There is said to be an interesting tequila distillery near the bridge where we stayed. I don’t want to miss it. For this we have to climb a dusty slope almost vertically up the mountain.

Only halfway through the route does it occur to me with my sluggish brain that today is Sunday and therefore no factory is open. I continue anyway, because the view over the mountains and valleys is fantastic.

Day 7 without a Breakdown

We pass small farms that grow crops that I have never seen before. We arrive in a small village with a blue church and the closed tequila distillery.

A few old folks stare and gather to see what we’re doing. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of visitors here.

We walk through the village and Leon happily gropes with us. We still have a lot of clothes from him that have become too small for the little lion, and we are giving them away to a woman with a child who is already a year and a half old but a lot smaller than Leon.

The houses in the countryside are very beautiful in Ecuador. Unlike other countries, people here build solid stone houses with tiled roofs. Often there are flowers around the houses.

I’m forgetting more and more that we’re actually traveling through South America, that’s what it looks like here to Europe. You could think you were in Switzerland if you didn’t see agaves, banana trees and alpacas between the grazing cows.

And fresh coconuts are sold on the side of the road. Since crossing the border, Sara has made it her goal to drink a coconut every day. So far it has almost always worked.

Speaking of coconut. We are hungry and find bean soup with cocoa. Delicious!