Exhaling

Estamos en Ecuador. Ya visitamos Quito y Guayaquil y no podemos descansar. *WHEW*

Starting out in Ecuador has been a whirlwind experience. It´s physically the most diverse *small* country in South America- we´ve crossed mountain passes, seen plains expanding with banana plantations, and curretly are situated between the tributaries of the Rio Guayas.

Our time in Quito was short but our hostel, a "little Europe", was really wonderful... it spoiled us with its complimentary roof-top-terrace breakfast the two mornings we were there. Andrea and I hiked nearly the entire Old Town our first morning in Ecuador. In hindsight, that was a daring move to make considering we were not yet acclamated to the altitude and every single street is a "montanita" which somehow always progress at an incline until you give up walking, get a taxi, and he turns the next corner to reveal the *only* street that descends. "Que lastima!" I will say (and Andrea would absolutely agree) aside from the Oswaldo Guayasamin museum, our favorite part of the day was breaking for lunch. We DEVOURED a local dish... sopa de pappas con aguacante y queso (potato soup with avocado and cheese). One thing is for sure, I will be leaving South America nine months from now with a notebook dedicated to recipes detailing the flavors of this continent.

The second day (Saturday) we left the hostel after breakfast and departed on what we were told would be a six hour bus ride to Guayaquil. HA! The journey was not only considerably longer than six hours (okay, only nine but still!) but apparently we reserved the "supermarket" bus- se vende TODO! First, we received nearly an hour lecture on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle which included details on the health benefits of ginseng (an ingrediant, of course, contained within the suppliment tablets for sale). Nearly every hour on the hour began with another passenger standing up, delivering his sales pitch, and passing out the items for sale. The more pushy ones simply shoved their items into your hand and then demanded your cash. I solved this problem by conveniently falling asleep everytime someone "had an announcement to make". Yeah, some announcement- "senoras y senores, por favor, dame su dinero". Indeed.

Guayaquil has felt the most hospitable thanks to the generousity of family friends who have taken both Andrea and I in as if we were their own daughters, sisters, granddaughters. My grandmother put us in contact with her dear friend, Alegria Valensuela, and she, her daughter, and her granddaughter picked us up from the bus terminal when we finally arrived in the city last night. She fed us grilled cheese sandwhiches for dinner, made us hot chocolate, and demanded we finish the last of the cake she had prepared that morning- life is rough, right? Today, Maria, one of Alegria´s daughters, took us on a tour of the city. Guayaquil is the economic ceter of Ecuador, so very modern (expecially compared to colonial Quito) and industrial/high tech. Andrea and I are both eager to arrive at the farm, though. City life is great but also exhausting and offers little to no sense of stability.

I´m trying to upload photos but blogger and I aren´t getting along so well. Let´s hope I win this battle.

Hasta luego, mis queridos.