Christmas with the fam

ok, i know it's been a while, but its only been a little over a month this time.. i'm getting better :)

so, my parents and sister came down to see me for Christmas which was just awesome. it was such a blessing to get to spend time with them, especially over Christmas. only downside.. is it reminded me just how much i miss them.

i loved having them here and getting to show them around my city and let them experience a little bit of what my life is like here.  we spent the first 3 days in Riobamba, where I live, beginning with a 4 hour bus ride from Quito to Riobamba.

The bus ride was a great introduction to the culture here. All throughout the ride, people will randomly hop on the bus to sell everything from drinks to empanadas to a mint that they claim will cure memory loss, stress, and lead to better overall health. - we heard one old woman say after buying it, yes! i'm gonna get me some good memory!  My mom decided to make a scavenger hunt out of the different things that people would get on the bus to sell. 

while we were in Riobamba, I took my family to the huge market we have here on saturdays called "Plaza de Gallinas". On saturdays this market takes up about 6 square city blocks, packed so full that the aisles between each stall is barely 3 people wide, but of course, they cram about 10 times more than that in there. At this market they sell just about everything you can imagine, most of it used, but the craziest part of it, and the main reason i wanted to take my family there, is the animal section. - the indigenous people from the villages surrounding Riobamba bring in all sorts of animals to sell at this market. mainly chickens, guinea pigs, and rabbits, but there are also turkeys, ducks, dogs, cats, and geese.  some of the animals are just roaming around to the point where you actually have to step over them to get around. others are crammed in cages, while the majority of the animals are carried in large bags. the way this works, is 2 lines form in all areas of this square forming an aisle between. if you want to buy an animal, you walk down the aisle, and look in the bags, or the animals the people are holding, and decide which one you want to buy. here's a little video to show you what it's like. (ps my parents got me a flip for Christmas, so i'm gonna start putting a lot of videos up)

Christmas with the fam (continued..)

couldn't figure out how to do 2 videos in one post, so.. here's the rest of this post :)

next we went for a day trip out to Banos, a city out closer to the jungle and got to ride in an open air van out to see about 5 different waterfalls. at one point we got to ride on the roof of the van, and had to duck when we went through a tunnel.. very safe.. and also got to ride on a cable car that went out over one of the waterfalls.  that took a lot of courage from most of my family.. it was kind of sketchy looking cable car..

after a few days in Riobamba, we headed out to a "city" called Mindo out in the jungle. we stayed at a cute little hostel called the dragonfly inn, with our own balcony with a hammock that faced right out to a stream and about a billion hummingbirds.  we got to go zip lining, which if you know my mom, this was a pretty big deal that she actually summoned up the courage to do it, but she did and ended up loving it. we also got to go on a hike to a waterfall and take a tour of a chocolate factory.

  

from there we went to Quito where we got to go to the Equator, do some major shopping, and eat at some pretty sweet restaurants.

all in all, it was a pretty great trip