A Trip Away For Semana Santa

Maisa & I By The Waterfall

Starting the process to obtain a new work visa was as big a nightmare as I knew it would be. The ministries in charge of these things here in Ecuador seem to think that it is a good idea to change the rules on obtaining a visa, approximately every three days. This makes it increasingly difficult to do anything because by the time you have collected all your papers they have changed the rules on what you need and you have to start all over. When I first arrived into the country you just needed some documents to obtain a work visa directly. However, since that time things have changed, so that you now first need a ton of papers to obtain authorisation from the Ministry of Labour, and then go for the work visa afterwards. It is like putting up a huge brick wall in front of what was already a huge brick wall. My work colleague from the States - John and myself have started the arduous process and hope to have this visa in our passports sometime before our 60th birthdays!!!

At the beginning of April another holiday popped up. It was Semana Santa (Easter) and we were all given a long weekend for it. This would give me a good opportunity to get away from all the red-tape nonsense which appears to follow me around in Ecuador. To make use of the beautiful nature and the house that the Coello's have down in Banos - that is where we all headed. Despite Maisa telling me about it, I had never visited the farm land which they own near Banos. Actually they own a couple of pieces of land, but the farm as they call it is the largest. I don't know how big it is exactly but they asked me if I wanted to go and check it out and I naturally jumped at the chance. The farm land is not so farm-like as you would imagine. It is a large piece of land in the jungle that surrounds the Banos area. Some time ago, Mauri came and worked on it for about a year and cut a path across the land. As none of the Coello's had returned for about 4 years (when Marcelo had a terrible accident as he fell from a waterfall and badly hurt his arm), we needed machete's to get through the jungle terrain. The land crosses a large river, has a small hut some-way in and if you keep walking you can reach all of the 7 or so waterfalls. We walked for about an hour before reaching the first waterfall, which was small but was fine for taking a cold shower as we all melted in the heat of the Jungle climate. On the way back we passed dozens of lemon and orange trees and helped ourselves to the delicious fruit. It was quite a trek and not easy on parts, so by the end we were all pretty knackered.

During our weekend we also took the ride to Puyo which has incredible views of meandering rivers and a deep valley. We met up with Maisa's friend Lilly there - just to say hi and have something to eat, before driving further on to our popular river near Tena, the perfect place for a swim. I had never noticed before but the restaurant by the river actually has a pet Parrot. It had come from deeper in the Jungle but apparently likes to hang out by the restaurant, presumably for food. The trip was great - it is always nice to get away from Quito when I can and despite being bitten alive out in the Jungle and burning to a crisp under the strong heat of the sun, I will never pass up an opportunity to come out to this part of Ecuador. It's simply stunning!!!