Quito

We made it safely to Quito! Our flight was delayed out of Miami, so we arrived shortly after 1:00 am to our hostel. I didn't really realize just how long our travels were until I saw them from hindsight this morning - I woke up exhausted to the sound of our hotel coming alive far too early in the morning. But as we ate breakfast with a wonderful rooftop view of the city, Michelle and I talked with a Brazilian from Sao Paulo and her Chilean boyfriend. The Chilean had lived in Roseville, MN for 10 years - funny, huh? It was a GREAT way to start Quito.:) The whole time we ate breakfast, I was wracking my brain as to why the Chilean looked so familiar... but sure enough, I remembered that he had been at a Portuguese conversation group that both Michelle and I had gone to a couple times. Hillarious. And it sure helped with some of my aniticipated "saudades" of Portuguese.

We've had a fun day in the city, saw almost every knook and cranny of a strange and beautiful Gothic cathedral near our hostel (life without insurance liabilities sure is freeing - some of those stairs up to the tops of the towers were a little nerve-wracking), took the trolly-bus as well as the city bus, did the gandala ride to the top of a mountain for a beautiful view of the city... that was mostly lost in clouds and then turned to rain, and made some friends with a group of college students who gave us a ride in their tour bus to leave us at a bus station. I'd chalk that up as a successful start to Ecuador.

As for now... we're wet, hungry and tired, so it's snack time and then nap time before we go out for dinner and hopefully some live music. Tomorrow - Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world) and whatever other fun we dig up. It's not tough to fall back into this transient season.:)