We know we have been very lax in communicating with you but then we hear very little from you either so I won't beat myself up with guilt.

The reason you've not heard much from us is that the pace we've been keeping has been nothing short of gruelling. Between attending Spanish classes, keeping up with the homework, taking care of Retrouvaille business and trying to write a speech/workshop we must give at the conference, we are totally exhausted. To top of all that, I came down with a cold and some sort of virus or parasite that had me sleeping 20 hours a day for three straight days. I ended up seeing a doctor in Manta. Then when we got back to Quito on Friday, Ana Luz insisted I see a doctor again before we go to Peru and altitudes over 11,000 feet.

Anyway, to back track a bit and give you a quick but short overview of our travels, we spent the first week of classes in Quito and then flew to Cuenca. The city is very beautiful - one of the greenest cities I have ever seen - has 4 rivers running through it which accounts for some of the lushness.It is a UNESCO World Heritage city and we found that it has a large population of ex-pats, including many Canadians. Our home stay experiences both in Quito and Cuenca were not the best in the world (especially for the Melly's who never got any evening meal) so for the third week in Manta (seaside resort) we chose to stay in a hotel which was really nice. (Hopefully EJ will post some photos for you).

We were taken from Cuenca to Manta by car but our driver was a maniac on the road to the point that Mike had to shout at him and threaten police intervention. We were driving in the clouds, it was raining and we had nothing but s turns. The idiot was passing on double lines on blind curves at 80 km. per hour where the limit was 60. Even a local gal in our van was terrified as was the French tourist.

The views were breath-taking whenever we were not in the clouds. Manta was disappointing as it turned out to be a rather dilapidated beach town but our hotel made up for that. Furthermore, I got sick on Tuesday and never surfaced till we had to leave on Friday. When we got back to Beuno's house, they had a dinner party but i missed it all as I went straight to bed.

Beuno's left for the rose farm yesterday evening and we are here at their home till we fly out tomorrow morning to Peru. We will take a computer with us but doubt that we will get any internet service at an Incan archeological site. EJ will have his cell phone but even that may be sporadic. We will be back at Beuno's on Friday evening.

I will close for now. We look forward to hearing news from you as well.