Ecuador

Next princess on the blog is Marifer from ECUADOR. We met when we both attended St. Louis Community College at Meramec. Our friendship has survived many changes in both of our lives and together with two other lovely ladies we celebrated our 10 year anniversary as friends with a girls weekend in Branson, Missouri, last year. Thank you Marifer for being a guest on my blog!

Have you ever been on a trip and discovered a new healthy food/spice that you now have incorporated into your everyday diet? If so where did you go and what kind of food/spice? Mexico: Chile “Ancho” to spice and give flavor to food and Jamaica dry leaves to make a delicious infused natural juice with lots of antioxidants.

Healthy snacks you bring on trips or have in your bag on a regular basis? Cheese strings, apples, granola bars, sun flower seeds.

Any natural food products that you use for external purposes? Aloe-Vera: I don’t use it here in the States, but in my home country, Ecuador, we use a lot of it to treat many illnesses. The most common is when you get a skin cut it works great as anti-bacterial and healing natural product.

What is the most underrated veggie in your opinion? If here in the US, that would be probably be a nutritious root vegetable: beet. In Ecuador, it would probably be celery.

 

If your parents utilized some techniques to promote healthy eating while you were growing up, what did those techniques look like? For my parents who live in Ecuador, South America, the most important meal of the day has always been breakfast: It starts with a fresh fruit juice, a portion of variety fruits, your egg and milk with bread. To this day, this is the kind of breakfast I try to serve to my daughters every day (except for the fresh fruit juice, I substitute that for orange or apple juice and sometimes bread for oatmeal or cereal).

When you have to travel far on an airplane, what is your best advice to arrive feeling as refreshed as possible? Rest is always a great idea while traveling by plane, but when you have kids it can get a little chaotic if you don’t come prepare with lots of crayons, play dough, iPad, toys, snacks, blanket, neck rest, lollipops, and lots of patience my friend…you may not be able to rest, but at least your flight would be stress free, lol! 

What type of exercise are you currently doing, if any? Zumba! While exercising I enjoy one of my passions in life at the same time: dancing!

If money and time was no object, where would you go for an active vacation in your home country? Oh, in Ecuador: Galapagos Islands, Pacific Coast, Mountain Range, and the Amazon tour. In each part of the country there are tons of active things to do.

For example, if you go to the coast, you can always do ocean activities. Montañita City is one of the best to go for active vacation in my opinion.

If you go to the Mountain Range: take the mountain train tour and you will know what “vertigo” really means or you can go hiking in one of the many active and non-active volcanoes and you will see views that will leave you mesmerized.

If you opt for the jungle, in Baños City or Puyo City you can do an Amazon tour where you will experience the jungle in all its naturals!

But if you go to Galapagos Islands, please take me with you! Galapagos is in my top vacation priorities! 

The beauty of  Ecuador, people say, is that only in 30 minutes by plane you can go from the Pacific coast to the Mountain range and from there to the Amazon! With the temperatures staying about the same all year long in each climate. Sunrise and sunset at 6:30am and 6:30pm all year long, “like nowhere else, all in one place, so close."

Thank you Marifer for participating! It was amazing to feel your love for Ecuador shine through your answers and I hope you, me, Priya and Debbie can go to the Galapagos Islands one day! Maybe for our 15 or 20 year anniversary as friends?!