Ecuador!

We're back from a 3 week to Ecuador. I will try to post some of the photos and stories soon. But for now just let me say that it is a beautiful country with friendly people, gorgeous flowers, amazing crafts and not very exciting food.
In answer to the question that all my friends have been asking: yes, I could live there, but didn't really find any good reason to do so.  Guyaquil is not a bad place at all, is on the river (you know I love being on the water), is hot and rather humid, has a lot of statues and monuments everywhere, a few museums and some good seafood, but not a lot more to recommend it.
Cuenca is a beautiful small city and it's not hard to see why a lot of expats are settling there. Walkable flat city with charming, cobblestone streets, vivid flowers everywhere, lovely old architecture, and surrounded by villages filled with creative people designing and producing amazing textiles, leather goods, guitars, silver and gold jewelry for starters gives a hint of what we found. Add into that mix a lot of truly friendly and helpful people pretty much rounds out the picture. Much as we enjoyed the city, however, the altitude is quite a bit too high for my breathing problems, so you won't see us joining all those expats in the latest expat hot zone.