Beach Trip and, Alas, No World Cup Trip

Caleb asked that we go to the Pacific coast for his 15th birthday, which we celebrated last Friday. Some friends kindly lent us their apartment near the coastal town of Atacames, and off we went for the long weekend, joined by our 13-year-old godson Edison. We had fabulous views heading down to sea level, like this one. Can you spot the cattle?

We also had fabulous views from the 3rd floor apartment at the beach.
Here Spee and Natalie are drying off by the pool, while Jens is looking up at Caleb the photographer.
We had fun in the water. Here Caleb is emerging from successfully body-surfing in, while Jens is still cruising.
We had fun on the beach as well. Here Jens is digging for the crab that made a hole he spotted, while Edison and Caleb look on.
We had beautiful views on the way home on Monday. We took a new route - newly constructed and new to us - whereby first we drove north along the Ecuadorian coast and then headed inland (east) to the city of Ibarra along a new route not too far south of the Colombian border. Because it's a new road and the road cuts (cliffs, bluffs) haven't yet settled, there were many stones and even mini-landslides that had landed on the road, which made the driving even more tricky than usual. But the valley heading up to Ibarra was absolutely gorgeous. The scenery was stunning for over an hour.

Also on the road were many sticks that had been recently dropped by sugar cane trucks heading up to the highlands in front of us. We stopped and picked up one big stick, then used our pocket knives to make short pieces on which we happily munched for a while.


The other big news is that Ecuador has tried valiantly to qualify for the 2010 World Cup Soccer Tournament. On Saturday afternoon, we joined everyone else in the country to watch Ecuador play Uruguay in the second-to-last qualifying match. They just had to win it and they would likely be selected for the World Cup. How sad it was when Ecuador lost right at the very end of the game 2-1. On the other hand, we had a good night's sleep because the fans went to bed early.

This evening was the final qualifying match, with Ecuador playing Chile, which had already qualified and had nothing to lose. Did they then let Ecuador win, giving them the opportunity to play in the World Cup next year? No, they sent Ecuador to defeat 1-0 and it's a very quiet night here in Quito. Here are Caleb and Natalie's new friend Sam (Lewis & Clark college student who stayed on post-study abroad last spring) modeling their Ecuador national team t-shirts. Tonight after the game, they went to the local park and played some soccer with Caleb's new soccer ball, while Natalie attended an online class for Goddard. College attendance sure looks different these days, doesn't it?


-Spee