Last Night in Quito

So far this trip has managed to satisfy my hunger of bland and general tourism. That is about as far as it goes. Housed in the "Gringoland" district of Quito, there is nothing much to see by foot but a couple of sour faces from taxi drivers and occationally the large group of tourists exhibiting the meager Spanish they know, something I can truly relate to. But this is not really any test of Spanish for every sign, menu and service provider displays its grammatically incorrect English, just enough to get me food from the ethnic resturants I've been endulging upon. It doesn't seem fair at this moment of my life to pocket enough money to give me three meals and be able to last in the "richest" areas of Ecuador. To give you some idea, it cost eight soiled dollar bills for a three person meal in the heart of the tourist mecca.

At any rate, we have been customary tourists upto this point. Nothing but sightseeing and travelling in the littered streets of Quito in our rented bus. The streets can only be characterized as Russian Roulette. Honking is pushed as much as the gas pedal, and that usually gives the right for drivers here the right away to speed through pedestrian crosswalks. Yesterday was highlighted with a travel across the north valley of Quito and back over the equator. What I recall seeing as located in the heart of urbanization was similar to your Walmart, clearcut and built next to Boring, Oregon. I can't really put into words the fallacy of the monumental construction to mark the "precise" location of the equator. Afterwards, we travelled back across town to the central hill that divides the upper, old Quito, from the new and much more delapadated side of town. I was unable to capture the true grandeur of the view from atop the hill. Housing and construction crept up the steep slopes of the towering mountains surrounding the city and the pollution shielded the view of the three gigantic volcanic peaks neighboring the city of Quito. At the crest of the hill stands the third largest statue in the world, following the Statue of Liberty and the mammoth of a statue overlooking Rio in Brazil. The statue is the Virgin of Quito, or Virgin Guadalupe. The would have been the highlight of my exhausting day but I happened to see what is heralded as the greatest church in the Americas called the La Compania. The interior was blanketed in gold leaf, making the experience like finding the golden city. Yesterday was capped off with a little rain and some passing philosophy about life on the patio atop our hostel.

Today was an investigation of the most famous artist of Ecuador, Oswaldo Guayasamin. We chugged along the steep hills to reach his museum. This box like ediface was fabulously decorated in his artwork. I failed to purchase anything from the gift shop but I hope to return on this trip. We returned from the trip with much more energy, only to have it sucked out in a stuffy meeting room to discuss the history of Ecuador's politics. I did give me a fantastic lead on my hopeful senior thesis however. The lecturer, Yuri Guerra, who works with an ecological foundation located here in Quito. I am excited about this lead in order to learn more about the ITT proposal. The proposal seeks to earn money from the international community for the protection and restraint from continued oil exploration in Yasuni National Park.

I have a bit of an upset stomach about tomorrow, or perhaps the strong curry from my Indian food tonight. Tomorrow I meet my host family whom I will be staying with for the next three months. I am all but ready.

Enter language immersion.