Top 10 things said in Ecuador (but rarely if ever said in the States)

10.  "How many antibiotic pills do you want?"  (Said of course in Spanish by the pharmacist who sells everything by the pill--and for just a few cents each!  A person doesn't even need a prescription.  Walgreens was never this easy or cheap.)

9. "Do you want your mango with salt, lime, or both?"  (We eat mangos sold by street vendors sliced and dredged with the stuff.  You should try it.)

8.  "I want either mora, taxo, maracuya, or tamarindo flavored ice cream, please."  (These are all unique natural flavors and very yummy.  Too bad we can't get them in the States.  I think they'd be a hit.)

7.  "Did you see the monkeys watching us as we crossed the bridge to head home?"  (Wild little guys hang out in the jungle space that we have to cross daily and we see them on occasion.)

6.  "Do you want yucca or french fries with that?" (If you've never had fried yucca, you're missing out.  It's similar to potato but crunchier when fried.  Some restaurants serve them here.)

5. "How many inches of rain did we get yesterday?"  (This question is posed with great regularity here--it would be the kind of thing that people would discuss around the water cooler or at the coffee shop.  On any given day, we'll have gotten an inch plus so now we try guessing how much rain fell within the past 24 hours as a game.)

4.  "Sure, all 13 of us can fit into our car!  We're not going very far."  (Ecuadorians--and some of us too--rival the clowns at the circus trying to cram three families into a car meant for less than half of that.  One day, I think we crammed 26 kids and adults into a van and headed to the zoo.  On another, there were 11 of us kids and adults in a compact car headed to the dentist office.  You know what they say:  where there's a will, there's a way!)

3. "Mom! Dad!  You can't expect us to go from the beach straight to the jungle in a matter of hours!  We need our rest!"  (This one courtesy of the Bierle family who did in fact hear that complaint or something of the sort from their kids.  Thanks for sharing that one Sarah.)

2. "Did you happen to get a picture of that hissing bug before I let it go?"  (Yes, we do find hissing bugs; and yes, we have let them go.  We've collected so many bugs that we now find we can't keep everyone of them.  We have to set a limit somehow.  You can imagine that it's got to be a pretty amazing thing to make the cut anymore.)

1.  (And my personal favorite:)  Mom, I'll be back later.  I'm taking my machete to go hack up the jungle.

Only in South America....

Blessings, kim