Our Mindo house

It has been going slow as usual due to the rain but now the walls are ready with the concrete beams all around so only the last few beams in the middle section are missing to be able to start with the roof.

Castration campaign in Mindo

Today I went with some veterinarians to Mindo to help out with a castration campaign for cats and dogs in the area. From the right my friend Leo, his wife Mary, his daughter Tatiana and Rene.

Leo and the other veterinarians helps out with their work and skills while me and Laura take care of the transportation, materials and medicines.

We managed to castrate about 16 dogs and 3 cats (lost count after a while) and also to take away a tumor on one dog and we sent 3 old and sick dogs to the eternal sleep.

Dana's 3:rd birthday

Dana turned 3 years yesterday but as mom was coming back from the Galapagos Islands yesterday afternoon we decided to do it today.

Kiara and Dana ready to start eating

The birthday party was held at the daycare center of Dana. This is the same daycare center where Lucas and Kiara used to be before starting school

Some games as usual before eating the cake. Sometimes I think the grownups are more keen to play than the kids.

Dana and Kiara acts like twins most of the time and has to be together and do the same thing.

Dana had about 6 lollipops at the party.....

Dana dancing

And of course Kiara as well. Our 3 kids all lost in the first round of dancing around the chairs

Laura practicing her camera skills 

The kids and two teachers at the daycare center

Another lollipop

Blowing out the candle

The traditional biting the cake

Mother in law that hates her picture to be taken. The only trick I have is to take one picture with flash and wen she looks up to swear and curse my camera I take another picture quickly

Cuenca's colonial town

While walking through the old town of Cuenca I took some pictures. Though Quito's old town is most famous I think that Cuenca is nicer but it might also have to do with that Cuenca is not full of traffic on every street in the same way.

Todos Los Santos is some ruins in Cuenca where you will see the three big cultures represented from this area. To the right you see the Inka ruins, in the middle with the arch you have the Spanish part and to the right you will find some parts from the Cañaris that lived here before the Inka's came.

The Cathedral of Cuenca

At the small flower market next to the Cathedral you find all the colors that you want.

Devil's nose

For the first time I got the chance to take the train from Riobamba that is the most famous in Ecuador

The view is very nice along the track as we made our way down to the Devil's nose.

This top in the middle is supposed to be the face of the devil and because so many people died during the railway construction they started to call it the Devil's nose. The train is going down in a zigzag way, backwards and forwards to manage to get down the mountain.

Part of the zigzag track where you come down the left track and when the last wagon passes the Y cross the stop and reverse the train down the right track.

Tryed to get some nice view picks from the back window but this damn old tourist thought he was the only one on the train and stayed glued to the window.

At the station in the Devil's nose we had a bad cup of coffee while looking at the train museum that was small and nice and outside in the bushes there were a lot of these bugs.

Chimborazo volcano

A couple waiting for the bus along the road close to Chimborazo National park. It was cold in the wind for these poor fellows. 

Chimborazo volcano is an amazing sight as it reaches up to 6268 meters and due to that it is close to the equator its summit will place you furthest from the center of our planet, even further than Mount Everest.

Vicuna that here is protected and live wild

The Vicuna is relative to the camel

Along the road we came across some Catholic festivity with some dancing

I have no idea exactly what they selibrated but after the dancers there were a group of people carrying the statue of some saint from the church so clearly Catholic.

This man played El Condor Pasa for us at lunch. Great music and if you look it up you will recognize the song

Banos, where we slept last night, lays at the foothill of the volcano Tungurahua and after we left for Riobamba the volcano decided to erupt a bit so this was what I saw from my room in the afternoon and short afterwards I started to get ashes in my eyes. It was not a big eruption and just a little bit of lava but luckily we left early in the morning as the roads were closed of later on.