We slept in a really nice Marriott hotel in Cuenca. It was a beautiful drive in the mountains to get here. Our hotel was up on a hillside and had beautiful big windows overlooking the city. The view from our hotel was similar to this view of the city.
Cuenca has a large population of indigenous people and they sell a lot of artisan products. We went to a market on Saturday and did some really fun window shopping.
After shopping we drove up and over the mountains to return to Guayaquil. As we left Cuenca a government official stopped us and wanted to see my license. I spoke English to him and showed him my Utah Drivers License. He looked at it and let me pass. I can't imagine he could even read it, but I didn't want to cause any trouble. We gained some serious elevation on this drive. I have no idea how high we got, but the terrain had no trees and it was outright cold at the summit! We were freezing!
Along our way we stopped at a little shop and it had an incredible view of the mountain. If you look out, you can see a cable car that goes across this huge gorge! We didn't cross because it looked so scary.
Next to the cable car was an enormous mountain swing. We got in the swing and were hoisted up a bit before we swung out like a pendulum over the gorge! A few of us did it before Logan and Parker dared. Logan was really scared, but I'm proud that he did it.
We arrived in Guayaquil that evening and met up with a missionary companion of Jeremy (and his family) for dinner.
The food was really good. After dinner, we all said our goodbyes. Sadly, our flight was a red eye back to Fort Lauderdale. The flight was delayed by about an hour and we already had a tight turnaround. The flight finally took off and after landing in Florida, we had to wait in a long line to get through customs. We literally ran to our next flight and made it by the hair of our chinny chin chin. It's a good thing we didn't have any checked luggage or we wouldn't have made the flight. It was a long day. We flew for five hours from Guayaquil to Florida, stood in line, and then ran to our next five hour flight.
This trip was incredible! Having this opportunity to help change the lives of some very poor people was a wonderful experience. Seeing Logan speak Spanish was also a highlight. When we landed in Ecuador, he could barely understand anybody. By the time we left, though, he was communicating really well. He got to the point where he could listen to someone and reply, without translating it first in his head. One day when we were shopping, Logan and Parker wanted to check out the video games. They split up in search of the games. When I found them later, Logan was chatting with the employee. His Spanish improved by leaps and bounds.
As a side note, after our trip our hosts decided to go back to church. The mother was a member, but her son and husband weren't members. Daniel Smith, the son, started going to church and he was ultimately baptized a couple of weeks after we got home. We didn't preach to him, but we must have made a positive impression on him. We are so glad to have met Daniel and been able to make a positive impression and be good examples of our church.
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