Waiter, there's a poop on my plate

I'm an environmentalist. Of course according to polls all Americans consider themselves environmental. But I actually got paid for it, so, ha, I win.

"Summer" camp

I swear one day I'll write a "when the First World isn't" post, explaining why the difference in the worlds is really categorical and useful for economic textbooks, rather than any individual's daily life or experience. Upon learning of our plans for Ecuador, one (very successful, highly-educated, intelligent) friend asked, "Do they have flush toilets?" So perhaps an easy way to understand the worlds is to say, yes they have very nice flush toilets here (many even wash your bum with a warm, soothing...oops, too far). But the difference is that there are many people here who do not have them. So one of the measures to measure your country's world level is flush toilets per capita, but the lack of flush toilets affects me personally as much here as it does back in the States; that is to say, not at all. Now, I said all that to say this: They have "summer camps" here just like we have at home!

Teddy in the mix

At least that's the name of the new sitcom we're pitching to NBC.

Time management

We have seen a fair enough bit of Ecuador outside this province of Azuay where we live (though certainly not enough). But we have neglected too much our surrounding area where it is so easy to explore. So we set off on a Saturday to see the wee hiking and hat weaving mecca of Principal. Of course this was just an overnighter, and we thought we'd come back the way we were supposed to have come in the first place, through the jewelry mecca of Chordeleg. Turns out for the sheer sake of dramatic crescendo this was a great way to go.

Principal peace

Gettin' all pink and serious

Diana's godson is staying with us for half a year or so (more on that later), so we now have a live-in babysitter. So after another too good date-night on Friday, we still managed to get out of town on Saturday, if a wee later than planned, for an overnight. We went to the little town of Principal, which is about two hours by bus, and about the same with a bus/cab combo. Due to some confusing language in the guidebook, we went a town too far to catch a connecting bus to our destination.