Day three on the Equator

Hello Everyone,

I am writing to you from The Magic Bean coffee shop in the Marsical district of Quito. Its one of many expat hang outs in the Marsical, with free Wi-fi and strawberry pancakes I could just as easily be sitting at a cafe in Bozeman, except for the chaos of traffic and people on the street in front of me. The Marsical is a maze of small one way streets, lots of traffic, people, street vendors, hostels, and cafes. It is quite the sensory overload. After a heavy rain storm last night it is one of those misty mornings when everything smells fresh and looks clean. From our hotel window this morning, you could see the fog covering most of the city and creating eerie Silhouettes of apartment buildings in the distance.

Now that I finally have an laptop internet connection and a cozy place to write from, I can post pictures and write in detail about the events of the past few days.

On Monday we spent the day taking care of various errands. After registering at the US Embassy and getting maps from the Ecuadorian Military office, we spent the afternoon wandering Old Town.
Old Town is the main city center of Quito; it is the area that contains all the colonial architecture, financial offices, etc. You could wander Old town for a week and not see the same thing twice. Being the altitude junkies that we are, after three hours of walking, we left the beaten path and headed up a number of steep cobblestone roads until we were high on the side of a hill, looking over all of Quito and the statue of La Virgen in the distance.

Late Monday afternoon we made our way back to the Marsical, it was a 30 min walk from the Old town to The Marsical and after arriving back at our hotel, Posada Del Maple, we went to dinner around the corner at a very good Ecuadorian restaurant. For our first day, it went pretty well.

Yesterday, Tuesday, we traveled south to visit Luis, a 12 year old boy that my mom and I sponsor through World Vision. We were picked up by Monica Alban at 8 am and started our drive south along the Panamericana highway. As we left Quito, the heavy fog started to clear and the countryside opened up around us. We drove for three hours, with a stop for breakfast, and arrived in Pelileo around noon. Before meeting Luis, we got to meet with the director of the World Vision office in Pelileo, The office takes care of over 2,500 children throughout the region in 80 different communities. They provide them with health care, scholarships for school, counseling and spiritual guidance. After a short wait, we met with Luis, who was at first very shy, as where we. All our talking was done through Monica’s translating, which was amazing, but still made for interesting conversation. After 15 minutes of talking, the entire office staff and all of us, eleven in all, piled into two cars and drove to World Visions agricultural development farm. At the farm, World Vision raises chickens, and guinea pigs, and a small crop of alfalfa, The members of the community do all the work, and in the process, learn sustainable agricultural skills which they can then take home and apply on their own. All the profits of the farm go to the community, specifically to health care for the children and the other projects that I mentioned above. I was very impressed by their system of development. It was well organized, community based, finically feasible, and is completely dependent on the “sweat equity” of the people being helped. World Vision is really doing a good job of creating a sustainable and viable economic system for the people of Pelileo. After getting a tour of the farm, we got out the futbol that we bought for Luis and started a game of keep away. All the shyness disappeared on both sides and we had a blast. The resident farm dog joined in and after 30 min of play, we were all exhausted and smiling. Its amazing how something as simple as a soccer ball can tear down any cultural or social walls that exist between people. For the first hour of our visit, things were somewhat awkward and tense, but after 30 min of playing with a soccer ball, all walls were gone and everyone was very comfortable, making jokes and laughing a lot. It was pretty cool.

Our drive back to Quito was amazing as well. The sun was shining now and I spent most of the time with my head out the window looking through the lens of my camera. We stopped for a late lunch in Latacunga and ate at a very good meal of pork, tostadas, potatoes, and much more. It was excellent and only 4 dollars.

Last night we spent packing for our departure tomorrow to the Hosteria Papagayo, where we will be basing ourselves for the next week or so to climb near Cotopaxi nat’l park. As of now, the weather in Quito is not very good for climbing, but we are hoping that as we get out into the Sierra, things will improve, as they did yesterday in Palileo. The “troops are getting restless” and we are all ready to shoulder our packs and head out into the hinterland, where we are most comfortable.

Hope this message finds you all well,

God Bless and Love Always,

Michael