Q4 24+3

Ecuador, for the first time

It's my third day in Ecuador and I have already been to two major cities...not on purpose. My flight down to Ecuador was pretty nice since I got to go business class (thanks ma and pa weinstock!). However, I had a layover in Miami (yes, I fully took advantage of the Admirals Club) and we were an hour late leaving (thank you American Airlines). Our pilot was not quite with it and apparantly didn´t have the correct documents he needed for us to take off (like our flight plan, maybe?) so we sat on the tarmack for an hour while we waited for someone to drive out the paperwork. Finally, we took off and began our descent into Quito around midnight. Well, the Quito airport closes at midnight. Only we were told that there was a very bad fog and so we were diverted to Guayaquil. (Did I mention the last time I flew AA they lost my luggage for 3 days...when I was having my residency interviews?) But, I have to hand it to them, they put us up in a nice hotel overnight. They quickly ushered us out of the airport and all our baggage had to stay on except our carry-ons. I didn´t know what we were doind or where we were going. I just had some woman who kept saying "siganme (tln. "follow me") and the next thing I know I´m getting boarded into a tiny yellow bus, which took us to the Hotel Oro Verde. Very nice. I don´t think that Guayaquil is known for this, but they have the largest crickets I´ve ever seen. If you have ever been to Mexico and seen a water/sewer cockroach they are pretty similar. They were about the size of my thumb and they were everywhere. It was impossible to not step on them. They were even in the lobby of the Hotel Oro Verde and it is a 5 star hotel. Finally, the next day at 2pm we flew out to Quito. The view of the city from the plane was amazing. It´s located in a valley between mountains. It´s beautiful. I didn´t do much that first day other than meet the other 12 people in my group-the advanced spanish speakers group. There are also another 16 people here who are in the beginners group. If you ask me, they have it much easier and they have interesting activities planned such as a week in the rain forest which we don´t get to go on since we will be going to clinic and attending spanish classes. We did go to an Ecuadorian restaurant for dinner. The delicacy here is guinea pig cooked whole and no I didn´t try it.

So today my third day here we did some exploring. We had an assignment to go to the Peace Corp and learn about what they do in Ecuador. While walking to the bus stop, I was standing on a corner with 2 other girls in my group. I see this bus approaching with this little kid in a school uniform hanging out of the open door (prettycommon here...people also just jump off the bus to get off). What I didn´t notice was the giant super soaker in his hand....until my friends and I were completely soaked that is! Needless to say, my Spanish came in handy as I yelled some not so nice things at him. We made it to the Peace Corp without any more events despite the trauma of trying to find the right bus to get on and jumping off of it. We decided on the way back to take the trolley instead.

Tomorrow we are off to Otavalo. They have a great indian market there on Saturdays and we will be touring around the mountains. Hopefully, super soakers aren´t sold around there.