In Quito

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Hello from Quito,

We made it to Ecuador safe and sound despite a long layover in the miami intl-airport, during which one of the control towers was struck by lightning...(curious that there isn´t any sort of precaution for a lightning strike). Our flight got in at 9:30, but on our drive to the hostel, which goes through the heart of Quito, we saw no more than 10 people outside - apparently it is not a city for nightlife. As it turns out, Anna´s sister Emily happened to be staying near our hotel (she is on a year long program that travels to several continents) so we were able to meet up with her, and meet the rest of the people in her program, which was very exciting. Our hostel is very cute and cozy and is located in the newer more touristy part of Quito.

Today we woke up and took a trolley, which was very similar to the greenline in boston, over to the older section of the city where we spent most of the day exploring. The biggest attraction was the Iglesia Basilica de Voto Nacional, which we were able to climb to the top of on a series of very steep, rickety ladders, and rope bridges. From the top of the basilica we could see the whole city. Quito is a very long and narrow city with tons of brightly colored buildings that is sandwiched between two series of large mountains, so the view was amazing.

After walking around Quito Antiguo for a while, and having the traditional ecuadorian fried steak and empanadas for lunch we made our way to the Museo Nacional Banco Central de Quito. There we were able to see a wide variety of Ecuadorian art ranging from 12,000 BC to modern contemporary.

Tomorrow we are considering heading to Otavalo, the largest most extensive textile market in South America. It is about two hours outside of the city, but should be worth it. On Thursday we head down to Loja to begin volunteering on the farm.

Conclusions from the day:
1)Quito is a very strange capital: lots of exhaust, little traffic org., mostly just honking the horn as one rounds the corner, breaking a ten dollar bill is severely frowned upon, almost no one is outside after 930pm.
2)Everyone here is very helpful and friendly
3)We can communicate in spanish just fine

Hope everyone is doing well.

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Comments

[Mom]

Hi Sammy and Anna, So great to read the first entry from Quito. What a gift to get together with Emily :)) The sights sound fabulous. Can't wait for the next posting. Enjoy the market tomorrow. Love you and miss you.