I have a bathroom

We are still struggling with Spanish. Yesterday Andy asked a restaraunt owner if "I have a bathroom", rather than if "you have a bathroom". I got a kick out of it until I tried speaking with some Ecuadorians later in the day and slipped into Spanglish because they spoke English better than I spoke Spanish. We are gringos, no doubt about it.

We are still in Quito, staying at our original hostal and still trying to figure out whether we want to stay in Quito for another week and start a language program here, or if we want to move on to a town slightly north of here, and recommended by Janet Reese and Meghan Grodeon, called Otavalo. Quito is very hectic and the air is bad due to bus traffic, however there are many other travelers around and the Ecuadorians here are interested in us and willing to converse with our poor Spanish. Otavalo, on the other hand, is supposed to be beautiful, more rural and much smaller than Quito. We will probably end up doing another week in Quito for language, then one week in Otavalo before week head south and to the coast. Eventually we hope to work on a farm in Loja (the most southern major city in Ecuador).

Now that I have exposed our indecisive travel logic, I'll fill you in on what we have been doing. First you must know that Quito has an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet. Our first night we were out of breath walking up two flights of stairs and a bit nauseous. Our first day we felt a bit better so we decided to walk to "New Town", or Mariscal Sucre. Instead we ended up in "Old Town", the historical district. Though the opposite direction than intended, Old Town was quite interesting. We had lunch in a large market place with raw meat hanging in every which direction, and fruits, vegetables, soup and juice stands in every other direction. Of course we thought we would have "traveler's diarrhea", as they so euphemistically call it, after that meal, but alas, we still haven't been sick. Old Town had a large church and a theatre district as well as an art museum. HOwever, after three hours of being out we were exhausted (blame the altitude), and had to go back to the hostal for a siesta. We rested most of the first day in order to acclimatize.

Yesterday we were feeling a bit more physically stable, so we took a long walk through New Town, and on to the "Bohemian" town of Guapulo. If you've been to Greece, you know how steep residential roads can get. This cobble stone street was nothing less than a narrow ski slope. We crawled down for about a half hour to a large Church that appeared to have been converted to an International University. Finally we got a view of the surroundings of Quito - green and volcanic mountainsides all around. Grumpy from hunger, we sat down at a small mom and pop restaurant for the set lunch, or almuerzo, which consisted of potatoe and corn soup, rice, sourkrout, the most delicious chicken, and a fried plantain. The food here is wonderful, and lunch is generally $2 US per person (Ecuador is pegged to the US Dollar(. Needless to say, we did not walk back up the mountain street, but took a taxi half way back to our hostal, walked the rest of the way, then took another afternoon siesta.

Last night we decided to venture out, which was not as scary as the books say, and we went to a very Brittish pop quiz, or trivia night. We were teamed up with 3 Ecuadorians who wanted to practice their English, and in turn we practiced our Spanish a bit. We came in last place... oh well... How were 3 Ecuadorians and 2 North Americans to know that WHAM was the first Brittish pop group to tour China? Need I point out the bias?

By the way, I can't figure out how to type a question mark on this keyboard, and the spell check doesn't work, so excuse poor punctuation and spelling.

I'll admit it, we haven't taken any pictures yet. But I swear, we will!

We love you all,
Lauren and Andy