Day One: My Presidential Residence

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My birthday! What a way to celebrate my 32^nd birthday and my 33^rd year on this planet. My day started out slow, but pleasant. I read birthday cards, checked email and read in the garden of my hotel. Kenny didn’t stand for being left in the room for breakfast so I had to take him with me.

Kenny is (as I expected) my international ambassador. Ecuadoreans are OBSESSED with him. Whether the airport, the street or the hotel, people point and rush over to pet him like he’s Elvis. He is mostly indifferent to his new found fame, but I’m sure once he gets settled he’ll lap it up. Just wait until they see him in his “My Momma Votes Obama” t-shirt.

Speaking of presidents, I’ll skip ahead to my new landlady. Saint Jacquie had called every ad in the paper on Sunday and only one place would <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">consider a pet. After a stellar performance by Kenny (El es muy tranquil) and an extreme prejudice against Columbians I secured the apartment. More on the apartment later, but here is the astounding part… my landlady’s husband was the foreign ambassador to Spain, head of the Ecuadorean senate and ran for president, but it would be her son ran for and won the presidency of Ecuador. Oh and did I mention that she's a countess? She (obvi) owns several homes, but she keeps the apartment next to mine for her guests. The place is furnished like a museum with some priceless paintings and art from all over the world with carpets, chandeliers and antiques that are unreal! All I know is that Kenny had better keep in down, because I do NOT need the former president’s mother and a countess after me.

Follow up to the missing ride and Hotel... I’m trying to keep these short, but I decided I needed to explain my first adventure. Where was Hostel Batan Grande? No one knew. Not taxi drivers, not my temporary hotel, and not the police. Yeah, that’s because it was actually called Hotel Azteca and the phone number was wrong. We finally found it on accident, but St. Jacquie pulled off the miracle of the century and I was sleeping in my new apartment my second night in Quito! Now I just have to weasel a refund...

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