Hey everyone,
 
It's hard to believe that I got here just about a week ago. I've done so much in that week that it feels like I've been here for a month.

A little bit about the country itself... Ecuador is appropriately named, as the equator runs right through it. It's located in northwestern South America, and is about the size of Colorado. The country is a democratic republic with a population of 13.2 million people. Quito, the capital city (where I will be spending 2+ months), has a population of 1.2 million. Quito is at an elevation of about 9300 feet (2835 m). Its coordinates: 0 degrees, 14' S, 78 degrees, 30' W. It's time zone is CST (an hour behind most of you). Ecuador's official currency is the US dollar (isn't that easy?). Spanish is the official language, but some people speak English, and there are a bunch of indigenous languages spoken throughout the country. Ecuador is one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world, as it is home to part of the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon, and owns the famous Galapagos Islands, 1000 km off the coast.

Let's see...Last week my host-dad Julio took me to downtown Old Quito one night. We saw the churches and the basilica all lit up at night. That part of the city is totally different at night than during the day. Afterwards, we had some kind of hot Ecuadorian drink in the plaza next to the church of San Francisco. And we had a light dinner in another small cafe.
 
I had a tour of Quito on Saturday with all the people in my program. We went in a tour bus and saw:
- a military museum, with a tour in spanish (mind you, I understood about 5% of it...I caught a few words...gun, battle, soldier...that's about all you need to know about wars, right?)
- the Virgen of Panecillo - a HUGE, unattractive statue of the Virgin Mary at the top of a hill in the city
- the church of San Francisco and the religious museum there (another tour in spanish...)
- a quick look at the basicila, whose gargoyles are not monsters, but rather endemic animals of Ecuador

Yesterday, five of us went to Pasochoa, a mountain slash nature reserve. We it took us about an hour to get there from southern Quito, the last 15 minutes of which were spent in the back of a pick-up truck. The pick-up truck ride was a little bumpy, but the views were amazing! (And it only cost $6 there and $6 back - for a 15 minute ride! Also of note was the $0.43 bus ride from Quito to the town where we hitched the ride. I mean really, 43 cents? They didn't want to round at all?) I think Pasochoa is the highest elevation I've ever been to. We ended up hiking up to around 3300 m (about 10,000 feet), which is pretty incredible considering we're not even adjusted to living at 2800 m. The hike was so hard and we had to keep stopping every 5 or 10 minutes because it was pretty steep in a lot of places, but we made it. (My red blood cell count must have doubled yesterday.) None of us were in bad shape to begin with, but the altitude has such a huge impact. We were! all, justifiably, very proud of ourselves. The countryside was absolutely gorgeous and green. We were hoping to see a lot of birds (there are supposedly 123 species of hummingbirds in the park), but we saw about 3 total. I was so tired when I got home!!
 
Random notes - The pizza here is served with kernels of corn under the cheese. My family knows how to play hearts. People here drink hot chocolate with cheese - ick! My host brother loves Disney movies. My host mother has a Cat Stevens CD and sings along with it. People park their cars on the streets during the day, but put their cars in gated driveways in front of their houses before it gets dark.
 
That's about all for now. I need to eat lunch and go to my spanish class.
 
Take care,
Lindsay
 

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Yesterday did not journal, came home and was tired and decided to go to bed instead – it was early too, like 11. But yesterday was our Tour de Quito, starting early – as in 9AM early, meeting in front of the house of Maria Antoinette. The tour took us first to the top of a great big hill to visit a military museum celebrating the independence of Ecuador under the guidance of Mariscal Sucre. I won’t go into length about the museum details, but there was also a map and a miniature that documented the battles of Sucre for Independence, which gives significance (finally!) to the dates of 6 de Deciembre and 24 de Mayo (and some others that I can’t remember). These were battle dates, I think the one in May might be the final independence battle, but I could easily be wrong. Before entering the museum we spent a long time out in front of it; there was a grand view of Quito from that height where we could easily see many landmarks like the Basilica and the Virgin. The city is large and incredibly dense both with houses and with people; we could see them wandering the street which we later found out was La Plaza Grande (or La Plaza de Independencia). We were at the museum for about an hour and a half, maybe two – was about 11:30 or so when we wandered back into the bus to go down the mountain on those narrow, steep streets.

We headed over to see La Virgin de Panecillo next, which is statuesquely impressive. Its gargantuan size made it almost impossible to take pictures of in the radius of the Panecillo area. Some people went up into the Virgin to see the view of the city but I just wandered around outside and got some pictures. From what I heard (from students on our trip) the same person that made/designed(?) the Virgin de Panecillo also made/designed the Statue of Liberty. (I suppose large women really are his specialty – it was further rumored that the Virgin was the face of his wife and the body of his mistress – or was that the statue?) We spent about 15 minutes there, which was enough time for Crista to buy three necklaces at one of the market stands lining the road. Wait till Otavalo, we keep saying.

It was about 12 when we headed down to the Independence Plaza for sightseeing and lunch. The Plaza is a large square that reminds me a lot of Italy, although it’s similiarities only lie in the fact that they’re both square plazas with fountains in the middle and buildings with balcony type windows lining the sides. The plaza was built again to celebrate the independence of the people from the Spanish conquistadors. It now houses the governmental powers of Quito as well as a church. The city was originally conceptualized with the square as the center of everything, so when Quito was newly beginning (and significantly smaller) the buildings surrounded the plaza. We had lunch in a fancy restaurant right outside the immediate square. The food was fantastic, we were allowed to choose two dishes from either appetizer, main dish, and dessert. I went with the empanadas de moroda (meat?) and a plate of aguacate con camarones (avocados stuffed with shrimp). I ordered a chicha(?) to drink – it’s a drink made out of corn that has a very sweet flavor. Stephanie said that its often sold as chicha morada and is purple with a slight grape flavor.

We returned to the bus to head over to this other church (iglesia de San Francisco?). It was an absolutely gorgeous church – plated in gold everywhere because the Incas were obsessed with the sun. There were large paintings (of course all religious art) and statues everywhere of Jesus suffering, the apostles, and the virgin Mary and other significant religious figures. The church was very baroque (ornate to a ridiculous degree) and/or rococo (every inch was covered with mirrors or gold). It must have been brilliant when the sun actually came into the cathedral, which it can’t now because the roof is blocked. The museum adjacent to the church was intense – heavy on the bloody Jesus and bloody Franciscan monk. There was an amazing room though where all the artwork was done on slabs of alabaster – amazing. In the courtyard we took a picture by the fountain, and then Rachel and Ellen spotted a caged bird (it was small and green – parakeet?) and we all took turns holding it and taking pictures with it. It actually pooped on Lindsey.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Basilica for a quick look around – the church has gargoyles, but not in the traditional sense – the statues are instead of animals endemic here in Ecuador, like anteaters, lizards, and tortoises. We didn’t get to go into La Basilica, but its gorgeous – Ariadna said that her cousin got married there, and that there is a nice view if you go up into the tower. Apparently it’s even more beautiful at night – it is lit up and blue. That was the end of our tour – regrese a la casa de Maria Antoinette where we waited to be picked up (recoger). When we returned home (Ariadna and Bruno came with to pick me up, I think they just went shopping for new shoes) Alexia had made dinner and she went to play cards. Ariadna and Bruno and I had dinner a little later – Renata was at her aunt’s house. We had this thing that was similar to meat loaf (with no meat – it was made out of bananas (green) and other things like peppers) and then rice and crumbled meat (yum). We also had a yogurt/jello dessert and green grape diet juice. We were going to go to the movies to see the Pacifier (with Vin Deisel) but when we arrived (via taxi) we found out that all the movies were in Spanish with no subtitles for me (dang it – wish my spanish was better). So we wandered around the mall shopping a bit for things I needed – bought a movistar phone finally – and some sunglasses as well (phone cost me $30 and came with $6 talking time and 200 text messages, sunglasses cost $18. Did you know it only costs $4 to go to a movie?). We still haven’t managed to find a water bottle and now I’m really starting to regret not bringing a Nalgene from home.

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