los visitantes) asi que ese nene si fue agradecido, nos trataron muy bien la familia de Mateo queria invitarnos a tomar Chicha, su comida tradicional bueno atole :) echo de yucca pero como no estaba echo con agua potable el Pst. Julio les pidio que no nos dieran ya que nos podia hacer dano en nuestros estomagos.

Aparte de regar dulces por todas las comunidades, por fin pudimos echarnos una cascarita de futbol con los ninos, Mateo trajo su pelota y en medio de la aldea nos echamos un jueguito, desde que llegamos a Guatemala Cory y yo habiamos hablado acerca  de echarnos una cascarita con los ninos y porfin lo pudimos hacer.

Our friend Matthew

On the first village the we visit, we met Matthew a 4 year old boy wit out shoes son of the leaders from the church. Wit did not need the much time to fall in love with the kid, during the time the we were at the village he was our guide, since we took candy to the kids he will call he's friends to come and get candy and he also give Pst. Dan a papaya (the way to say thank you on this villages is by giving something to the visitors) so the little kid was thankful, the leader from the church also wanted to invite us Chicha a drink made of yucca roof and is like a typical food to them, but Pst. Julio insisted to them not to give us some of that, since is made with non purified water it could be bad for our stomach.

Besides giving out candy in each community to the kids, we also were able to play some street soccer with the kids, Matthew brought he's soccer ball and thanks to the we were able to play soccer wit the kids in the middle of the village, by the way since we got to Guatemala Cory and I had talk about playing street soccer somewhere in south America and finally we were able to do it.

Tradiciones.

Estas aldeas que visitamos, como comente anterior mente siguen con sus tradiciones ancestrales. Y estas son algunas las cuales el Pst. Julio esta trabajando duro para cambiarlas con la ayuda de Dios. En ellas se practica el poligano, un hombre puede tener asta 5 mujeres. La mujer a los 45 o cuando déjà de menstruar se considera inserbible y el hombre tiene derecho de conseguirse otra mas joven. Si la mujer no puede tener hijos el hombre tiene todo el derecho de agarrar a otra mujer como esposa. En estas aldeas no hay policia y esta compuesta por familias la cual espulsa a miembros por mala conducta y si la persona se reusa a irse se le puede privar de la vida. Al igual que las mujeres a los 13 se les permite casarse asi que una mujer llega a tener mas de 12 hijos, sin duda alguna el Pst. Julio tiene mucho trabajo por delante :)

Traditions.

This villages the we visit, like I mention before they have their own traditions, and these are some traditions the Pst. Julio is working to change with the help of God. In this villages is common to practice polygamist, a man can have up to 5 wife's, and a women after the age of 45 is considered unsubtle and the husband is allow to get a younger wife. If the women is unable to have kids the husband is allow to get a 2^nd wife. In this villages there is no police and is populated by family members who make their own rules, if somebody do something bad the village kick him out, and if he refuses to leave he may get kill. They also allow the girls to get married from the age of 13 so the means the a women can have more than 12 kids, wit out a doubt Pst. Julio has a lot of work to do :)

Equator

Salimos de Bogota el lunes por la manana :( un poco triste porque realmente estaba complacido con la ciudad, y realmente estar en autobus por 30 horas no es nada placentero, bueno eso crei ya que esas 30 horas se me hicieron realmente pequenas ya que los paisajes, montanas y carreteras fueron facinantes.

Te extrano Colombia, espero regresar pronto :)

So we left Bogota on Monday morning :( a little sad because I was really please with the city, and to be honest nobody is looking forward for a 30 hours bus ride, well that's what I though. But to be honest does 30 hours where amazing the land escape the mountains the roads where amazing, the 30 hour bus ride was the best of my life so far.

I miss you Colombia, I hope to be back soon :)

A si que llegamos a la frontera de Ecuador, con un frio a todo lo que da con los cachetes colorados del frio, sin embargo gracias a Dios no hubo ningun problema y solo tubimos que esperar como una hora asta que migracion abriera sus puertas y darnos la luz verde.

En la frontera Jordan y Yo nos tomamos el major café :) ( por cierto el café que tomo a cada manana es el major.)

We got to the Colombia Ecuador border early in the morning, and it was has cold has the north pole, thanks to God we only waited there for about an hour, in order to get the green light from immigration.

At the moment Jordan and I had the best coffee ever. (By the way the coffee the I drink every morning is the best coffee ever)

Ecuador es maravilloso, la verdad que pense que la comida no seria rica, sin embargo dejenme decirles que los Ecuatorianos tienen buen sazon. Ha y asta el momento no emos encontrado Puerco de guinea en el menu.

The Ecuador is awesome; I really thought the food here was going to be bad. But so far the food here is the best in South America, by the way so far we haven't found guinea pig in the menu.

Quito Ecuador tiene de todo un poco, esta rodeado de montanas con unas costruciones de primer nivel con una cultura interesante y unas mujeres muy bellas :) odio reconoserlo pero la belleza de la mujer es major aqui que en Bogota :) espero no ofender a nadie. Al igual hay demasiadas cosas que hacer a una distancia favorable, el dia miercoles visitamos mitad del mundo al igual que escalamos una montano asta 4300 metros de altura y todo gracias a Diego nuestro contacto en quito.

El jueves salimos para Bano en donde se pudieron hacer buenas hobras, y de hai llegamos a Puyo en donde las cosas estan sucediendo.

Quito Ecuador has a little of everything, is surrounded by mountains with a really nice constructions an interesting culture and with beautiful women :) I hate to admit but women here are prettier then Bogotá's, I hope not to offend anybody. Besides there are so many things to do at a really close range, on Wednesday we visit the half of the world, we also visit a mountain 4300 meters from sea level and everything thanks to Diego our host in Quito.

On Thursday we headed to banos where we were able to do some good deeds and the headed to Puyo and things are happening here.

Viernes en Puyo Ecuador, Hay una frace que dice que Dios trabaja en maneras extranas, y valla que si lo hace. El dia de hoy nos levantamos con insertidumbre de que hacer, si seguir a la siguiente ciudad y tartar de encontrar misioneros por aqui, despues de intentos fallidos nos dirigimos a la central camionera, y por pura casualidad a Dan se le ocurrio comprar una soda y por pura casualidad lo hizo en la tercera tienda y por pura casualidad se me ocurrio preguntarle por misiones en Puyo, y que cren result ser  miembro de la Iglesia Bautista en Puyo quien nos pago un taxi para visitor a su Pastoer el cual nos llevo a su Iglesia pudimos hacer buenas hobras y el dia de manana estaremos visitando una comunidad indigina en la cual ellos tienen una mision.

De eso los mantendre informados mas adelante.

Friday on Puyo Ecuador, there is a phrase, the says God works in mysterious ways, and trough be told he does. This morning we were wondering if we should leave the city after not finding missions here. And suddenly when we where about to leave we found a contact in the most weir way. Dan wanted a soda and decided to walk to the 3^rd store instead of getting it from the 1^st and then boom I ask the lady if she knew any mission here and in less than 5 minutes she was sending us to her Pastors home to have a meeting wit him and now we have a trip to the mountains to met with some Indians from the zone besides we were able to do some good deeds.

We will keep you updated on tomorrow's trip.

 

 

 

 

 

Colombia the beutiful.

En esta mañana le dijimos adiós a la ciudad de Panamá,  claro que con muy buenos sentimientos y con un sentimiento de nostalgia al despedirnos de unos hospedadores tan lindos como Perry y  Nancy que nos consintieron al 1000 hehehe, Nancy todos los días nos chiqueaba con un rico desayuno con un riquísimo café todas las mañanas y con unas excelentes comidas todos los días. Perry nos llevo por casi tota ciudad de panamá dándonos algunas clases de historia hehehe por todas sus atenciones 1000 gracias.

So this morning we said goodbye to Panama City, of course with such a great feelings thanks to our hosts Perry and Nancy who spoiled us to the end hehehe. Nancy made such a great breakfast every day wit a good cup of coffee, every morning I had the best coffee ever, she also made such a great home cook meals everyday for sure we are going to miss them. Perry on the other side took us all over Panama City giving us some history lessons hehehe for all of their attention thank you so much.

Así que por fin estamos en Bogotá Colombia, si pues dicen por ahí, que es muy peligros pero pues asta el momento todo bien.

So finally we are in Bogota Colombia, yes some people say is dangerous, but to this moment everything is fine and I think I'm in love.

Este lugar es hermoso valió la pena la espera de casi 13 años para por fin visitar Colombia, aunque los sombreros tradicionales Colombianos cuestan un Ojo de la cara no me iré sin uno jejeje

This place is beautiful, so the waiting is worth, since I being wanting to visit Colombia for the past 13 years, even do the traditional Colombian hats are so expensive I should not leave wit out one hehehe.

Los mantendré al tanto de todo lo que pase por aquí, asta el momento todo bien y Colombia es pura vida, por cierto el día de hoy Cory y Jordan probaron la pata de res jejeje lo malo  es  que no les quitaron los pelos a las patas.

I will keep you updated on what happens here wit us, so far Colombia is pure life, by the way Cory and Jordan try some beef feet plate the bad thing is that the beef feet had some hair still on it hehehe

Panama City

 

Así que estamos finalmente en Panamá. un país hermoso pero la entrada para mí no fue la mejor. Fui perfilado racialmente; sí, fui racialmente perfilado por  ser un ciudadano mexicano, así que si eres mexicano y piensa visitar Panamá, se preparan para ser detenidos por migración y vaya a través de todas sus pertenencias e incluso que pregunten cosas absurdas y pedirle que se comportan en el país L, éramos sólo dos mexicanos en el bus y ambos fuimos enviados  a revisión especial antes de que permitirán continuar, pero antes ya aviamos pagado la cuota de turista que no es reembolsable jejeje bien no sé sobre el otro chico ya que no lo pude ver por ninguna parte.

El Paseo de ticabus era largo y para ser honesto hasta ahora es el peor paseo que hemos tenido. Nos preparamos mentalmente para un paseo largo pero no nos preparamos para las personas que nos acompañarían en el bus ya que no dejaban de hablar y de noche no apagaban la luz, eso simplemente no fue agradable.

Así llegamos a ciudad de Panamá alrededor de 3 am, por lo que necesitábamos esperar un menos 3 horas antes de dirigirse a casa de Perry, por lo que necesitábamos matar a algún tiempo, por lo que nos parapetamos entre dos máquinas de atm, hicimos un círculo con nuestras bolsas y vimos 2 episodios de cómo conoció a su madre J era divertido realmente disfruté y además era gracioso cómo personas se fijaban a ver que estábamos haciendo nosotros por supuesto a nosotros no nos importaron las miradas, estábamos en nuestra cosa. Por otra parte quiero dar las gracias a dan, Cori y Jordania por enviciarme en el show de cómo conoció a su madre y un agradecimiento especial a Jordan por enviciarme con la UFC ahora tengo que ver más tv  L gracias chicos, realmente lo agradezco. Mmmmm realmente no jejeje.

 

 

 

So we are finally in Panama City Panama. It's a beautiful country but the entrance to for me it was not the pleasance. I was racially profile; yes I was racially profile for being a Mexican citizen so if you are Mexican and you are planning on visiting Panama, be prepare to be stop by the costumes and go through all you belongings and even ask you dumb question and ask you to behave on the country lol, we were only two Mexicans on the bus and both where send to special revision before they lets go through, well I don't know about the other guy he was nowhere to be found.   

The ticabus ride was long and to be honest so far is the worst ride the we had so far. We where mentally prepare for a long ride but we were not prepare to have people steering at us, and also have the air-conditioned liking water over me and Cory, besides having a lady talking so loud next to us and wit the light on at night, the was just not cool lol.

Well we got to Panama City around 3am so we needed to wait a least 3 hours before heading to Perry's home, so we needed to kill some time, so we huddle in between two atm machines we made a circle with our bags and watch 2 episodes of How I met your mother J it was fun I really enjoyed and besides it was funny how people where looking at us of course we did not care, we were on our thing. By the way I want to thank Dan, Cory and Jordan for getting me into the show how I met your mother and a special thanks to Jordan for getting me into UFC so now I have more tv shows the I'm interested on L thanks guy, I really appreciate that. Mmmmm not really lol.

Hello Costa Rica, Goodbye Nicaragua.

Hello Costa Rica, adios Nicaragua.

Despues de seis dias en Nicaragua hay mucho que contar, tantas cosas an pasado que quiza se me vallan a pasar algunas. Durante eltranscurso de la semana pasada visitamos diferentes lugares, entre ellos dos escuelas, una dirigida por Henrry Vargas un misionero venezolano que a fundado una escuela en las afueras de Managua la cual actualmente da educacion gratuita a mas 300 alumnos desde 1ro a 6to grado. Al igual visitamos una escuela en el area de Sandino en Managua dirigida por una pareja de misioneros de life link la cual da educacion gratuita a mas de 100 ninos de preescolar, lo interesante en esta escuela es que los ninos que actualmente estan en la escuela seran patrocinados en sus estudios asta preparatoria, en el suguiente ciclo escolar se abrira 1er grado y asi suceciva mente se iran abriendo los grados correspondientes mientras la primera generecion de estudiantes valla avanzando. Lo interesante de este proyecto es la vision que tienen no de educar a todos los ninos que puedan sino de darles un seguimiento desde preescolar asta preparatoria forjando un estilo de vida en cada nino con valores cristianos. Al igual pudimos visitor la Casa Hogar Jan Pablo 2 dirigida por la madre Sor Inez, para mi fue una esperiencia muy interesante ya que nunca avia visitado un horfanatorio Catolico. Fue muy inpresinante ver ninos de meses de nacidos que desafortunadamente fueron avandonados por sus madres, el horfanatorio contaba con 37 pequenos de los cuales 7 son huerfanos y el resto se encuentran hai debido a la situacion socio economica de sus madres o debido a el estado fisico de sus madres que se encuentran incapasitadas para cuidar de ellos. Aunque Nicaragua al principio no fue tan comodo para el grupo, creo que fue el lugar mas productive ya que pudimos visitor diferentes misioneros y ver de primera mano las nececidades de la gente, aunque llovia todos los dias gracias a Dios ese no fue un inpedimento para poder salir y visitor a personas tan extraordinarias que an debotado su vida al servicio de Dios y sus semejantes. J Actualmente ya estamos en Costa Rica y aunque llueve casi la mitad del dia esperamos que ese no sea un inpedimento para poder hacer la misma labor llevada acabo en el pais anterior.

 

Hello Costa Rica, Goodbye Nicaragua.

With six days in Nicaragua, there is a lot to say, so many past an things that maybe be me La pass some. During last week we visit different places, including two schools, one directed by Henrry Vargas a Venezuelan missionary that founded a school on the outskirts of Managua which now provides free education to more 300 students from 1st to 6th grade. As we visit a school in the area of Sandino Managua directed by a couple of missionaries of life link, which gives free education to more than 100 children from preschool, the interesting thing in this school is the children that currently are in school will be sponsored all the way to high school, in the following school year they will open 1^st grade for the current students now in preschool studies. What is interesting about this project is the vision that have not educate all children they can but give them a follow-up from preschool to high school, forging a lifestyle in every child with Christian values. We also visit an orphanage directed by mother Inez Sor, Casa Hogar Jan Paul 2. It was very interesting to see children 3 months old and babies that were unfortunately abandon by their mothers, the orphanage had 37 small children from months to 6 years old of which 7 are orphans and others are there due to the mothers economic situation or because the State has taken the kids away from their mothers due to their drug or alcohol dictions. Although Nicaragua at the beginning was not so comfortable for the group, I think that it was the most productive place so far for us.  we visit different missionaries and see firsthand the needs of the people, although it was raining everyday thankfully that did not stop us from visiting  extraordinary people  that have devote their life at the service of God and the people on Nicaragua. (We are already in Costa Rica and even if it rains almost half of the day we hope that this don't stop us  to do the same work done at previous country. :)