Pensamientos de Sudamérica: Cotacachi

Those of you who know me somewhat well know that I generally despise going for runs unless I have more energy than I know what to do with or I've landed myself in overanalytical Lanie mode and can't sort anything out in my head otherwise. Plain and simply, I am not a runner. So imagine my surprise when I drug my ass out of bed at 5:15 this morning to go for a run with Goldi and our local friend Luis. I definitly didn't have excess energy to get out because who in their right mind has too much energy at five in the morning, and I'm not feeling like a crazy person, so it would appear as though I just went to run. Apparently it helps your lungs get in shape for climbing the big mountains, so I guess I'll try it for awhile and see what happens. I gotta say, if nothing else, I love being up that early, and to be honest the run didn't kill me. Here it goes.

Everything is starting to fall into place quite nicely here in Cotacachi. It's looking like I'm going to be sticking around the area for longer than I expected. Luis, one of the local grocery owners and our morning running buddy, is setting me up with quite the deal. For a ridiculously low price I am going to be able to live with an Indigenous family in one of the small villages around Cotacachi, learn about growing food and medicinal plants, and teach heart meltingly adorable kids. Everything I want, all in one place. I'll give the details when the plans are concrete.

Alright, now for pictures. No pictures of mountains and such this time, as I've spent the majority of the last week in towns, but by request I've included a me picture. As always, I hope that you are all doing well in your various locations. Keep the emails coming- even though I'm in a foreign land I still want to keep up on your lives.