The Pijal church prepared a very special lunch for us (in Ecuador, lunch is the largest meal of the day). So we traveled back to Pijal and enjoyed our first time trying Cuy (that's Guinea Pig to us in the United States)! Yes, it somewhat tasted like chicken - but not quite. In Ecuador they farm Guinea Pigs because it is more economical and requires less land than raising cattle. Still, cuy is not an every meal type meat - we were being honored by being served this delicacy. 

After lunch we walked up the street in Pijal to a daycare that FEDICE is involved in for Pijal children who are ages 4 or less. FEDICE is involved in many day cares so that the women can work and help provide for their families. The day care celebrates birthdays a few times a year, so we were able to take part in the festivities. They had dancing (which we were prompted to join in on), face painting, a puppet show, a pinata, playing outside on their playground and of course cake! It was all fun and games until we spun a merry go round a bit too hard (prompting one chlid to lose his cake) and broke the merry go round! Oops! 

We had yet another meal at the daycare, then went further up the mountain to visit a sundial that the local architect designed and had built. The local community used to rely on sundials to know when to plant, when to harvest, etc. There was a school near the sun dial and the grounds are used to teach the children how to plant and harvest food and gives them a hands on way to learn to take care of the earth around them. It was beautiful hiking around and enjoying nature and learning about the culture and history of the area.