Mancora boats with pelicans

Well I hate to say it but this is the beginning of the end for our trip.  I actually just finished loading the car into the shipping container with our agent and watching a truck take it to the shipping staging area.  All went as planned, now I just need to be in Houston on or around July 18-20th to pick it up and drive back to Colorado.  Anyway, rewinding a few days…

We were in Mancora Peru hanging out at the beach.  Our hotel proved to be a great place to unwind after having lots of ruin, museum time.  The beach is great there, the boys loved boggie boarding in the waves – although both got wiped out a couple of times which they didn’t like.  Overall the food was excellent and we greatly enjoyed building a huge sand castle on the beach.  It even made it through two high-tides – even though it was in the possible range of getting hit with the tide.  I doubt it’s still there, but it was fun to build in the sun and hang out for the day.

Building the sand castle.

Our guys being great brothers.

Walking the beach.

The waves got bigger.

Our sand castle with definsive lines to make the waves not be able to hit it – or at least that was the thought.

We left Mancora last Wednesday and drove to Guayaquil, Ecuador.  Ecuador has been a welcome change for everyone.  We went from dry desert like conditions to lush green jungle with lots of fruit and flowers.  Guayaquil has been a mini-america for the boys.  The first night we went to a TGI Fridays – where it was loud, but we could have a hamburger so that was fun – first time in six months.  We found a local movie theater that had some movies in english, so we were able to see Jurassic World 3D – excellent.  We also found a hair salon so everyone is looking good with new hair cuts.  There hasn’t been a lot to do here – everything is several hours away via car – which we really don’t want to get into and drive around.  So we have just been hanging at the hotel and going really local by walking around the town.  Nothing that exciting.  Some good views from the top of the hills though.

Across the border into Ecuador!

Climbing the 445 stairs to the top. Pretty neat.

The local houses from a top the hill.

The cathedral.

Yesterday we went for brunch at a different hotel where they also happened to be filming a short note about the hotel for Ecuador TV based in NY.  Well one thing led to another and they wanted to hear more about our story and film us – yes the Outlaw’s will be on Ecuador TV – probably in a couple of weeks.  The producer came to the hotel this morning and we filmed for about an hour – the car, our family, did some interviews, etc.  Cindy said something about calling her agent, I wasn’t sure what she was talking about…

So we leave on Thursday a.m. to fly to the Galapagos Islands for five days.  No internet there – which will be great.  Now that we are staying back with the mainland tourists you can spot americans from 100 yards away – everyone with their cell phone in their hand or sitting at the table texting on their phones.  It’s almost a joke with other cultures how addicted americans are to the internet and mobile phones.  Having not had one now for five months I can say that I don’t want one back.  Maybe I’ll get a pager and stop at payphones… I don’t think they exist anymore (payphones).

The car getting ready to load into container.

Tiedown straps being secured.

That’s it all done – car is on its way home 😦

So the car is loaded and we have about a week left of our journey south.  I’ll have to figure out how to summarize it all up in a different post.  Cindy was even saying the other day she might write a blog post – figures at the very end…