PrologueWe just returned from 2 weeks in the highlands of Ecuador, where a third godchild, Kilhi Sisa, was added to our family.We met Sisa's family last year during a cultural exploration of Ecuador. They live in Morochos, a small rural community not far from Cotacachi and Otavalo, in the Andes mountains. The family has a guest house, and takes in travelers who want to learn more about their community and lifestyle (this is all overseen by Runa Tupari Native Travel in Otavalo). We spent 5 nights with their family last year and became very close with them. They invited us back this June for their annual Inti Raymi / San Juan festival, and asked us to be godparents to Sisa. This was an offer we couldn’t refuse. Our two godchildren in Guatemala (Aracely and Eddy) have enriched our lives so much that we were happy to open our hearts to another godchild and her family. Preparations for the trip had been in the works for almost a year. The family patriarch, Antonio, had never used e-mail when we visited them last year. Our extremely helpful English-speaking guide and good friend Felipe hooked him up with a Gmail account and taught him how to use it to converse with us. Of course there were immediately some cultural differences. With us working in the computer field, we need to plan our vacation time in advance, to give work proper notice of when we will be away. But in the Ecuadorian highlands, things don't move at that pace. The family didn't seem concerned with the details of the trip until about a month before our arrival. Despite the mismatch of planning styles, everything came together fine. We arrived on June 11 (a week before Sisa's baptism, which would be on the 18th) and would stay on until the 27th so that we could experience Inti Raymi / San Juan, which is a combination of Inca and Catholic traditions, celebrating the summer solstice as well as the feast of St. John the Baptist (San Juan). Saturday 6/11/2011 - ArrivalEven though it was a weekend, we woke up at our normal work time (6 o'clock a.m.) took showers, and did our last-minute preparations. Steve came over at 7:45 a.m. We said goodbye to our 4 baby robins in the nest under our deck and of course our cat Brownie, and Steve drove us to the airport. We noticed that the boarding pass we had printed at home said "Priority AAccess."When we got to the airport there was a whole separate American Airlines check-in counter for us. It must have been because we redeemed 70,000 AAdvantage miles each to book these flights. We checked our bags and walked through security with absolutely no waiting. Craig was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and he needs to give himself a daily injection of medication. With all of the TSA prohibitions on sharp pointy things in carry-on luggage, we expected to have to do a lot of explaining when going through security. Craig had his syringes in their travel case, and he took it out of his carry-on bag and placed it into a plastic bin to to go through the scanner. Nobody stopped or questioned him, so that was a relief. We went to McDonald's. I got a sausage, egg, and cheese McGriddle, hash brown, and orange juice, and Craig got a bacon egg and cheese McMuffin and a sausage McMuffin, hash brown, and orange juice. We got large Aquafina water bottles from Cosi, which we can refill with water from the family's water cooler during the course of the trip. We went to our gate, and saw a woman carrying a promotional tote bag from our work. Small world! The Priority AAccess status meant that we got to board before group 1. Sweet! We were near the front of the plane. We departed ontime at 11:15 a.m. I typed up last year's Ecuador trip on my netbook during the flight. I had a backlog of trips to write up for the web site. We landed in Miami at 2:20 p.m.. We would be departing from the same gate at which we had arrived, so thankfully we didn't have to rush around the airport. I went to Nathan's Hot Dogs and bought us each a Gatorade and a 5-piece chicken tender for lunch. We ate and waited about an hour. Once again we were able to board early. The plane wasn't quite full and we lucked out being able to secure an aisle and window seat with nobody in between us when the woman next to us moved to sit with her friend. The flight took off at 4:21 p.m. Craig ordered a cranapple and the flight attendant called it "Cramapple," which we found quite funny. Craig's legs were crampy on the plane, potentially due to his MS, but his "Cramapple" and the gorgeous view out his window meant that he soon relaxed. We enjoyed a very beautiful sunset; the plane's wing and cloud formations emerging from the cloud "floor" were silhouetted against an orange sky. We landed on time in Quito at 7:15 p.m. We went through immigration and collected our luggage (Priority AAccess status also means that your luggage is the first off the plane, so we didn't need to wait long) and then went through customs. We were all through with everything by 7:45 p.m., not too shabby! We didn't even get outside before we saw the whole family all dressed up in their traditional Otavalan dress. Even little Sisa was wearing the traditional female clothing including head scarf, layered skirts, a delicately embroidered blouse, gold beaded necklaces, coral bracelets and gold earrings. She looked absolutely adorable. She presented us each with a bouquet of roses. She gave us a hug and a kiss and then handed me a bottle of water. We greeted Antonio (Sisa's grandfather), Rosa (Antonio's wife), and Aida (Sisa's mother), and noticed that Aida was carrying little 9-month-old Yupanqui, who had been born on September 23. We were thrilled to meet him for the first time. We all piled into a small passenger microvan for the 3 hour ride back to the community of Morochos. Two large gringos, three Ecuadorian adults, two children, and all of our luggage had to fit in the back of the van, and it was a tight squeeze. I helped Sisa get in and tried to hold her on my lap. But she got nervous and instead sat in between me and Rosa. Aida was looking at all of the lights of the city as we drove the Pan American highway out of Quito. Conversation was a bit awkward. This was the first time that we were with the family without a fluent translator. The family speaks Kichwa (their indigenous language) first, and Spanish as a second language. Antonio knows very limited English from his work as a tour guide. Our Spanish is very limited. Craig took Spanish in high school and I took a semester in college, and we have learned some vocabulary through visiting our Guatemalan compadres, but we are by no means fluent. Our grammar is practically non-existent. We were a bit nervous about our ability to communicate with the family; there was no safety net save for a Spanish/English dictionary and hand gestures. We sat smiling at one another, our faces illuminated by passing headlights, and Sisa broke the awkward silence. She started holding our hands and saying "Hola Achi. Hola Achi." Achi Taita and Achi Mama are the Kichwa words for godparents, and she knew that we were here for her baptism. It was so cute. She patted our hands and kept saying hola. She was obviously excited and started warming up to us quickly. From now on, we were Achi Taita (Craig) and Achi Mama (Steph) to the family, so much so that they even forgot our actual names at times. It is a title of respect, and the children always address us this way. We stopped at a rest stop and I held Yupanqui, who was perfectly happy. We got back on the road. The van was small and cramped, and the ride was starting to feel infinite. We arrived at the house at 11 p.m. Sisa had fallen asleep in the van, so they put her to bed. The rest of us gathered at the kitchen table. Rosa and Aida whipped up some quick food (fried egg, rice, and potato). They must have all been hungry, as the airport pick-up had been about a 7 or 8 hour round-trip for them! We retired to the guest house at 11:20, exhausted after a long day of travel, and a bit affected by the altitude of 8800 feet. The guest house is divided in half. Each half consisted of a bedroom and bathroom. We were in the left half, the same one we had stayed in last year. It has a red brick exterior, wooden shutters, and red tile roof. Our room had two beds with traditional woven bedspreads. There was even a fireplace (though there was no wood). Informational posters about Otavalan culture and life were hung up on the walls, as were some woven tapestries. The bathroom had a shower, a toilet, and a sink. Hot water was theoretically available via a Frankenstein switch and some wires leading menacingly to the shower head. We found the guest book that we had signed last summer, and re-read our entry with nostalgia. We had recorded in there our desire to return, and here we were! We got undressed and were preparing to get into bed when we heard music and dancing outside. We weren't sure what was going on, whether it was something to do with the lead-up to Inti Raymi celebrations or something unrelated. Under normal circumstances, we would have gone outside to check it out, but we were so exhausted that we didn't want to bother putting clothes on again. We needed sleep most of all. |
 Sunset from the plane  Sunset from the plane  We are met with roses at the airport  Aida, Yupanqui, Rosa, and Sisa  Late-night dinner: Antonio, Aida, and Yupanqui See all photos from this day |
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