My family and I went to Porto Lopez a little town south west of Porto Viejo for 2 days. Porto Lopez is famous for the whale watching there, but that's not untill August so no whales. But there are national parks around the town and my dad is friends with people that work there so we got in free. These are pictures from the biggest beach in the park and we were right in the middle so the two with out poeple are of the right and left side of the beach. And this is a specal beach because there are almost no waves. thats from the big rockes on both sides so they break the waves at least that is what my dad said and it sounded logical enought for me. We also went to another national park for free called Agua Blanca which has the exact oppacite of white water. The water comes from a volcanic spring so is smells like sulfer and the bottem of the little pond is full of thick black mud which people rub all over their bodies and then bath in the water. I didn't want any mud but i did go swimming and when you get out your skin feals really smooth.

Sadly I forgot my camera at home during Christmas, but I will write about it anyway. My whole family so including my brother and I went to Guayaquil which is the biggest city in Ecuador. We spent Christmas Eve and a few days before Christmas with my aunt and uncle. The Christmas traditions are very different from the American traditions. On Christmas Eve is a big party where the whole family gets together and just hangs out so to speak untill 12:00 am. When the day changes everyone gets up and greets everyone again meaning you kiss the girls on the cheek and shake hands with the guys. Then at like 1:00 am everyone eats most of the same food as in the U.S. except there is a dish called Condumio which is pulled beef in a red wine and milk sause with nuts and rasins I didnt really like it but all the ecuadorians love this stuff. My family was the first to leave the party at 3:00 in the morning. There is no milk and cookies for Santa. Most people don't have trees and the few that do are all fake because there is only one type of pine tree and it doen't look like a Christmas Tree.

Paragliding

When my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas I told them I didn't want anything, but one day Fernando told me he has a friend that knows how to paraglide. I told him that I wanted to learn how to paraglide. he decided that my gift would be to go paragliding. And I went with a person but not his friend so I wouldn't die. The first picture is of someone flying under us the second is our shaddow and the third is me getting into the harness. This is all in Crucita which is only like half an hour form my house. And in Ecuador it is the most famous place for paragliding.

Cuenca

My family and I went to Cuenca for a weekend when the independance fair was going on. The pictures of the stained glass and of my parents are in the same church but the third is a different church. the city was really cool because it was so different from where I'm living like they have grass and at night it gets "cold" which is like 40 degrees farenheit and the streets are clean as in not covered in a layer of dust, but thats just because it is still the dry season and in the moutains it rains all year. For some reason fernando doen't like to smile in pictures. So in all my pictures of him he looks angry when he is really always happy.