Mom's visit- Quito

I never wrote about my mom's trip and the Galapagos Islands.

I waited anxiously for my mom to walk down the runway, took her to our hostel and went to bed. I could see how anxious but excited she was that first night, and I blabbered away showing her everything I had seen and learned and where I had been in my four months there.

The first morning we ate a typical Ecuadorian breakfast- eggs, juice, bread, coffee, etc, and headed out to meet up with Jeff. We took our parents on the Ecovia bus and his dad immediately was pickpocketed and lost $200 or so. Why he was carrying that much and why he put it all in the same place we're still not sure, but he quickly learned how life was in Ecuador and how careful you had to be. We went downtown, went up to the Panecillo to overlook the city and then went and climbed around the Basilica. Mom got a first class look at the taxis and the city- everything that went on and she seemed astonishingly okay with it all.

We went back to my host parent's house for lunch. They made llapingachos- potato pancake type things- not really sure what they are but they're delicious. Mom loved talking to my family, thanking them for being great to me, and they loved meeting her too. I was amazed how great their Spanish was and how these two worlds of mine could mesh so well. Mom got to meet everyone in the family, including Sammy and we had a wonderful time. That night we went to dinner with Jeff's family at Cafe Mosaico to overlook the city at night and had a lovely time.

The next day we just hung out, ate and went to Mitad del Mundo. It was a fun little journey out there, met Jeff's family and his host mom and walked around. Jeff thought his family would hate it and it's commercialism, but they loved it. Even though it's not the real one, it's still cool to be so close? Then we went back to the hotel, rested, met Jeff's family for dinner at Mamasomethingorothers where Jeff and I tried Cuy (guinea pig) because it was one of the things we had been meaning to do during our journey abroad. So we did. And it was gross. Just kind of slimy and fatty, not exactly appetizing but Jeff (a vegetarian) loved it. Then we headed on over to quiz night (THE LAST QUIZ NIGHT!) and everyone who came brought a family member if they were in town so it was kind of special. We ended up winning, don't tell anyone we cheated and they added up the score wrong, but it was cool to win on the last time. We weren't able to use our money very well but oh well. We still won! I had to say goodbye to everyone- Meaghan was by far the hardest and my eyes filled with tears. The people on my trip really enriched the experience and I can't imagine it any other way.

Then we headed off to Galapagos. I'll write about that later since I need to go study now.