Our New Andean Life: Horseback riding again!

We've come to find out that our new babysitter's parents are also avid horseback riders, so we set out for another trip yesterday. Mark was nice enough to stay home this time so that I could go with Kim and Katie. We had a great time. Carlos took us on a different route back through the valley. We climbed up this red rock canyon that was incredibly steep. We were all worried that the horses would not make it. They were breathing so heavily and we had to stop 4 or 5 times to let them catch their breath. Carlos said he wouldn't go that way again. Good thinking!

The cows are up in the pasture today.

Felicita threw a shoe so I am riding Lluvia (Rain).
Katie fell in love with her little Palomino.
I think she would like to buy her. :)

Here is the canyon we climbed. This is about 1/3 of the way up.
We thought those bushes marked the top, but no, it climbed
even higher still.

Carlos, me and Katie.

Looking back down into the valley from where we had climbed.

Tortorillas Valley

After climbing up, we came down through this very thick
copse overrun with branches and bromeliads. This
was a nice opening in the thicket. You can see the bromeliads
in the tree to the left.

We came out onto this paramo.

After a good roll and some water the horses are shooed
up the hill and down the lane to the bigger pasture.

Finn and Tali had a playdate with Anaya and Yonggi this week. After many dreary days it was nice to have a distraction. We took them to
the park to relieve some energy.

The following day was nice and sunny so we headed out for some more exploring. We found a very cute bookstore and spent awhile in there. We bought the kids a great book, Children's GREAT EXPLORERS Encyclopedia. It will help round out our history lessons.

We also found a nice, little mall with a very little, but sweet bar/restaurant. We ate lunch at another new find, Cositas. It was a very quirky restaurant with bunnies and birds in the lobby and little things hung on the wall. A very bright and colorful restaurant. Good food too.

Then it was down to San Blas Plaza to try the gourmet ice cream at Mixx. I had the Baileys. Yum! A stop at another store to look at exercise equipment and a purchase of 8 movies for 10 bucks and we felt like we had accomplished a lot. We are usually happy if we get ONE errand done, let alone three.

I love this picture.

Libro Mundi. Great children's section. Some in English too.

The little door into the children's section. A nice touch.

Here is the nice, little mall.

Bunnies!

The flags kept the kids amused. Finn has been playing a game
on my Ipad called Stack the Countries and he knew a lot
of the corresponding flags. More than I knew!

For $2.50 you can get your fill of carbs with a side of protein:
popcorn appetizer, rice, plantano, beans, a little potato in
a great sauce, avacado and a thin, but tasty slice of chicken.