Happy New Year! (a little late, we know...) Hope it`s off to a great start for everyone.

Right now we`re in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the largest city and commercial center of the country. Finding ourselves in front of the nicest computers we`ve encountered thus far, we thought it`d be a good time to catch up on some photo sharing. So here goes...

Aaron`s family visited us in Buenos Aires for Thanksgiving. They were our first visitors on this marathon trip and it was great to have them with us for the holidays. One of the highlights was a last minute trip to Uruguay, for which we have Hut to thank. After the Boyds left, we headed south to the beach for a few days. Pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/aaronboydyo/20071118123BuenosAiresUruguayAndMarDelPlata

In early December, we flew to Quito, Ecuador. Although we`ll devote at least one blog entry to our thoughts about being in Ecuador, for now let`s just say that life feels much more foreign here than it did in Argentina and Chile. Among other things, we`ve had our eyes opened a bit to some of the effects poverty can have on a country and its inhabitants. For the first few weeks of December, we were in Quito, where we took a Spanish class and did some sightseeing, with side trips to nearby Otavalo and Mindo. Pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/aaronboydyo/20071241219QuitoOtavaloAndMindo

For Christmas, Melissa`s family paid us a visit. For a girl from NJ who stayed in state for college and moved to nearby NYC for law school and post-grad practice, it was quite nice to see the fam again after a whole 3 months! Pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/aaronboydyo/200712201226Quito

Next we went south of Quito to hike the Quilotoa loop, which included journeying through small mountain towns inhabited mostly by indigenous folks and viewing the magnificent crater lake, Laguna Quilotoa. Pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/aaronboydyo/200712271230ZumbahuaQuilotoaAndChugchilN

We returned to Quito for New Year`s. It was pretty raucous - amateur fireworks exploding in the streets, pickpocketers roving through the crowds (one of which stole Aaron`s wallet), and revelers out til all hours. We managed to have a damned good time (stolen wallet aside) and capture Aaron as no one has ever seen him before -you don`t wanna miss these photos... http://picasaweb.google.com/aaronboydyo/20072008123111Quito

That`s it for now - more soon. Take care of yourselves.

xoM+A