Quito, Day 1

Spent a good part of yesterday just hanging out in Ilinizas, until it came time to meet Mariana over at the airport, since venturing outside with such a limited knowledge of español did not seem to be a good idea. Once reunited, we were picked up by the Morans (family friends of the Cuervos) and welcomed into their home, where we shared conversation, tv, wii bowling, and some Pilsener. I really enjoyed their company - they were very understanding of my lingual inabilities, and the younger ones took it as an opportunity to practice their English and help me to practice my Spanish.

After spending some time at their house, we were taken on a night-time drive through colonial Quito, and later treated to some delicious comidas típicas - empanadas and hot chocolate (with cheese at the bottom of the glass... surprisingly tasty) - at a very nice cafe with a great lookout onto the city lights below. The hilly terrain provides spectacular views, while the high elevation (2,850m, or 9,350') makes for some chilly nights... so the hot cocoa in June was not at all out of place.

This afternoon, we'll meet again to go to a museum or two, and then it's off to the bus station for a night-ride to Pedernales and then on to Cojimíes...

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Sadly, I didn't bring my camera last night, so no pictures to go along with this post... but I did find myself with more free time this morning, so I finished another jigsaw puzzle time-lapse video I'd started a few weeks ago. It's not Ecuador, but I'm going to share it anyway. The following reduces a good 8 hours of work to about 8 seconds:

[ The Shiner, by Norman Rockwell ]