Ecuador Day 3: Zip-Lines and Steak!

Yesterday morning, Jon asked me if there was anything specific I'd like to do while I was here. I asked if there was anything he wanted to suggest anything. He asked if I was interested in going on a zip-line in Mindo. I had been wanting to go on a zip-line through the jungle for a long time, so this sounded like a plan to me. When the Lamberts realized that Danny didn't have to be at work until 7PM, we made plans to have a guys day zipping through the trees.

Instead of going to the one they typically take groups to in Mindo, Jon decided to try out one that's just before Mindo called Toucanopy (isn't that a great name?). We meandered along a one lane dirt road for a while taking a wrong turn once because we didn't see the little arrow that might have been pointing to Toucanopy.


Once we saw the arrow and followed it, we had no trouble finding the place. There's a sign near where you park that asks you to announce yourself and there's a bell hanging beside it.

We rang the bell, and were greeted very quickly by an extremely friendly black and tan dachshund. A woman, Nina, was not far behind him.

She greeted us and led us along a path to where we could gear up for the zip line. Along the way, she explained how many lines there were, how long the longest was, how fast you could go if you weighed enough, and how much it cost. She explained this all in Spanish forgetting that 1/3 of our group (me) really only spoke English. Thankfully, Jon remembered to give me a brief summary. It turns out I had caught the highlights because I can usually pick out numbers as well as meters. The longest zip-line was going to be over 500 meters long, the tallest over 60 meters tall, and the fastest one could reach speeds of about 60km/hour. By this point, I was quite excited.

They put us in very nice padded climbing harness, gave us zip line pulleys, gloves, leather breaks, and helmets. At this point, I think they figured they had us committed enough that we would now sign the waiver. I'm rather thankful we got to see the equipment before we signed anything. Just as we were getting ready to go, a group started coming off the last leg of the series. It just looked like fun!





They started us off on a fairly short and slow one so we could get used to it and practice braking. It was awesome. I've been on zip lines before, but always ones at challenge courses, and the views you see on those just cannot compare. We were zipping over the tree tops listening to the birds and bugs.

There are a series of six zip lines at Toucanopy that allow us to see different plants and terrain. One of them goes beside several large white palms, a species of palm tree that are endangered here. One took us by lots of bromeliads. My two favorite zip lines were the fastest one, which went by the white palm tress, and the longest once, which was also the last one. Nina, one of our guides, told us that we could reach 60km/h (37.28 mph). The problem is that very light people cannot get enough momentum to attain that speed. Nina took one look at me and assured me that I would have to problem reaching that speed.



Along with seeing all of the awesome plants, we also got to see inch worms, centipedes, and even a spider. I was hoping to see some birds, but it was pretty cloudy and they weren't really showing themselves. On the plus side, there's plenty of humming birds around the house here to see. Jon also has a small aviary with some finches, canaries, and a South American cardinal.

Once we got done with the zip line, we realized that it was only 12:30 and we still had time to grab lunch if we wanted. We mosied down to Mindo to eat at El Cheff. This is the restaurant that has steak on a rock. When the waitress came to take our order, I was still wrestling with what to get. Danny just looked at me and said, "You know you want the steak on a rock." He then ordered it for me. What a good decision it was too. $6.80 got me a steak on a rock, french fires, tomatoes, broccoli, and pickled carrots. It was pretty awesome.


After that it was time to head back up to the house in Quito. Danny drove and we chatted while Jon slept in the back seat. This was the first time I'd really had a chance to talk with Danny. It was a little difficult because he doesn't get to practice his English much and my Spanish is really terrible.

When we got back, I crashed for what I thought would be a short nap. It was a bit longer than I expected, but it was great! Then it was about time for supper. Over all, it's been a very eventful and fun day. Tomorrow, I'm tagging along with Jon and Karen to the monthly meeting with all of the pastors. It should be an interesting experience.

Ecuador Day 1: Travel

I sit here on the AA flight 967 heading to Quito. We're about 35 minutes out from the airport. It's been a long day of travel. Mom and I left for Cincinnati at 9:30 this morning. I was thankful to get to spend some time with her as she's been in KY for 2 months and I've seen her for a total of less than 36 hours of it between my travel and her travel.The flight from Cincinnati was pretty painless, but it ended up being just what I needed. It's amazing how God chooses to speak to us. On the flight from Cincinnati to Miami, I decided to listen to my iPod some and a CD by Acoustix caught my eye. They're a barbershop quartet who have a good Christian album called O Worship the King. Just a few minutes before, it had hit me that I was about to be in another country to do an internship and teach. This is also my first time traveling out of the country without going with a group. I'll admit that I was freaking out a bit, especially about teaching. It's very intimidating and I feel rather inadequate. I'm mulling this all over while listening to the CD when the song "Fear Not My Child" came on. If you've never heard it, you should look it up. I'd heard it before, but never like this (and I've listened to this album a bunch of times). It came on right when I needed it. It also directed my thoughts to something E. Stanley Jones says in Christ of the Indian Road. He talks in there about how when he preached his first sermon, he got derailed very quickly after mispronouncing a word and making a college girl snicker. He realized then that God had not called him to be God's lawyer, but rather to be his witness. He talked about how God had always provided him with what to say as long as he sought what God wanted him to do. This is not an excuse to be lazy, but it does help me realize just how much I must rely on God and not myself. I just pray that God gives me wisdom and direction as I finish preparing to teach classes. This is easily the most intimidating thing I've ever had to do.
Update: It took me over an hour to get through Immigration and Customs because several flights were running late and all landed close together. Once I made it through Immigration, which was painless, I picked up my luggage and zipped right through Customs. It was the easiest time I've ever had going through Customs and Immigration. I think the fact that it was past midnight really helped things along. The Lamberts were waiting for me as I cleared customs. They were a welcome sight! We walked out to their car and made a beeline for the house. Dad had described the house to me, but he did not do it justice. It's absolutely beautiful. My room is the spear room. It has that name because there are spears on the walls. It's awesome! The big window looks right out onto Cayambe making for an incredible view. I crashed hard shortly after getting to the house, and that was the end of day one.

Israel Day 17: Modern Jerusalem

Here's my last impression report I have to write for the class. I still continue to do updates on the last few days here, but this is the last trip we took as a class.

Today was set aside as a day for us to mainly visit some of the more modern sites around Jerusalem. The day started with us spending several hours at Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem is a memorial and museum dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust. I was unsure what to expect, but I was interested to see it. I’ve been to quite a few museums, and my least favorites are typically ones that mainly focus on history. History is just a subject that doesn’t interest me all that much. This museum was different.

Looking at the model of the place, the main hall doesn’t look terribly big. Dr. Rasmussen warned us that it would take a couple of hours to go through, but I was rather skeptical. The reason is that in most places such as this, I mainly look at the pictures and only read the signs that accompany the pictures that really catch my attention. I was unable to do that here. The stories told in the signs just draw you in. The most haunting aspect of many of the displays were the videos shown. Many of these videos were Holocaust survivors telling their stories. They were all so moving. It was like there was a magnet drawing me to many of these videos. Many of the people sharing in the videos were kids during this time. It was horrifying to hear them recount being lined up in front of pits with many others and then having soldiers shoot at them to murder them. Some of these kids were not actually hit but fell onto the piles of bodies anyway and were later to escape later. I cannot imagine what that must have been like. Nearly 90 minutes into my visit, I realized I’d seen less than half of the hall and I really had to hurry up and start rushing through. This is a place I really need to spend an entire day at to truly see and read everything.

This was one of the best, if not the best, museum I’ve ever seen in design. The exhibits and space add to the story being told without distracting you from it. I had no problem reading any of the exhibits as the light was never too low. It also had a very natural flow which kept people from really bumping into each other. I was just impressed with every component of the facility.

There were two places at Yad Vashem that really moved me. The first is the Hall of Names. It’s a large circular room with a deep pit in the center. Suspended above it is a large conical shaped piece that has hundreds of pictures on the inside of it. Around the perimeter of the room are probably thousands of boxes that contain the names and personal details of millions of victims recorded on Pages of Testimony (I had to look at their website to get it right). What struck was not the large number of records, but the vast number of shelves till empty. This is because they know that they have not recorded the details of all of the victims yet. They hope and expect to receive records on many more people.

The other place that really made me pause and reflect was the Children’s Memorial. This memorial is dedicated to the some 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust. Entering the first part of the memorial, you see pictures of some of the children murdered set into a glass display. As you enter the main room which is very dark, you hear a voice reading the names, ages, and country of origin of many of the victims. All of the walls are mirrored and the reflect a candle in the very center of the room. These reflections make it appear as if there are thousands, if not millions, of candles in the room. This really brought home to me just how many children were murdered during the Holocaust.

While I had not known what to expect at Yad Vashem, it exceeded every expectation I could possibly have had. It was one of the most moving experiences of the trip for me.

After visiting Yad Vashem, we went to the Israel Museum for a little bit. The museum is undergoing extensive renovation which means that most of it is closed. The two main sections we wanted to see, however, were still open. The first is a 1:50 model of Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period. This model is positively amazing! During this time, Jerusalem had three different walls around it. I had studied maps and drawings of the layout, but it was fairly difficult for me to follow. Seeing these walls in “real life” made it much easier to understand the layout. I also had no idea that the Temple towered so high above the rest of the city. It was an amazing thing to see.

After looking at the model and discussing it, we moved to the Shrine of the Book. This is an exhibit dedicated to the Dead Sea Scrolls. They have some artifacts from Qumran as well as sections of various scrolls. They also have a life size reproduction of the complete Isaiah Scroll. The exhibit was impressive, and it was awesome to see documents that were that old. I think I would have enjoyed it more, however, if I could actually read and understand Hebrew or Aramaic. I’m not sure about this, but I suspect it would have made a difference.

We next drove to Shiloh to have lunch and see the antiquities site. The most interesting part of this location for me is that this is where the Tabernacle was located at one point. The only problem is that we don’t know for sure where the tabernacle was located. This is because the Romans later came in and built there as well. When the Romans built, they built on bedrock which means they destroyed whatever was beneath it. Because of this, there is not a lot of archaeological to help determine different buildings were located.

Our last stop of the day was at the Garden Tomb. This is a location I had looked forward to visiting. Stupidly though, I left my camera on the bus. Oh well, I got some postcards that have better photos on them than I would probably have taken. We first viewed a possible location for Golgotha. I actually had already seen this as you can get a good view of it from several different locations just outside the Old City or on top of the ramparts of the walls of the Old City. We then wandered through the gardens with the tour guide until we came to the tomb. It was an impressive sight to see. This really caused many of us to ponder if this tomb or one very close by was the burial place of Jesus. Our tour guide made the comment that the actual location doesn’t really matter to him because the tomb is not what we should be concerned with. We should focus on the fact that all we can do is look at various empty tombs because Jesus is alive! He made a very good point. It still didn’t answer my question about whether or not this was likely place though. I talked to Dr. Richter about it and she said that very few scholars believe this is the correct location. Many still believe the true location is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Regardless of whether or not the Garden Tomb is the true site, it is still a good visual of what the tomb may have originally looked like. Visiting the Garden Tomb was a great way to end our day of study and travel.

This day also ended this class except for the final exam we have tomorrow afternoon. This is a bittersweet moment for me. Part of me wants this class to go on much longer, but I’m also totally worn out. I’ve spent the past three weeks trying to drink from a fire hose, and my brain is overloaded. I now need time to unpack everything I’ve learned and seen on this trip. The good thing is that while the class is almost over, the trip is not. We will have almost three full days to rest, shop, explore, and revisit locations in Jerusalem that interest us. This means I’ll have the chance to eat more food in the Old City. Most of us went out to eat tonight to thank Dr and Mrs. Rasmussen, Dr. and Mrs. Wright, and Cyndi Parker for all of their hard work for this class as well as just to celebrate the end of the class. If the other food I find in the Old City is half as good as this, I’ll be a happy camper!

Israel Day 16: Sepphoris, Nazareth, En Harod, Beth Shean/Sycthopolis

After we all had breakfast and had loaded up the bus, we took off to Sepphoris. This is an antiquities site that I didn’t know anything about. But, we had been told that there were some great mosaics there, so I was looking forward to that. As we entered the antiquities site, we started walking down a Roman road that actually dates back to Roman times. The stones were basically all worn smooth, but the road was still pretty bumpy because it was still made of individual stones. You could see deep ruts worn into some of them. Some of us pondered what it would have been like to ride a chariot down that road. My only thought is that as much as I’d like to drive a chariot, riding it down that road would be murder on your knees.

The mosaics were indeed as beautiful as they had been described. I thought I had seen some good mosaics before coming to Israel, but they’re nothing compared to the ones I’ve seen all over this country. Some of the ones I’ve seen at Sepphoris are the most intricate I’ve seen anywhere. I tried to take pictures of them, but no photo did them justice. The best part is that two of them have building built of them that have AC to help preserve them. I was a big fan of these two locations!

Next we stopped at an overlook that is above Nazareth. Nazareth has a ring of hills around it forming a kind of bowl shaped valley in the middle. While the city is fairly large and is up and over the sides of some of the hills, Biblical Nazareth was quite a bit smaller. It’s thought that it probably rested towards the bottom of the bowl where it was more protected. The down side to this is that no cool breeze probably blew through there. Rather, the breeze would have blown above it. It was interesting to see what all was near Nazareth as well as the probable location for the ancient site, but it really wasn’t too impressive to me because of the big city around it. It just didn’t seem like the little village I’ve always imagined.

For lunch, we stopped at En Harod. This is the probable location of where Gideon and his army drank from the spring. This is also where God pared down Gideon’s army to just 300 men. In my mind, this spring was going to be pretty large. I imagined it to be like some of the big springs we have in Florida. I should have learned at this point that most sites here are smaller than I imagined. This spring was no exception. I had trouble picturing so many men drinking from the spring. Dr. Stone shared with us some about Gideon and his battle against the Middianites. Standing where Gideon stood and looking at where they would have had to march to brings a whole new appreciation for this event. Seeing it in its larger context really helped me to picture just how tough these men would have had to be, and just how much they would have needed to depend on God.

Beth Shean was our last stop of the Galilee Field Study. What was interesting to me about this site is that you have an Iron Age Israelite site at the top of the tel. Lower down is an Early Bronze age site that would go back to the fifth or fourth millennium BC, and below that a Greco Roman site. On top of all of this, there’s one place you can stand at the Iron Age site where you can see the other two sites below and a McDonalds in the distance. That’s a huge swath of human history right there!

By the time we left this antiquities site, I was actually ready to get back to JUC. It fealt like I had been away from home for a very long time. Our time in the Galilee region was a great deal of fun, but it was also extremely tiring.