Bienvenidos a Ecuador

SO, after twelve hours on a plane and some painfully long bus rides I am now in Ecuador! We flew into Quito (the capital) at 7 or 8...(ok note: I never have any idea what time it is here as I don´t have a watch and usually just depend on the cell phone). I learned some little fun facts about Quito from our unusually friendly pilot: apparently it´s the second highest airport in the world and they actually have to lower the pressure inside the plane before landing to match that of the altitude outside--I guess they haven´t been flying there very long because of the problems presented by the altitude and such. So now that everyone reading this has officially fallen asleep, please, let me continue.

The first night in Quito we seemed to be staying in the heart of the tourist district and I was ecstatic to be greeted by a hot shower at my hotel. The area, known as New Town, is affectionately (ok, maybe not so affectionately) termed Gringolandia by the natives--not exactly my style. On the first day we went to Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world), and straddled the equator, which my mom thought was stupid and I thought was freaking awesome. Then on Wednesday (I think, I also generally have no idea what day it is) we headed on a ten hour bus ride down down down to the coast. I took some magic little pills (Dramamine for the motion sickness) and was out for the majority of the ride, except for a couple of times when I woke up to the sound of vendors walking through the aisles of the bus and some beggars with elaborate stories at which point I feigned sleep anyway to avoid confrontation. And one time when I was out sprawled onto two seats and a lady came and sat on me instead of tapping me to wake me up first.

We have been at the beach, at Sundown Inn, a hotel-type place owned by a family where we have spanish classes 4 hours a day for a couple of days now. It´s about a fifteen minute walk up the beach to Canoa, a little coastal town known for being a surfer´s haven. This place is pretty much all I could ask for: a stuning beach, plenty of hammocks, and hours and hours of down time to read and sunbathe. Aside from my classes that´s pretty much all I do here, relax and read. It´s phenomenal. It´s extremely humid but really not too hot, at least not unbearably so. Hot enough that you want to jump in the ocean but with the breeze definitely not too uncomfortable. We will be here for two weeks, which should be great, aside from the less than desirable food (including a wide variety of mystery meats--which we can only hope doesn´t include Cuy, or Guinea Pig, an Ecuador specialty) and the really uncomfortable matress.

For those of you who were wondering, I´m keeping the sunburn under control, no face boils yet so it looks like we´re in the clear. I learned my lesson, so you don´t have to be afraid to look at my pictures later :). ¡Ciao!