Slumdog Millionaire Bathroom

This past weekend, I went to La Costa (the coast) with the Lorr family....and with this broken toe. There were 13 of us that traveled from Quito to El Carmen on Friday: Cinthya, Adam, and I, Luz and Fabiola, and 8 of their kids. I love these kids and moms so it was fun to get spend a lot of time with them and get to know their family and where they come from. We got to El Carmen around 4:00pm and found some delicious street food as we were starving from not eating all day. Then we waited to go in the back of a truck into the area where the family lived. They lived down this unpaved, muddy road about an hour outside of town. Finally we got to a point where we couldn't drive anymore and had to walk up a VERY muddy road to get to the house. We all were just laughing so hard and the people in front (Cinthya, Luz, Bryan, Santiago...) all got very muddy and fell a couple times. I went so slow and it was so hard as I was sinking, but the crutches were very helpful and we made it to the house with smiles on our faces! We had a delicious meal, played cards, and then made room for 31 people to sleep...in 5 beds. A lot of people were on the ply wood floor or about 5 or 6 in each bed. Cinthya and I were alone just us in a bed, but in the bed that touched us were 6 people, 2 adults and 4 kids, in a twin size bed.

On Saturday we got up and I helped make a huge breakfast...which was really like a lunch: rice, fish, salad, and juice. It was a very 'rustic' outdoor kitchen, but it was also cool and all the fruit was so fresh and delicious. Then we got ready and trekked down to the river. I walked about the first half of the way down the path (just as the doctor ordered, right :)), but then they put me on the back of a mule because I was going so slow! Wow! I am not a huge fan of horse back riding normally, much less with a homemade saddle and on extremely muddy, steep inclines. It ended up being a sweet experience though and I even crossed over the river with the mule to the other side! Then all the kids, Luz, Fabiola, and Cinthya all got in the water and splashed around for about an hour. I've got to tell you, even only being able to watch from the side of the river was awesome - naked babies are just so darn cute!! Then I rode on the mule with Santiago all the way (about an hour) back to the house - he's Fabiola's 15 year old son and made me feel safe and was so nice. When we made it back, we ate again - the fish the other men caught in the river that morning! Then we packed up and got back into the back of the truck to head into town to get a bus to go to the beach for a day.

Okay, so you might be wondering what's with the blog title.... Slumdog Millionaire Bathroom?? Well, that's what Cinthya, Adam, and I thought the bathroom looked like at the house. You know the bathroom in the beginning of the movie that the little boy falls through to go meet the famous actor. The bathroom was on the second story and you had to cross wood slabs in order to get to this bathroom that was a big hole that dropped down. It was kind of gross, but also pretty humorous. I finally had to cave into to go around 11:30pm on Friday night, and Fabiola and Cinthya had to help me across the slabs as they were slippery from the rain and I wasn't walking very well. I wasn't even embarrassed as it was just a hilarious situation though!

Hope you also have an opportunity to laugh at something so genuinely ridiculous too!
Abrazos,
Taylor