Ecuador Albums 2001
San RoqueFred and I met our San Roque friends during a bike ride just before Christmas 1996. I was taking a breathing stop in front of their house when Gladys came out with a plate of cookies, followed by her mother, Rosa Elena, who invited us in to rest. That began a family friendship that now has us looking forward to being compadres for Gladys's graduation in Architecture from the Universidad Central in Quito.
Gladys took this photo of me, Rosa Elena, Byron, Fausto, and Luis as we load ourselves into a friend's truck for a picnic with family friends on the slopes of Volcán Cotacachi.
Byron tries to stay warm on the way up the mountain.
At the hacienda where their friends live, Luis's comadre leads us to the field where more of the family is working.
Luis checks on one of the bulls he keeps on the mountain; he's concerned because this one has not been feeling well.
Ho hum, another spectacular landscape...
Gladys gets caught in a photo at the picnic...
...which isn't very different from a picnic in Texas.
Back at the house, I help sort through dried maíz, much of which Rosa Elena sends home with me so I can make tostados in Austin.
On a trip
to the neighborhood store, Gladys met a friend and his horse...
...which Fausto and everyone else except Luis and Rosa Elena take for a turn around the yard.
An advantage of living on the Panamerican Highway is that you have a front-row view of Ecuador's annual cross-country bicycle race...
...which seems to have as many support vehicles as cyclists.
