Ecuador day 7: Vamos a Tena!

This morning we rose bright and early to catch first a bus to Riobamba and from there to Tena, out east in the rainforest (tropical rainforests, oh my!). We packed the rest of the fruit from yesterday's market trip and headed out to the station, saying our farewells to Guaranda.

The ride was mostly uneventful, except that Chimborazo (tallest mountain in Ecuador, tallest in the world if you measure from the Earth's center instead of sea level, inactive volcano) was for once on the trip not shrouded in mist. We saw the whole thing!

Unfortunately the bus window was pretty dirty and also damp with condensation, so I didn't get many decent photos. 

We also saw a few vicunyas, the llama relatives that only live really high in the Andes, on the slopes of mountains. They were really cute! I saw a small herd of them loping down a hillside, very picturesque. 

After we passed Chimborazo we stopped in Riobamba for a bus transfer and an early lunch (we had an hour layover). Then we were on our way to Tena! It was neat watching the landscape slowly change from high mountains to low mountains to foothills to hills to relatively flat. The plant life changed too, from grassy slopes and conifers to more and more trees as the elevation came down. Eventually we were in a massive forest of trees, bushes, flowers, and all sorts of things I couldn't identify. 

We finally reached Tena after about five hours, hopped off, found a taxi, and got to our hostel. It's on the outskirts of the city, far from the hustle and bustle and noise. It's also up on a bit of a hill so the view from the patio is quite nice. 

Looking out upon the city from the hotel

We lay in bed for a few minutes, recovering from the heat (it was a warm, sunny day, and the bus became quite uncomfortable by the end), and then we journeyed out upon Tena. 

We walked down to the river where there's a cool footbridge that stops at an island in the middle (I think two rivers come together here, so it may not actually be an island). There's a neat little nature area that was unfortunately closed for construction, so we climbed the bridge's tower and looked out upon the city. 

You can see the hotel from here (there's a pink building in the upper left on the slope)

When the rivers come together, you can see a line where the different silt concentrations mix. 

Looking east, out toward the flat areas and the deep jungle. West are the first foothills of the Andes. 

And so many bromeliads! The trees were covered in them, to the point where you couldn't quite tell what was tree and what wasn't.

We had dinner at a place called the Guayusa Lounge (guayusa is a kind of tea very popular in this area), which serves decent Mexican food and therefore Patrice loves it. They also serve delicious drinks, and during happy hour they're half off, which brings them down to $1.75. We enjoyed that, and then played drunk (well, tipsy) chess. Patrice won, but we didn't notice for five moves because we were distracted by the other side of the board. 

Ecuador day 6: The Shire of the Andes

This morning we started our day with a trip to the Guaranda Market for some South American fruit. We got a grenadilla (much like the passion fruit, probably closely related), some [other Ecuadorian fruits], and brought them back to Patrice's apartment for breakfast. They were delightful, especially the grenadilla.

Ecuardorian market! I tried to be reallys surreptitious taking this photo but people were still staring at me with my camera.

We finished grabbing the last of our laundry and played a bit with Patrice's cat. She likes the sunny patio. 

Happy cat!

After that we headed to the city center to see the historical buildings and the central plaza, which was a lovely park with a statue in the center of Simon Bolivar, who liberated the northern half of South America from Europe (Guaranda is the capital of the province of Bolivar). We stopped at the bank so Patrice could pay her electric bill and then caught a truck to the town of Salinas de Guaranda.

The town of Salinas and its cliffs

Salinas is a small town higher up in the Andes (3550 meters, about 11500 feet elevation: it's lovely and cool) where a lot of different cooperatives have developed. This is the result of efforts in the 1970s to improve the economy and the lives of the inhabitants. The three biggest ones are chocolate, cheese, and wool (I don't know the order). So this place is already pretty wonderful for someone like me. Add to that the fact thst it's beautiful and looks like the Shire and you've basically created a place I will not willingly leave.

When we arrived in Salinas we met Patrice's Peace Corps friend Hannah, who's leaing a Community Health initiative up there; she teaches yoga to seniors, handwashing and the fundamentals of a healthy diet to children, and I think even a teen ballet class. After meeting up with her and her puppy Henry (only about four months old and already large enough to almost knock me over, I'm a little afraid of what he'll become when full-grown), we went for sandwiches and some of the most delicious hot chocolate I've ever had. It basically tasted like melted chocolate. After lunch, we took Henry on a little hike up to the cross that oversees the town while Hannah went off to teach a class.

Salinas, the salt mine that is also a big part of the town's industry, and Andean hills beyond.

Salinas is shadowed a little bit by this gorgeous rock outcropping that forms a sort of canyon with little caves, tiny but lovely waterfalls, and a carpet of grass perfect enough for a picnic. Since Hannah calls the surrounding area the Shire, I decided this canyon was Rivendell. Henry had a wonderful time off-leash, bounding back and forth along the path and hitting me hard in the back of the legs accidentally, while I just stared around wondering how something this cool was even possible.

Middle Earth is apparently a small part of Ecuador. They've even got giant, Orodruin-esque volcanoes

After the little hike Hannah rejoined us (it turns out school was cancelled for the day, although she didn't find out until after she'd taken a truck taxi all the way out to the community) and we went to the wool factory. It was pretty cool, especially because we could just wander through the factory without any guides, fences, or anything.

The big wool washer. There's a channel of soapy water and a big frame with rods sticking down to grab the wool; the frame moves forward, up, and back in a circular motion to stir the wool and slowly move it toward the pile in the front right of the image. 

Not sure what this does, possible a dryer? But it had a cool belt system, I liked it.

After that we stopped at the yarn shop attached to the factory. I spent at least twenty and possibly as much as forty minutes just staring at the pretty yarns with a stupid grin on my face. They had sheep and alpaca wool and I had to get at least some of each (I got more than some!)

When I finally made a decision and purchased some yarn, we went to the Texal where finished products are sold. I found a handknitted sweater (with a hood! And pockets!); Patrice found one as well, and we both left a few bills lighter and several measures happier.

Then the chocolate factory. The tour is similar to that of the wool factory, except behind glass. Mostly a bunch of machines whose purpose we couldn't quite make out, except one that was being used, which looked to be a hopper and a feeding mechanism for bits of chocolate (cacao?) to be fed into a grinder/melter. Being an engineer (especially one who's currently working with and on hoppers), I was unusually excited to see this.

After chocolate was of course cheese! We hit up the cheese factory, another slightly less than exciting tour (they were doing molds! But that was all I could identify with the two afternoons' experience I have with cheesemaking). But the cheese was really good. We tried a couple of samples and I bought some to bring back to the States. All of my souvenir shopping was done in one day, in one town. But it's probably the best place to do such things, because all of the money is going directly back to the men and women of Salinas. Or at least that's my excuse.

After I shopped my wallet to death, we had dinner at a pizzeria. The owner (apparently Hannah knows him) brought out some nachos con queso, which was literally Fritos and some shredded white cheese, warmed up and stuck in a bowl (Ecuador is not a hot spot of good Mexican food). I also got to try a bit of the local moonshine, Pajaro Azul (Blue Bird). It's made with anise and consequently has a strong licorice flavor, which I actually don't mind. As liquors go, it was one of the more pleasant shots to take. I also ordered a canelazo, remembering the deliciously warm fruit drink I had in Quilotoa. This was not that. It was probably about 30% Pajaro Azul, and tasted more like hot alcohol than anything else. After finishing the shot and drinking half the cocktail, though, it started to taste pretty good.

It was getting late and we were running out of time to catch the last truck back to Guaranda, so we finished our food and drinks and headed out.

Sunset over Salinas

Hannah came with us, and when we got back into town we went to the local hangout, Siete Santos (Seven Saints). We each had one more drink and headed back to Patrice's apartment to chat some more and hit the sack. It was an enjoyable night after quite an exhaustingly wonderful day.

Ecuador day 5: Never miss a chance to do some STEM outreach!

So first things first, I have to set a couple of things straight. Quito is ~2850 meters (9000 feet) above sea level, not 4000. So when Quilotoa is at 3910 meters (almost 13000 feet), it makes a lot of sense that it gets pretty cold at night. It was nice, I like a good bundling up.

We started the morning with some laundry. The washing machine was available, which was lucky since apparently it's often being used by other people in the building. We took Patrice's cat to the vet and then came back and hung or clothes out to dry. Fun fact, pretty much no one in Ecuador uses a clothes dryer; I really like this idea except that it rains a lot so most of our clothes are still wet.

Another fun fact: only about 50% of homes have an oven because baking isn't as important here as in the US

Today we stayed in Guaranda because Patrice had to work at least a little bit this week.  I got to help out, which was pretty fun. I talked to the students about being an engineer, although since they don't speak much English and I speak essentially 0 Spanish, it was mostly a Q&A session, and they mostly asked me if I had a boyfriend. Relationships and marriage and children are a much bigger deal in Ecuador than they are in Oregon. I did get some questions about engineering, though, so that was nice. There were a couple kids who want to be engineers, yay!

After school we stopped at a supermarket for some groceries. It was surprisingly homey; it looked and felt and smelled like a Freddy's. We had planned to hit the outdoor market for some cool tropical fruits, but they were closed so we'll hit that tomorrow morning before we go to Salinas (a town full of different little cooperatives, including cheese, chocolate, and wool: Patrice is going to have to drag me out of there).

Guaranda is a lovely city. It feels a lot like Corvallis, although the hills are much steeper and taller. It's called the City of the Seven Hills and pretty much every street is straight up or down unless it's parallel to the slope. I really like it, it's small and quiet and clean (it's my favorite city in Ecuador, although that's only out of two so far).

Like Corvallis, but equatorial!

It's also got some great views of Chimborazo, the world's tallest mountain (if measured from the Earth's center instead of sea level) and also a volcano (inactive, luckily). It's been pretty cloudy so I haven't had a chance to look at it yet but hopefully it'll be clear at some point while I'm here!

Ecuador day 4: We'll be comin' athirdoftheway around the crater when we come!

We woke to a bright, clear, and very cold morning. It gets pretty chilly out here, although we can't figure out why because it's almost 1,000 meters lower than Quito. There's a little woodburning stove in our hotel room and it was definitely running last night. I had three thick blankets piled on top of me, although I shucked a layer sometime in the night. The stove was wonderful, but we've been sneezing soot all day. Worth it.

We breakfasted and prepared for the hike, packing and getting water and a snack fof the trail. We each got a packet of Q'chifles, slices of fried plantain. They're like potato chips, but thicker and sturdier. Absolutely delicious.

Then we headed to the lake. It was a beautiful morning, partly sunny and bright.

Laguna del Quilotoa at 8:30am on a Monday. Pleasantly empty.

And it was time to begin the hike. It took a little bit of work to find the trail, but we eventually did and began walking. It was pretty nice for a while, just a little bit of up and down following the ridge. We were right on the ridge for a lot of it, which was great for views.

The gorgeous scenery wasn't just lakeside; looking the other way was pretty neat too.

Through dumb luck, we visited this place at just the right time of year; there were wildflowers everywhere! As we started out, they were mostly all yellow, but when we got a few miles out they became predominantly pink and white. Maybe it had something to do with the direction the slope was facing. In any case, the place was covered in color.

TOO MANY PRETTY FLOWERS

There was a neat wooden viewing area partway around the crater, close to some sort of resort/lodge thing. We paused there for several minutes, enjoying the view and the chance to sit down. Then we forged on until we got to the beginning of the climb to the tallest point around the crater. The trail just follows the ridgeline, however steep it goes (I'm starting to wonder if it's just Americans who like switchbacks). We unfortunately didn't have much time before we needed to head back to catch the bus to Guaranda, so Patrice decided to head back to the viewing area. But I really wanted to see the top of the mountain. I pushed hard and went into book-it hiking mode, which is actually pretty fun. 

The problem with this particular bit of the crater is that it's got several false peaks. I kept thinking I was almost there and then finding out that I needed to go another hundred feet or so. Then that wasn't the peak either. I vacillated several times about whether I should just turn back but it was almost a race now and I wasn't going to back down. 

The trail up. That little rocky bit up top was my goal.

Until I got to what I thought was the top, that is. I reached the outcropping I was sure included a bench and some sort of "Yay,  you did it!" sign, only to find that the actual highest point was another half mile down the road. I swore at it a couple of times, rested for a few minutes, and headed back down. 

The actual peak; you can just barely see the little sign at the top. Jerkface.

Ah well; there was some pretty neat stuff to look at from the second-highest point on the crater anyway. 

Looking out from the rim: flat flat flat CLIFF

I met back up with Patrice and after a brief respite to snack and relax we headed back towards the hotel. We had lunch, grabbed the rest of our stuff, and discovered that the bus had already come and gone. However, plenty of people are willing to take people down to Zumbahua (which has more regular buses) in their trucks for $5, so we did that. We caught the bus to Latacunga and hopped off at the Pan-American Highway. They have a really cool freeway interchange here, instead of the cloverleaf so common in the States. It's a really big roundabout on top of the freeway. From there we caught a bus to Guaranda, which took about three hours. I was getting pretty stir-crazy by the end, but it felt so good to finally hop off in the town and walk to Patrice's home. After a nice dinner we settled down for the night.

Ecuador day 3: killin' it at Quilotoa

We rose early today, packed up, and breakfasted at the hotel before boarding the bus to Quitumbe, Ecuador's largest bus station (you can get a bus from there to any major city in the country); we took a bus from there to the town of Latacunga and then another one to Quilotoa.

The countryside of Ecuador. Darn stinkin' beautiful.

We stepped off in the town of Quilotoa and walked up to our hotel for the night. Turns out it's across the street from the trailhead to go down to the lake, which was pretty neat. We dropped off our stuff, had some lunch (I wanted to try the traditional roasted guinea pig but they didn't have any; don't tell Aunt Susan), and headed out to see Quilotoa proper. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Quilotoa in the sun. Beautiful green depths.

We then hiked down to the lakeside; it's pretty steep, to the point that I was looking forward to a bit of uphill. That was silly of me.

It started to rain when we reached the bottom, so we waited for it to lighten up and then headed back up the slope. It was slow going. 4000m and ridiculously steep trails do not lend themselves to an easy jaunt back up to the top. We took a lot of photo breaks. Which was actually really nice, because on the way down we were just focusing on the ground ahead of us to keep from falling.

We stopped for plants!

And other plants!

And to pose!

And to look at the ridiculously gorgeous mountains!

It's weird, these mountains are 4000 meters tall but they're completely green and snow-free. Guaranda, where Patrice lives, is over 4000m and they get snow like Corvallis does. Equators, man!

We finally reached the top and collapsed for a couple of hours. We went out to the courtyard sunroom and sat in hammocks to read, nap, and recover. 

Pretty courtyard. This place is really cute.

But then the cold set in. I had fallen asleep and woke up to a rapidly dimming sky, cold hands and feet, and no sign of Patrice. She had taken the key and run back to the room to shiver under three blankets and a comforter. I immediately followed suit and we waited in this state for dinner to be ready. When it was, we practically ran to the dining room. The food was really good! Especially this drink they brought out at the end. It's called canelazo, and it's one of the most delicious beverages I've ever had. It's supposedly made with sugar cane alcohol, hot cinnamon water, and passion fruit (or other similar fruit). I don't think it had any alcohol in it, though, since I didn't taste any or feel its effects. Anyway, I'm definitely going to try to recreate it when I get back, it's glorious. 

Ecuador day 2: Journey to the center of the Earth!

Well, the center of the Earth's latitude. And not really. But we'll get to that.

We had a slow start this morning, didn't leave the hostel until about ten. We walked to the Basilica, Quito's big cathedral and our second stop of the day (the first was breakfast in this pretty little cafe with bright orange and blue walls). The Basilica is a fantastic cathedral with some great South American flair: for example, the gargoyles adorning the flying buttresses are all native animals.

Albatross! Possibly cormorants! I don't know enough about birds for this!

The catacombs were open today, which is apparently a rare occurence. We wandered through there and saw all the plaques for the interred people. They were all really new, many in the last decade or so and very few earlier than the 1960s. Possibly because of that, with surviving family members, they were much more decorated. Most of them had flowers on them, and some even had little wreaths or notes. Stark contrast to the British churches I saw two years ago where there wasn't a plaque less than three hundred years old and consequently they were all weatherbeaten and some hardly legible.

We got tickets to go up the tower and hopped up the stairs (okay, no, I huffed and puffed because altitude is hard, man). There were neat places to stop and take pictures along the way (and take a water break which was much appreciated), such as the viewing area out onto the main hall of the church. It was quite the view.

Cathedrals are one of my favorite parts of Christianity.

I turned around 180 degrees from this view and was treated to a massive rose window close enough to touch (I didn't, though). It was gorgeous, full of flowers (orchids were on there maybe? I should bone up on my botany). 

So many flowers!

The next flight of stairs took us to a balcony which looked out south to the Panecillo, which is a big hill with a statue of a madonna on it. She's supposedly the guardian of Quito.

There's a bit of a joke that she's got her back turned to southern Quito, which is apparently the less nice end.

We then crossed over the ceiling to the other side of the cathedral, where the single tower is. It was a long wooden walkway, slightly rickety, but it was cool to be walking over the top of the cathedral hall. 

The stone underneath the walkway is the top of the Basilica's main hall!

Then we got to the other side and took three very steep staircases up to the top. From there the view was awesome. We couldn't see the very northern and southern ends of Quito since it's so long, but we could see a ton of it. There was the National Assembly and the current central bank, and lots of other neat buildings. 

Looking south to the towers, the Panecillo, and a friendly photobombing helicopter

Then we went down and went up the other tower accessible to tourists (the one on the left in the above image). On the way we passed a gift shop and a little cafe. Shops can be anywhere here; there are little souvenir and cell phone shops under the government buildings and the Basilica and pretty much anywhere you can fit them. 

We took the stairs back down and went to the bus stop, hopping on one that would take us to Ofelia, a transfer station that had buses going to Mitad del Mundo (locally, the equator is called the Middle of the World because the Spanish word for equator is, well, Ecuador). We took that for an hour or so and then stepped off a bit early because Patrice was worried the bus was going elsewhere. It wasn't, but we got a nice walk and had lunch at a place called Vicentes where I enjoyed an empanada con morocho (for those of you who don't know, an empanada is a Spanish version of a Cornish pasty; if you aren't familiar with a Cornish pasty, there's no help for you) and a jugo de guanabana, which is guanabana juice. There isn't really a translation of the name (apparently it's also called a soursop, and if you've heard of that before kudos to you!), but it made me think of pina coladas and it was delicious. 

After lunch we headed west and a bit north to the MITAD DEL MUNDO, a big park with lots of different little museums and also of course a big monument and the Big Line marking the equator. We started with some fun photos at the line in case the weather turned, although technically it's not actually the equator--the 1736 expedition to determine 0 degrees was off by a bit and the real line is actually 240m north. But who cares? There was a line to stand on. 

Of both hemispheres and of none!

The Burgervillain is disappointed at the inaccuracy but still enjoying itself.

 It was really fun to ski-jump back and forth across the line saying "North! South! North! South!" and then in German and a little bit of Spanish.

We visited all of the museums in the park: there were five or six little buildings about different things, such as Oswaldo Guayasamin (Ecuador's most famous artist), the influence of the French on finding the equatorial line (that one was partially funded by the French embassy), some interesting stuff on an ancient culture of the area that had been conquered by the Incas. The monument itself was also a museum; the top half was about the different cultural parts of Ecuador, and the bottom half was all about geology and electromagnetics. We could get on a scale and see our weights at the equator, the North Pole, the moon, and the sun (my solar weight is over 5,000 pounds!). My favorite exhibit was about wireless electricity; there was a plasma ball encapsulated in a big plastic sphere and we could take lightbulbs (the coily fluorescent kind) up to the plastic. They lit up! More interesting to me was that they lit up a bit more when I was touching the bit you screw in. 

After wandering around and playing in this neat little playground (we climbed the rope ladder and went down the slide and played on the swings and generally let our five-year-old selves out) and stopping for some helado de paila (it's like gelato but less cream and more of the frozen fruit juice), we headed home to relax a bit, shower, and get ready for Argentine tango. This is Patrice's dance; she's really good at it. I sat at the table eating empanadas and drinking mulled wine while I watched her and journaled. She pulled me out for a couple of dances which was quite enjoyable, and then at the end the DJ threw up an endless mix of merengue, which we danced for a bit (it's literally the easiest partner dance in the world, which makes it really fun to lead because you can do pretty much anything as long as you keep stepping). After we tired we headed back to the hotel to collapse. Next day, an early morning to catch the bus for Quilotoa!

Ecuador day 1: Quito? Quitacular!

Woke up this morning and it was a beautiful bright spring morning. The hostel is lovely, with a gorgeous little courtyard and great views out on the city. Even the bathroom has a great view out to the western mountains.

Courtyard! We breakfasted outside, it was great.

Then it was time to get moving! The Weather Channel predicted a sunny morning followed by rain and thunder in the afternoon, so we decided to hit the Teleferico first. It's a gondola up one of the westerly mountains, and at the top there are the most amazing views of Quito. 

Quito! A very long and narrow city, it's apparently 35km long and less than 10 wide.

There are more amazing views when you turn around and look west. 

Mountains! Farmland!

There's also a volcano you can hike up, called Ruku Pichincha. I tried for a little bit, but it turns out my lungs aren't quite ready for 10,000 feet elevation. I wimped out after a few measly hills. But we wandered a bit more and Patrice pointed out some cool different parts of the city. And I got to use my binos!! It was awesome! 

So I mentioned yesterday that I got a water bottle thing from Burgerville because they suckered me in with a free milkshake. I've decided to call it the Burgervillain and keep using it for travels. It kept my water cold for the whole day!

The Burgervillain surveys Quito.

We meandered back to the Teleferico to go back down, and I noticed something that looked suspiciously like Scotch Broom. It doesn't seem to be invasive here, since the place wasn't covered in it. 

When we got down to slightly lower elevation, we took a taxi to the historic old city center. It's very well-preserved, with some absolutely beautiful buildings.

La Iglesia de Compania de Jesus: the interior is pretty much completely coated in gold, but you can't take pictures and we didn't go inside anyway

We had lunch at a pretty little cafe where Patrice did all the ordering because she can speak the language and whatnot. Lots of delightful traditional Ecuadorian food, like mote (hominy, apparently) con chicharron (pork), an empanada, a quimbulito (a cake that tasted like very light cornbread), and an humita (like a tamale). Thanks to Patrice for all of the names! To drink Patrice got a tree tomato juice (didn't taste like tomato), and I got a jackfruit smoothie. It was excellent!

After lunch we hit up the old Bank of Ecuador, which used to be the official bank but is now a museum. 

Another gorgeous building

Ecuador's currency, the sucre, had massive inflation problems and collapsed in the late 1990s; they have since adopted the US dollar. We enjoyed looking at the various Spanish and Ecuadorian coins, but the best part was the giant tub of sucres we could just paw our hands through. 

It was really fun.

Maybe a little too fun.

By this point I had developed a pretty massive headache so we just strolled back to the hotel. I showered, relaxed, downloaded the Duolingo app to learn more Spanish and almost opened it, but then I decided to take a nap instead. 

Then we went for dinner and salsa dancing! It was pretty fun, except not knowing the language is always a bit of a challenge, even when you barely have to talk to the lead. The night started pretty slow, so I dragged Patrice out for some salsa and also a bit of illicit west coast swing. After the night really got going, it was fun just to watch all of the dancers. Some of them were really good; their footwork was entrancing. 

Then we walked fifteen minutes back to the hostel and prepared for bed. An excellent start to the trip. Tomorrow we're taking a bus to the equator!

Ecuador day 0: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Hello from Ecuador! I'm at my lodgings in Quito now, about ready to crash except that I haven't brushed my teeth yet. It's been a rather long day.

I started off with a 2am shuttle ride to PDX, then a long wait for my flight where I broke down and bought an insulated from Burgerville because it came with a free shake and I needed a water bottle anyway. Chocolate ganache milkshake, the breakfast of champions. Then a flight to LAX, where we boarded a plane with these cool wingtips I don't remember having seen before. 

It bends both ways!

Landed in Atlanta (greenest city I've ever seen, most of it looked like a wooded suburb) and had to hop on the Plane Train to the international departures. I was booking it because my boarding pass said that boarding began at 5 so I had 15 minutes to get there, but my seat wasn't called until 5:30 at least, so that was quite a bit of wasted stress walking. Just getting ready for the HP Global Wellness Challenge!

It felt really good to be on the last flight. No more connections to catch, nothing else to worry about, just four and a half hours to relax and watch TV (they even had Top Gear!). I dozed off for a bit, but I caught the end of the sunset as we were flying over Cuba. It was quite pretty, even though the wing got in the way a bit. 

 My first Caribbean sunset! It totally counts.

Then we finally touched the ground at 10:19ish local time. Quito is 2 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time. I deplaned and made my way toward immigration and customs.

Last time I left the country, I had a big holdup at immigration in Heathrow because apparently they want to know where you're staying, the address, and your itinerary to a surprising degree of specificity. So I prepared myself for that this time; I wrote down the name and address of my lodging, all the flight information into and out of Ecuador, and my itinerary. I was super on top of things...until I left my customs forms in the plane and walked up with no documentation besides my passport. Got a super dirty look from the immigrations guy, he wouldn't even let me use his pen. 

But I survived and finally stepped out into Quito. And Patrice was there! Our hostel had a driver come pick us up from the airport (it's a shiny brand new airport but it's an hour away from the city) and delivered us. It's really nice! Really pretty little courtyard and we got a room on the upper floor so there're some lovely views. 

All right, it's long past time to hit the sack. More to come tomorrow, including the equator and a church and maybe some salsa dancing!!