Cynthia Goes To Ecuador: Lunch, Bunnies, and Guinea Pigs

This is the final installment of my adventure last Thursday. From the day care center we went to an herb "farm" (I know that's not the name here but I don't remember what it is right now) where they raise organic herbs and dry them for sale. They also make a very wonderful thing with herbs in it that can be heated and applied to sore muscles to help them relax.

Before we even got to the big herb garden, we went past an annex where they were experimenting with growing them in straw that has black plastic on it. It's to help keep the weeds and bugs down.

Originally I had intended just to get the rooster because he looked so handsome but when I realized I had part of the garden in there as well, I was quite pleased.

This rooster was even prettier than the first one so I had to get a picture of him as well. He has
nothing to do with the tour, he was just pretty.

While the others went to see the herb farm, I stayed back at the home of the owners of the farm, where we were going to have lunch. I was totally wiped out by then but I was sure having a good time!

Enjoy some of the photos I took while I was there:

I was still on the bus when this woman walked past. I just loved her and had to get a picture.

This little crocheted "guy" was on the exterior wall of the house, under the porch covering.

And here's the porch itself. This is where we had our lunch. If you look carefully behind the bamboo railing you'll see the little tables and resin chairs.

There was corn drying on the porch rail.

This photo and the one below show the woman who was cooking most of our meal in the outdoor kitchen. There is carne colorado on the right and soup on the left.

This adorable little girl is the daughter of the woman cooking our lunch. She told me her name several times but it was too long and complicated for me to actually be able to say it. I just love her. She decided that I should go back and see the herbs with the rest of the group so she just took my hand and said, "aqui, aqui," (here, here). On the way to where we were going we passed an enclosure of ducks. She told me they were called (pato) and I told her what the English word was.

The family, in addition to growing herbs, raising ducks, and feeding tourists, also raises guinea pigs and rabbits. Right in the middle of the building where the animals are kept was this giant bunch of bananas. I think this may be the nicest photo I've gotten of bananas since I got here.

Ah, and the guinea pigs. The babies were so adorable. I really wanted to hold one but I've never been very brave when it comes to reaching into a cage and picking up an animal, even if it did look fairly harmless.

The little guinea pigs have just been fed their alfalfa. In the picture above this one you'll see that the little space between the two cages is empty and in this one, it has the greens in it. The babies were pretty excited about getting their lunch.

No less excited were the bunnies. I think this might be my favorite photo of the bunnies. I love the two in the foreground with their little "kisses."

I was initially concerned that the rabbits had gotten out of their little building but Anita, our hostess, assured me it was fine. They took full advantage of being out there to get the choicest bits of the alfalfa.

And then there were more. At one point I think I saw a dozen of them all out there munching on their lunch but by then we were all sitting around eating our lunch and my camera was back in its bag.