exploration of the city

Yesterday I went with Ben, Meaghan, Valerie and Rachel to the Old Town, I always forget it's Spanish name. It was beautiful. Old architecture and TONS of churches. I guess it's the same style as some places in Spain. I want to go back during the day so we can go inside the churches and explore more. It got dark and rainy so we came home early. We went to this restaurant called Gus's which I can't go to because it makes me sick. But they give you a plastic glove if you order chicken so you don't get your hands greasy! So crafty.

Today the 5 of us met up with Jeff and went to La Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the Earth aka the equator! It was kind of difficult getting there. Cab to bus station, find a bus, then find how to see the monument. But it was really cool. Apparently it's not the EXACT equator but is only like 300 meters away. It was built in the 1700s by a French guy and was only 300 meters off, pretty good for those days. The place is its own "city" with lots of shops, restaurants (some sell Cui which is guinea pig, a traditional Ecuadorian dish I am not quite ready to try yet) and this huge monument with a line for the equator. There's also a miniature model of old town Quito which is super cool. Musty smelling but awesome. The lights turned out so you could see how the city looks at night.

Then we went to Jeff's house and his host dad Gonzales took us in his car (7 of us packed into a 5 passenger truck... cozy) and took us on a driving tour of Old Town and pointed out all of the cool sights. We went to a park that overlooked the whole city and it was beautiful. Oh, and we got kind of lost on the way to Jeff's house and ended up passing it on the bus and had to back track quite a ways. AKA we explored the city, used some basic knowledge of direction and eventually got back. So that was fun.

Now I'm quite tired from constantly walking around. I have no idea how the people here daily trudge up and down those mountains but it's tough. Starting to get used to it, though.

I never know what tomorrow brings in this city. We shall see!