Here’s hoping that the April showers in Quito will indeed bring the May flowers. Yet, the flowers here in Ecuador are grown all year long. Fresh cut flowers are Ecuador’s 4th leading export with a profit of $835 million dollars a year! The price of 50 red roses is a grand total of $7 US Dollars! That’s right!! Needless to say we have multiple vases of fresh flowers in our house daily.
This particular flower market is quite near to our home. Gigi and I stop here on Sundays and gather bunches of flowers. We will usually spend up to $20 dollars and we arrive home with at least a dozen different varietals. Then we set them all out on our outdoor table and get to work creating bouquets. It’s a pretty fun weekend hobby to have, and our house ends up smelling and looking so wonderful after.
Recently Kevin came home with two huge bunches of lilies. Wow! Walking into our home is such a delight with the potent fragrance of these flowers. My other favorite bunch to pick up is eucalyptus–which grows wildly all over Ecuador. I learned from my sister Mary to hang eucalyptus in the shower; it makes the whole bathroom smell divine. With the dried out bunches I’ve created an overflowing vase of the eucalyptus remnants. 
It’s quite odd to write on and on about flowers, but this is the first time in my life where we have fresh cut flowers in every room at all times. It’s an inexpensive luxury here in Ecuador that I have easily become used to. In fact today, I think I’ll go purchase 50 red roses because, why not?!
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