How do YOU spell "Hippy-Hoppa?"

Apparently, there are two ways to write the name of this surprisingly pleasant medium-sized town in northwest Ecuador, which we briefly visited to check on a missionary.  The first is the more common:

The second is more interesting and certainly less pronounceable.

We also found the inspiration for any anthropomorphic (person-like) trees in the Ceibo pronounced "Say-bo" for all you Jipijapans, which is the official national tree.  We would suppose that the Ecuadorian countryside gets downright spooky on a full moon when these guys start walking around.

Our visits to the missionaries brought us to the seaside town of Bahía ("Bay") where we spent a pleasant night in a near-abandoned hotel, and squeezed in a walk on the beach before night fell.

Back in Guayaquil, we had the honor of presenting the usual, scintillating PowerPoints (see "GI Distress, Ingrown Toenails; gross presentations concerning") to the missionaries in that city.  However, the missionaries were rescued from sheer PowerPoint boredom by the fact that it's Christmas.

The missionaries had a good time with their presentations, and visiting with each other and their great Mission President and his wife.

We were also able to attend the beautiful Guayaquil Temple with the group.  And yes, I have sunscreen on that bald head.  They don't call it Ecuador ("Equator") for nothing.

So, we're back in good-old chilly, rainy Bogotá, trying to ignore the guys banging and chipping on the roof.  It was a rich and instructive trip and luckily, the missionaries are doing well health-wise.

We hope that your trees don't start walking around.  Too much.

Dave & Paula