Primeros Días

Well, I arrived in Quito safely (despite what my mother may have been imagining when I couldn´t call for 2 days.) What in interesting city- there´s mountains and more mountains and all of a sudden miles of buildings stretching in between and spilling up their sides. It´s a very big city, soI´m adjusting to that more than anything. God help me if I get lost because on the map I have right now, the key covers the area where I live and where I work. Go figure.

My host family consists of one old lady, Doña Ana Maria and another volunteer who is from Sweden and just started learning Spanish 2 weeks ago. Doña is adorable and is so patient with us and though I can understand her very well, her favorite subject is politics, so she kind of loses me there.

Anyways, as soon as I got here I hit the ground running. I left with my housemate and 4 other people to travel to Otavalo, an indigenous community north of Quito- The town is famous for its giant artisan market, which we went to Saturday morning. So fun...I love bartering. It was a gorgeous day and we also went to la Laguna de Cuicocha (a crater/lake in the mountains) and to El Lechero, a tree that supposedly has magical powers. On the way back to Quito I met a guy from Pakistan who didn´t know where America was (random aside..)

Sunday the American girls and one Swede went to el Telefériqo, a cable car that takes you up Volcán Pichincha to 14,000 feet in the air. The view and also the lack of oxygen took my breath away. It felt incredible to be standing literally above the clouds and looking down at the city. In honor of America, we went to a mall and then Gringoland to eat hamburgers :)

I have found I really enjoy the slow pace and way of life here. Instead of a Meijer and Walgreens on a street, there are 20 little shops, and they´re open when they´re open. Also, my spanish has noticeably improved.


El telefériqo - on top of the world


Laguna de Cuicocha



Otavalo