We met at 9:00 am at the bus station at Colon and Avenida Americas (on the blue bus line in the middle of Quito).  From there we rode that bus all the way to the north end of its line.  At that station, we picked up another bus to the Mitad del Mundo.

(This second bus was very clearly marked, and easy to find.)  The first bus ride out of Quito lasted about 40 minutes, and it cost us $0.25 each.  The second bus ride from Quito to the Mitad Del Mundo, was about 30 minutes, and it cost us $0.15 each.

The bus pulled off on the side of the road, and the money collector (every bus has a separate person who collects the money) yelled that we were there.  We couldn’t see much, but trusted that the bus driver knew where we were.

We saw the entrance to the “park/city”, as it is lined with flags and statues.

We debated at the entrance as to which ticket to get.

There is a “combo” ticket pack (for $3.00 each) that includes the planetarium.   Since it was only $1 more, we decided to get it.

Our first stop was the equator. 

We had a great time taking fun pictures. 

My favorite is the one where we’re all jumping from one hemisphere to the other.

Can you believe that we got this picture on the first try?!

From here, we went to the planetarium.  I don’t really think it was worth the entrance price, unless you have little kids. It was a bit frustrating.  It was all just very basic information about a small part of the solar system, and the people behind us talked the whole time. Jonathan says he really enjoyed it, but wished the people behind us would have been quiet for at least 5 combined minutes of the 35 minute presentation. We are, after all, attempting to apprender Espanol.

Our next stop was to see what kind of souvenirs we could find in the tourist traps (shops).  We didn’t quite make it in any of the shops though, because we were distracted by Llamitas (little llamas) that were making more baby llamas.

Alex realized that he was hungry, so we went for some lunch.  We had a nice, if a bit overpriced, almuerzo (set lunch menu) at the restaurant in the park..

Then we were off to the museum.  We’d read that you could do all kinds of fun “equator” experiments there.

We were disappointed to find out that it cost us another $3 per person to visit the museum.

We were even more disappointed that there were no experiments to be found.  The whole museum was a display of a few of the indigenous tribes of Ecuador.  It was interesting, but everything was mock-ups of the actuals (even though many tribes are still using actual pieces today), so that made it less interesting (for me), and thus not worth an additional entrance fee.

But, the top of the museum did have a great view.

Jonathan says one of his favorite parts of the Mitad Del Mundo was the Ecuador Insectarium, where you can see the various insects of Ecuador. You’re not allowed to take pictures, but if you pay another $2, they’ll take a picture of you with an average sized beetle hanging out on your shirt.

(Bear in mind that these are average-sized beetles.)

We’re going to have to go back to find the “correct” museum with all the experiments.  We asked 3 people, and no one knew where it was.

However, after we returned to Quito, people told us where it was (of course). 

We might just have to go back to see all the experiments at the Mitad Del Mundo.

Oh, and sometime, we’ll have to tell you the story about the man whose wife got left behind while his hand got trapped outside the door of the bus as it drove off. (The rest of him was inside). To the best of our knowledge, no one suffered any permanent damage, but we were all a bit shocked.

Does Ecuador spring forward and fall back (with time zones)?

Nope.

We were on Eastern Time Zone with the US, now we’re in Central time zone.

Thanks for asking! 

My presentación was about how to make pizza, Carrie and Jonathan style.

I’m not posting the recipe on line, because the recipe for the dough has a secret ingredient.

But we did put on yummy toppings including salami, mushrooms (champiñones), red peppers (pimiento rojo), onions (cebolla), and green olives (aceitunas verdes).

It was a delicious way to practice imperative forms of words (put – pon (put it in the pan), press – presione la masa (press the dough), open – abre el horno (Open the oven), etc.)

Carrie picked up a beer during our break (before we made the pizza), so we got to have beer and homemade pizza for lunch here in Quito!

Muy delicioso, y muy Rico!

The whole process was actually quite simple:

• Go in, fill out a form
• wait for your number to be called
• explain to the person behind the glass that you need more pages in your passport
• wait 25 minutes
• get back your passport with more pages in it

Our passports now look more like little books than just little passports.

Look at the flag in the distance. It's the red, white, and blue. This was as close as I could get without getting in trouble for taking a picture.

We’re excited to fill up those extra pages!

Things you might want to know:

How much did the extra pages cost?
$0.00.

Good stuff!

I got in trouble for taking this picture. But they didn't make me delete it, so that's good.

Interesting points from the United States Embassy:

• Even before you enter the grounds of the United States embassy, there are guards there letting you know that it’s not okay to take pictures. No electronic devices were allowed in with us. Carrie had to check her Kindle, and I had to check my camera, at the door. We could, however, take our watches.
• The embassy grounds are BIG, and the embassy is significantly outside of the city. Every day, we walk by the embassies of England/Germany (same building), Belgium, Norway, and Mexico. All of them are pretty much right here in the city, and while they do have gates and ways to close things off, none are as expansive as the grounds of the U.S. Embassy. For me, it was neat to see, a bit pretentious, and intimidating, all at the same time.
• To get there: Take the Ecovia all the way to the Rio Coca Station ($0.25). From there, take a taxi to the “embajada (em-buh-hah-duh) Americana. Make sure they “empieza la metro, por favor” (“Use the meter, please” It’s about $1.50 to the embassy.)

At our Spanish school, we took a class to learn how to make Empanadas. This class was taught by one of the teachers at our Spanish school in Quito, Ecuador.

At the end, the empanadas were completely delicious (though I neglected to actually get a picture or video of anyone actually EATING one).

In the last post, I talked about how we freed up more than $750/month with the sale of our cars and lowering of our auto insurance.

I also talked about how we track everything we spend, and everything we earn.

This is something I HIGHLY recommend.

However, these posts aren’t really here to tell you what to do, but more so are just here to show you how we afford to travel, hopefully giving you ideas about how YOU can afford to travel (or do whatever you want with the time and money you have – and can create).

Today, we’re going to talk about phones and communication.

In Colorado, our “communication” bill was:

• $140/month shared cell phone plan (with taxes and fees)
• $30/month VOIP based house line (with taxes and fees)
• $5/month ($60/year) Unlimited Calling through a Skype-In/SkypeOut plan
• $15/month RingCentral/800# type service
• $55/month High-speed Internet

I’m going to set aside the high-speed Internet and include that in a future post about housing costs.

So our monthly “communication” costs for the first 9 months of 2009 averaged out to $190/month.

(Again, we know this because we tracked it every month, and continue to do so.)

When we left on our travel, we lowered our cell plan (and are talking about lowering it further) to a $70/month plan, which rounds out to $82/month (after taxes+fees).
Money freed up = $140 – $82 = $68

We moved our VOIP based house line over to Phone.com (which lets you forward the number to any number you want), for $5/month. 
Money freed up = $30 – $5 = $25

After taxes, fees, and other incidentals, in phone communication alone, we freed up over $90/month.

Adding cars and phones, this gives us a total of just under $850/month to use in a different way than we had been using it before.

I’ll be continuing this in another post, but hopefully these last two posts have given you some ideas of how you might be able to free up money on a monthly basis to be able to travel or accomplish whatever goals you want to accomplish.

For us, the process started with tracking what we were spending and earning, so that we could see where there might be areas to improve both what we were spending and earning.

Do you like these posts about how we afford to travel?

If you do, PLEASE comment below and let me know.

I can continue doing them… but if you don’t like them, let me know and I’ll get back to posting just pictures and videos!

And, in case you’re interested…

How our phones work now:

Old VOIP number is hosted with Phone.com for $5/month.

(Phone.com actually emails me voice mails that come in on that number as email attachments, which I like.)
The old VOIP number forwards to our SkypeIn number.

Both of our cell phone numbers also forward to our SkypeIn number.
When someone calls us, SkypeIn rings on the computer, whenever (and wherever) we’re signed in to Skype.  If we’re not signed in, SkypeIn also includes voice mail, so people leave a message which we pick up when we are signed in.

Through SkypeOut, we make all our outbound calls to the US and Canada (no matter where we are in the world) for $30/year UNLIMITED.  Calling other countries varies, but is super affordable.  (Interesting Statistic: In 2009, 12% of ALL WORLDWIDE international call minutes were completed through Skype.)

We really like Skype.

There are other similar services, but none that we’ve tried out have been as good, reliable, useful, or downright nifty, as Skype.

Jonathan and I were very excited at the idea of seeing how an Ecuadorian family lives. But, we got way more than we expected.

We didn’t expect to be welcomed as and treated as part of their family. It was fabulous! In the 5 months and 2 days we’ve been traveling, it was by far my favorite day.

Maribel’s husband, Paco, was kind enough to pick us up and drive us the 2 hours to the town. And, he even bought us some delicious avocado ice cream on the way down.

Yes, you read that right. AVOCADO ice cream.

He also gave us some fun history lessons and shared some legends with us and it made the ride very short and comfortable.

When we arrived, the family (16 people in total) was down picking corn (choclo) for dinner.

(It looks like Jonathan's flipping off the camera, but he's really just holding the leaves out of the way.)

So, we went and grabbed a few ears of corn for ourselves.

Then we went to pick berries. There’s one very tall tree, and all berries at the bottom had already been picked, so it was up to the top of the tree.

Maribel’s 4 year old son, Paquito, was completely fearless. He climbed nearly to the top by himself. (It was so cute to watch him come down: He wrapped his arms and legs around the branch and slid down while yelling like Tarzan.)

Maribel’s father, Manuel, also climbed to the top of the tree.  He’s 83 years old.

Jonathan and I stayed on the ground. I would have climbed, but it was full of people (one tree already supporting 8 people).

Then we were off to cook lunch.

We had delicious Choclo that was picked minutes before, potatoes fresh from the garden, a cucumber salad, fresh cheese, and delicious aji.

Aji is a spicy sauce that is found on every table in Ecuador. It’s made of tomate de arbol (a fruit that is only grown in Ecuador), agua, aji (a spicy pepper), red onion (soaked in salt to remove the raw flavor), and cilantro.

The food was so good. I kept eating long past being full because it was so good. I was sitting next to Paquito. He kept adding more and more aji to his food.

I leaned over and asked if he liked aji. He got kind of embarrassed, and said that he did. I told him that I did too as I added more to my plate as well. He thought that was pretty funny.

Then, Maribel, Jonathan, and I played a new card game she taught us a few weeks ago. It’s called cabesa de la mierda… (poop head…well, “poop” is a more family-friendly word than what it actually is).

Next we went out and played soccer. The whole family played. And, it was the first soccer game I’ve ever played in my life! It was quite fun.

Unfortunately, I had to stop at half time because my contacts just couldn’t take the dust anymore. But, this meant that I got to spend the next 30 minutes holding the cutest baby (Pablo)!

As we’ve said before, our apartment doesn’t have an oven. This means that my Uncle Don’s “No Bake Cookies” have become quite a hit. I made them for Maribel in class one day, and she took them home to her family.

Everyone wanted to know how to make them, so I shared the recipe with everyone.

The hardest part was waiting for them to cool and dry!

Maribel’s father can play two flutes at one time! So, we begged him for a demonstration. I don’t think he wanted to at first, but I’m so glad that he did. It really was amazing.

Paquito also showed us him impressions of Michael Jackson. He can moonwalk quite well, and he can jump up to the tops of his toes.

But the grand finale is the best

I didn’t know that we were invited to spend the night as well. I thought we were just invited for the day. Had I known, I would have brought my contact solution so we could have stayed. (I have hard contacts and cannot sleep in them, and they require special solution as well.)

I am really disappointed that we couldn’t stay. Being there really felt like being at home for me.

Maribel’s sister, Yesenia, her husband, Juan, and their children, Angelo and Pablo (the baby), were kind enough to drive us all the way back to our apartment (which is 25 km out of the way).

(Angelo's on the front of the bike in this pic.)

We had a fun ride back. Little Angelo, however, was completely tired-out from the soccer game. He fell asleep against Jonathan’s shoulder before the car even pulled away from the curb.

(At one point, he reached over and took hold of Jonathan’s arm –while sleeping. It was so adorable!)

I am very grateful to Maribel and her family for the invitation!

View of Volcano Cotopaxi from the backyard

We had a wonderful day full of family, fun, food, passing around one glass of beer, and spending time as part of a big family again. Thank you, all of you (Manuel, Maribel, Paco, Honey, Mateo, Pacquito, Juan, Yesenia, Angelo, Pablo, Rosa, Patricio, Sara, and Valeria) for giving me my favorite day yet!

It’s only a short bus ride and a few blocks walk from our Spanish School, Simon Bolivar.

To go up to the top costs $2. And, one thing Jonathan and I have learned is that it is ALWAYS worth it (vale la pena) to go to the top of church towers (Milan, Granada, Munich, Berlin, etc.).

With La Basilica de Quito, however, there’s an elevator to take you up one side.  It won’t take you all the way to the top, but it will take you to the balcony to overlook the interior of the church, and it will take you up to an outdoor balcony with a great view.

Make sure that you go up all the towers of La Basilica de Quito (there are 3).  There’s the clock tower with a great view of Colonial Quito (to the south).  Inside the clock tower, there are also bells.

The bells are wishing bells.  You make a wish, and then ring the bell.

Jonathan got a little aggressive with his bell-ringing (he REALLY wanted his wish to come true – he says he did it because Maribel (our teacher) told him to ring the bell “mas fuerte”).

He rang the bell so loudly that it set of a car alarm!

Watch the video to see:

I also discovered one of Maribel’s secrets at the top of this tower.  She’d written her name on the wall.  (OK, it really wasn’t her, but it was fun to be able to tease her about it in Spanish.)

When crossing from one tower to the other, you walk across a small wooden bridge over the top of the ceiling of the church.

It was pretty amazing.  I’ve never done that before.

From there we climbed a few steep ladders to get to the top of the other tower.

This tower looks over the north side (more modern) of Quito.  It wasn’t possible for us to see our apartment from here, but I did know my directions well enough to point out approximately where the school would be.

Maribel also told us that it was funny to watch Americans and Europeans come up here, because they are always scared.  She told us that Ecuadorians are fearless and will climb the ladders like nothing.

She even told us that she came up when she was 8 months pregnant.  She wanted to give her baby a rush of adrenaline before it was even born so that it too would be fearless.  (My guess, is that this baby is now known as Pacito.)

What a really great activity for the day.  We are learning Spanish better and better every minute, and it was fun to be able to talk and joke with Maribel as we visited the tallest church tower in South America, La Basilica de Quito.

I think I’m going to rename it La Basilica del Sol, because it’s probably the church closest to the sun as well.

You know I’ve been thinking a lot.

In our recession, how is it that you and Carrie can travel all over the world?

This post will hopefully start a series of posts about how we afford to travel and how we’re doing what we’re doing.

Most importantly, we’re going to attempt to provide some tips or ideas for you if you’re wanting to set up your life so that you can “afford” to travel for extended periods of time.

What’s important here is not how we can afford to travel.

What’s important is (if you want to travel) how YOU can afford to travel.

What I responded back to my friend is:

I heard about that recession thing… I just decided not to participate.

This is a quote I got from listening to a CD by Jim Rohn over, and over, and over, from 2002-2009.

The short answer is that since our income isn’t location specific, we work from wherever we get an Internet connection, so we earn (and work) whether or not we’re traveling.  As far as costs, we spend about the same amount when traveling as we do when living in the states.

The email to my friend said more as well, but that’s the gist.

Here’s one way we have more money to travel:
Selling our cars and lowering our auto insurance to the lowest possible amount saves us over $750/month alone.

That may seem like an incredibly large number, but we know it for a fact.

How?

We track everything we spend, and everything we earn.

I have done this since 2001.  Carrie has done this since 2004.

We track everything:

• A bottle of water picked up at a little store…
• A small tourist trinket in a local market…
• Going to the movies (and the drinks/popcorn – if we actually bought those at the movies, which we don’t)…
• All our groceries…

Everything.

You don’t have to track everything you spend and everything you earn, but I highly recommend trying it for at least 30 days.

It’s AMAZING how much you can learn from this simple activity.

It’s hard to know how to get where you want to be if you don’t know where you are starting from.

Part of where you are starting from is with your habits and rituals.

If you don’t want to track everything you spend and earn, then start just with your vehicle (if you have one).

I dare you, for 30 days, to track every expense (and income) associated with your vehicle.

This includes:

• Gas
• Insurance
• Repairs
• Washing
• Car Payment (if applicable)

Do not make a quality judgment about it during the 30 days (i.e. “I should drive less” or “I should sell this car and buy a less expensive one”).

Just track how much you spend on your car (and how much you earn from your car – if that’s $0.00, make sure to write down $0.00) for 30 days.

When Carrie and I average what we spent on our cars, per month, in the first 9 months of 2009, it averages out to over $750/month.

We don’t have those cars anymore.

As a result, we have freed up $750/month for our travel expenses.

My suggestion would be to track everything you spend, and everything you earn.

You might find some surprising places in your life that can help YOU afford to travel.