Mompiche with dinner

Everybody at dinner as we went to Mompiche for an afternoon/night to sheck out a hostel there.

Kiara playing with samd outside our house on the coast. The guy taking care of the place got a bit irritated after our first hours there as Kiara wanted to throw the sand everywhere including the pool and the table soccer game.

Soccer game

Lucas, Laura and Kiara had a game of table soccer or whatever you call this game. Kiara had as you can see some problems to follow the game but did her best to help her mom.

Vacation on the beach

Last weekend we finaly got some vacation together the whole family so we packed the car and left for the coast. Here is Dana on arrival, tired and ready for bed.

Little rat tooth

Dana is happily showing her two first teeth.

Darwin finch

One of Charles Darwins famous finches looking for something to eat.

Marine Iguana at Tortuga Bay

This is not a bad place to hang out, Right?

Boobie and Iguana couple

A Blue Footed Boobie and a marine Iguana sharing the lava rock at Tortuga Bay.

Tortuga Bay

Our partners Pierre, to the left, and Lasse got stuck at the marine Iguanas for a long time. Especialy Lasse that is a profesional photograph burned a couple of memory cards here.

Lazzzy Iguanas

I took our partners for a walk to Tortuga Bay on Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, the other week and as usual the marine Iguanas were sleeping all over the place.

Coming back from a visit to the djungle the other week I had this view over one of the smo caped volcanos in Ecuador while playing with my new camera and couldn't help taking som pictures. Dont ask me what volcano it is because it was way to cloudy to orientate myself along the Andean mountains.

We had some visitors from our partner in Sweden who I took for a walk in the old town of Quito. Here is the famous "La Ronda" where the first recidensial houses was built by the Spanish people a long time ago and since they cleaned up this street a couple of years ago it is one of the most beautiful places in the old town to see.

Dana

Dana in her chair back home. She starts to get along better with her dad but from time to time she starts to cry in his arms.

Like her mom, Kiara knows how to fall asleep in any possition at any time.

Dana in her throne

Dana in her throne waiting for her food to arrive. Just like Kiara she doesnt want to be in daddy's arms and when I take her she starts to cry almost right away. She is getting calmer and calmer and I suspect that she will totally daddy, daddy later on like Kiara is now.

Laura and Dana home

Northern San Cristobal

My friend and guide Mauricio Hurtado taking some pictures over the northern part of San Cristobal. The view is amazing and though it is windy here it keeps the clouds away and us cool while working.

Suggar cane test

We took the group to a fruit farm in San Cristobal the other week and here is Jose Simbana from the project that cut down some suggar cane for us to try.

I love the variety of juices here in Ecuador. Here for example this man was making suggar cane juice with his home made machine.

Blue Footed Boobies

The other day i took a walk down to the beach and hundreds of Blue Footed Boobies were diving for fish and it was amazing to see.

This Sea Lion took the "No walking" sign for a good reminder to lye down and take a nap.

Me and Franklin handing out red bananas to our "monkeys" during a fruit brake while working at the project in Isabela. Cant really complain about our working conditions......

Great night for a bear......

Yesterday me and my friend Franklin went down to the beach in Puerto Villamil to have a bear and talk about the next days of work. I love this Island and though you dont see the beach on this picture we are right on it and this makes a great view with the full moon.

It was funny to see how Kiara used Lucas as her private pillow the other day. Luckily Lucas sleeps like his dad, as a rock, and didn't seem to bother at all. Normally it is mommy Laura in his position and she definitely wakes up all the time.

Dana starts to stay awake more and more, guess that before we know it she will run around making a mess like the first 2 devils. Every time, both with Lucas and Kiara, at this stage I keep thinking how nice it would be when she starts to get more independent and walk by her self but when it happens I look back and which that she could just stay still more.

Kiara and Lucas enjoying some yogurt as they look at one of their movies om the computer. I dont know what life with 3 kids would be like without Disney or Pixel..........anybody that knows?

Legal system is a joke in Ecuador

We have now been working on getting our apartment back from the man that rents it since May 2010 and still with no luck. Today Laura is called to court to answer some questions from the lawyer that represents the man, Sr Rubio or Sr Stupido as I refer him to, as one of the last steps in the first instance out of four and our lawyer, the sister of Laura, told us last night that with the new constitution Sr Rubio can keep doing this in another 3 instances at least and in the way it works here it might take several years. To this I can also ad that it doesn't matter if he pays his rent or not as that would be another process that might take several years it self.

Do I need to say that today I feel a bit down or simply sad and I have a hard time to concentrate for work. We were looking forward to get the apartment back, sell it and finally buy an apartment that we could move to thinking about that we are now 5 in the family plus the maid so we really need some extra rooms.

Except that it is hard to get your house or apartment back in Ecuador if the renting person dont want to leave it is very often that they in the end when the police force them to leave trash the place and you have to go back to court to fight with high pills for lawyers etc and even if you win the renter will most lightly have "sold" everything he owns to one of his kids so there is no money or properties in his name that can be forced sold.

I love Ecuador but it is so sad to see that the law protects the bad ones time after time but politicians dont seem to care and the president that I saw as the best one on ages start to seem worse and worse every month in my eyes but it is hard to say as a good politician will get run over all the time. The elections here is like a huge lottery game and they seem to do a lot to win but after that nothing.

When I talk to Ecuadorian friends or co worker they always say that they dont like the way it works or the mentality of people but at the same time they keep voting for the same idiots.

Wonder why they never change for the better when people fight to keep things as they have always been.

And while a bruised up Lucas rested, Kiara took the chance to try out his jacket. She is in a period of her life when it is fun to zip and unzip things but she wont turn a button either.

Lucas came home today from school looking like this. He managed to fall in his music class somehow but he is after all like a crazy monkey jumping around everywhere so I'm not surprised at all. The only sad thing is that the school didn't bother to call us to let us know what happened but I guess you get what you ask for in the Ecuadorian public school.................do I need to say that he will change school for next year?