still in Ecuador!

We stayed in Quito for about a week trying to get the papers for the car done. Every day we were told a different story. First they were going to be open the next day, then Thursday, then the 18th of January. We tried to keep ourselves busy. We went to a small reptile house which had examples of all the reptiles from Ecuador (of course Celso got annoyed that some of the signs were wrong!), but at least they are trying to inform people about the riches Ecuador has to offer.
We took the car to a Chevrolet dealer to give it a good service, breaks, revs etc, and we bought some baby clothes for Fabi (Celso's younger sister) who is due in about 3 months. But eventually Quito was too much for Celso to bear (the pollution) and we decided to do our waiting back in Misahualli.

Poor Tris suffered for a few days with a bad tummy but now we are having a lazy time in the heat of the jungle! I have been working in the town school as a volunteer English teacher and also giving free English lessons for an hour every afternoon in the town library. It is nice to have something to do to keep my mind off the heat and humidity! The kids here are not used to being asked to take part in the lessons, so when I give them a minute to discuss the answer to a question I have just posed some of them just sit in silence. They are used to just repeating what the teacher says and not actually being asked anything... however some of them have really made progress and can now ask and answer questions such as:- What is your name? Where do you live? Or where is the ...?
Tristan loves the monkeys in the square and the beach and goes down to see them daily, sometimes with some fruit or some water from the river in a bottle. You can see in the photos that they have taken to climbing on him and even have tried to groom him and remove his fleas!
Carmen's other chicken hatched out 5 healthy chicks and she left the nest. Carmen went in to check the other 20 or so eggs but only one had a live chick in it. We hatched him out and named him Bertie but he was very weak. We fed and looked after him in the day and put him under his mum with the other chicks at night. He was never able to walk or peck, we had to push food down him and sadly after 3 days he died. Tris was very upset about it but that is just the way it is.
Celso has been busy fixing up the house a bit; replacing the kitchen tap that leaked; digging the pond, which the ducks now adore, a bit bigger; repainting the statue of the virgin that is in the garden and, apparently, stops any robbers coming into the house because of their superstitions here. He has offered his services as a guide to some of the companies that work with tourists here. He has said that he will work for free, he just wants to go out in the jungle; but there haven't been any English speaking tourists here, just Ecuadorians; which is great, but not for Celso.

Hopefully next week we will be able to start our journey south through Peru to Chile. We have been told that the computer system that will allow us to change the car papers into my name will be up and running on Monday... don't hold your breath!