Trip from Quito to Pindal

Last week we took an 11 hour drive to a little town close to the border of Peru.  We were looking at some schools where we might be able to do a project.  Here are some scenes along the way.  You can't see the volcano very clearly but this is Chimborazo, the highest in Ecuador.

We stopped at a restaurant along the way for breakfast.  This was the view looking up into the mountains.  Dad and I just had a banana we brought with us.  We are still leery about eating along the side of the road.

A home next to the restaurant where we stopped for lunch.

The hillsides that are farmed.

A cultivated hillside.

It had been raining so the rivers were pretty muddy looking. 

A juice vendor.

Some of the trees along the highway were so pretty.

Two very nice cement homes.

A home on stilts that you can't see.

We passed miles and miles of banana plantations.  If you check the stickers on your bananas they probably came from Ecuador!

More bananas covered in plastic bags to protect them from insects.

We also passed miles of sugar cane fields.

Some homes along the way. 

Coconuts for sale.

Quito schools

Last week we went to visit 2 schools here in Quito.  The first one was a grade school.

The play area

This is their recycling bin and they want a new one.

The Ministry of Education had just supplied them with new desks so here is a pile of the old ones!

As we were driving in the taxi I saw this little girl sleeping in the shade while her mother was selling produce at the stop light.  The vendors bring their children with them and the babies are strapped to the mother's backs all day long!

These were some cute kids at a school for the deaf that we also visited last week.

One of the teachers who is deaf himself teaching his little class.  From watching them it looked like he was teaching them about hygiene and how to brush their teeth.

The outside of the deaf school.  It was fun to watch all the children signing to each other.

Dad talking to the director and subdirector of the school along with a woman from the Ministry of Education who took us to the school.  They need help remodeling the bathrooms for the little children.

They have already ripped out the sinks in the bathroom.  The little kids couldn't reach the taps to wash their hands.

The outside of the school for the deaf in Quito.  All the schools are surrounded by huge concrete walls with barbed wire on top.  Lots of graffiti on the walls throughout the city!