Papi Mon and Mafe come for a visit

Papi Ramon and Mafe arrived from Pasto yesterday for Maria's 39th birthday. Not without incident however. At the Border, Papi Ramon fell down in a hole he didn't see and cut both hands and bruised his cheek. But what a trooper, after stiches in both hands and an ice pack on the cheek, this 85 year old then carried on for a 5 hour bus ride to Quito! They are here for about 2 weeks, so Ramoncito has a playmate for awhile. Carla is using Karen's walker regulary now and I suspect she'll be walking within a week or two.

The fruit is called Misperos....sweet and sour taste. Stunning painting of Quito.

Carla on two feet...sort of

Cununyacu 3

Avacado picking time! 4 trees in the front yard. Sure keeping Ramon busy, climbing and picking!

Cununyacu 2

As you can see from the photos, we haven't strayed far from home. No need to...everything we need is within 3-4 km and the Wx has been clear and warm most days....gets up to 25 in the house and only down to 20 at night. Outside its about 27-8 and down to 10ish. Carla is now doing the "one leg tucked under" crawl and is starting to use the walker that Karen gave us for Ramon. Ramon is getting into EVERYTHING! Mom is trying to keep her sanity, keeping the place clean...found slugs, mouse, fleas (which Ramon seems alergic to the bite) and worst of all, RAmon had a bout of scabies, possibly from an old mattress that had been stored too long. So we now have a maid once a week to keep the vermin at bay. All this is due to the fact that the owners had pretty low standards of cleanliness, it's a rural area with a number of crops in the yard,(inc dogs and chickens until recently) and it's a warmer climate year round; no winter kill. Dad's been working nearly every day since the start of school, but I think this will be my last weekend for a while...till reports in December!