Backpacking South America

While in Ecuador, we stopped in to visit an old friend from college. It was a good stop over. A little bit longer than expected, but that was a good thing. It was just what we needed, some home baked cookies, home-cooked food and quality time with friends. The question at hand is, when did we all grow up?

One of the things we miss most while traveling is the one-on-one time we get hanging out with friends and catching up on life. We miss the long-term relationships we have with other people. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve met some wonderful and interesting people along the way, but often times those relationships are short lived – a few days or weeks, then only via email and facebook. So, we spent most of our time just visiting and helping out where we could. It felt really good.

We had a wonderful time being able to see their home, meet their friends and just be a part of their life for a short while. Since we saw them last, they have had a baby, who is quickly growing into an active little boy.

Aside from visiting friends, having a cook-out, making new friends, participating in a little gardening and playing some little kid soccer, we did get out and see some sites in and around Quito. We made it to Mitad del Mundo – which is a large monument and park that rests on the equator (actually, it is a bit off, but it still counts). So we were able to straddle the equator, one foot firmly in the Northern Hemisphere and one foot in the Southern Hemisphere.

We also took an afternoon visiting the Old City of Quito, which has some very eclectic looking buildings. The Basilica was one of our favorites. It’s a very old church that you can climb to top for a bird’s eye view of the city. I had a nice view of the city from where I stood…however, Jared got the bird’s eye view from the tippy-top.

Quito was a bustling city, with a lot to offer (Gringolandia), plenty of places to eat, museums, churches, and a number of parks. You can make it what you want. What’s nice about Ecuador and Quito is that it’s relatively easy to come back to and from Quito, you can make a lot of day trips to the surrounding area. We’re thinking may just have to return.

About our friend Paul, Hacienda El Refugio and Youth World

For the past seven years, Paul has been working with an organization called Hacienda El Refugio, an outdoor adventure camp and conference center. He has built ropes courses, a beautiful and huge tree house, and is now focusing on a climbing wall made from recycled radio towers and a botanical garden.

He not only works on projects around El Refugio, but helps in facilitating leadership programs for both young people and adults, while empowering them with the skills needed to be good leaders, enjoying nature and getting away from the business of life and deepening their faith. It was truly an enriching experience to be able to see how God has used both Paul and Beth over these past few years to help grow and develop the program at El Refugio. It is even more impressive to see how Paul actually knows how to build this stuff. However, he is a little more outdoorsy than me.

Hacienda El Refugio is associated with other organizations and works in connection with Youth World, reaching out to the youth of Quito and in Ecuador giving them an outlet to find support and mentoring and developing the skills needed to be leaders and disciples of Jesus Christ. Since these programs are continuing to grow and develop year after year, it has left a huge impact on the youth of Quito and demonstrated the need for such programs and support. As they continue to raise support for these programs they are able to complete a little more work on these projects. For example, there aren’t many opportunities for climbers or many rock walls in Quito, so the construction of this climbing wall will be huge for the people who love to climb, and at the same time is using recycled products. And just recently, Youth World is working with another branch building a huge skate park, which has taken off and attracted a number of youth. Construction costs money, safety costs money and proper training costs money. These are great programs for the community of Quito, but continually need funding to progress. If you are interested in the work or programs going on at El Refugio or interested in donating or sponsoring a project, please let us know and we would be happy to put in touch with Paul and Beth.