Anyway, in the morning, after Jonah and I dropped Maya at school (where she was making empanadas!) we headed to Gringo-land (aka Mariscal) to inquire about a trip to a jungle lodge. I haven't written much about our August plans - but in a nutshell, Rebecca's last day at work is Friday, August 1. The following week we are planning to spend in the jungle. The week after that, we are planning to spend at the beach. The week after that, we are planning to spend at an organic farm close to the beach. The few days after that will be spent at the beach and returning to Quito for our August 30th flight.
(Column Intermission I - I don't know what has gotten into Maya, but she is currently cleaning the floors in our apartment with a wet rag. Rebecca would never do this. Evidence that Maya is my own flesh and blood. Of course, she's doing it with the rag we use to clean the counters and table, but I don't want to rain on her parade. Go Maya!)
The jungle lodge inquiry with Dracaena Lodge went well (meaning, Jonah hardly interrupted the adult conversation). But because the journey to the lodge involves a three hour canoe ride, I think we will end up going to the Cuyabeno River Lodge, which is only a 30 minute canoe ride.
After we visited the jungle lodge office, I planned to make our way to Rebecca's office to fill her in on what I learned and maybe convince her to come out with Jonah and me for a juice. But, we ran into a couple detours that kept Jonah entertained for the rest of the morning. Breaking dirt bombs on a rock and watching a front-loader pick up stones and empty them into a dump truck.
He and I did stop for a juice before we got Maya, but there was no time to include Mommy.
After we got Maya, we headed out to Parque Alameda to kill the rest of the afternoon. It is getting harder and harder for me to find things to do with them every day. They hate getting in the Ecovia because it is always jam packed with Ecuatorianos. Frankly, I'm not that fond of it either because I have to end up carrying Jonah for the entire ride. And I hate spending the money on a taxi when I could spend a quarter and have the Ecovia take us there. Ah, the price of frugality!
Usually people on the Ecovia will vacate a seat when they see me carrying the boy, but that just means that Maya and Jonah get to fight over who has more room on the seat. This usually ends with me holding Jonah, and Maya sitting in the seat. Lately, they just can't get along over anything. They almost kill each other over who gets to push the buttons in the damn elevator every morning. I think they are ready for a break from each other.
Anyway, Parque Alameda had this bunch of guys dressed like American Indians, playing flutes and other wind instruments and singing and dancing. It was hard to figure out what the heck was going on, but it kept the kids entertained for about an hour. Maya said she liked the dancing the best.
When we got home, there was this nice sushi dinner waiting for us from Kumi. 
It was good, but was missing the wasabi. Sushi just isn't the same if you can't use it as a vehicle for a few ounces of wasabi.
Today (Thursday) both kids went to school and I had a Spanish lesson where I learned the conditional tense. What the hell is that, right? I don't know. I'm learning more about Spanish grammar than I know about English grammar. I also told Eduardo (my teacher) that I felt like my vocabulary was lacking and he challenged me to learn ten new words a day. So this afternoon, while the kids played on the playground at the nearby strip mall, I learned a bunch of words about cars. Things like wheel, dashboard, front seat, back seat, etc. I have this picture book dictionary and I kept imagining that the other folks on the playground thought I was studying to be a mechanic.
The playground at the strip mall is a plastic contraption that we are familiar with from home, set in the parking lot of the mall. It's not as bad as it sounds. There is one of those green turf mats under the playground equipment and there are guards that patrol the lot (it's a pretty small lot) and janitors that go around and clean it. With the palm trees right there it feels like a vacation spot.
Plus, the parking lot has a soundtrack blaring out from speakers hidden among the ferns and palms. The soundtrack, as far as I can tell, consists only of Alanis Morissette's album "Jagged Little Pill". I haven't heard the song "Ironic" this many times since when it was on MTV's heavy rotation in 1995.
The playground is a relatively new addition - it wasn't there a month ago. The strip mall is just down the block from us and is where the grocery store we go to is located. The mall also houses a KFC.
KFC is one of only three U.S. chains I have seen here. Dominoes Pizza and Payless Shoes being the others. Dolce Gabbini (spelling?) is also around, but I'm not sure that is a U.S. company.
Maya and Jonah are big fans of KFC. Not the chicken (though, they pester me for it continually, and I have to admit, it does look good) but the playgrounds that are inside each KFC.
Picture the McDonald's playground and I guess you can picture the KFC playground. We go there pretty frequently. It's close (we don't have to get in a bus or taxi) and they like it. Jonah will have his head on my shoulder as I carry him home from school, almost asleep, and we'll walk past the KFC and he'll pick his head up and say, I'm not tired anymore. I want to go to KFC.
We have also made trips to other parts of the city specifically to check out their KFC playgrounds. I don't know what I would do without them.
Anyway, I've forgotten what the point of this blog was (I started it yesterday) so I'll wrap it up like this - go to YouTube and type in Michael Jackson Thriller. Check out the casadofantasma edit. Maya says she likes the dancing part the best.
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