¡Bienvenidos!

 

I have finally made it to Ecuador in one piece. The flights down were pretty painless and on my final flight from miami to quito i sat next to a lady named J. She was an older woman, but reminded me of the boss of sabre from the office. Even down to the fact she had dogs that slept with her in her bed. It was some intersting conversation at least! After arriving in Quito I was picked up by a british man named Allan. He was a volunteer a couple years ago and fell in love with Ecuador, so now he works for gvi. He took me back to the hostel where I was introduced to Johan from Sweden and Julian from Australia. Allan left us to go make another run to the airport, and came back with Adriana and olga from Belgium, Cornelius from Sweden. We all piled into taxis and went out for an Italian dinner.  We returned to the hostel and sat and talked to some travelers from Germany and France. Hostels are always a good hub of international diversity. 

 

Today, we all gathered around a wonderful buffet of fresh fruit set up for us by the hostel and Allan briefed us on the safety aspect of the trip. After breakfast we piled into a large van and headed for the equator. This little excursion turned out to be a very interesting and informative venture. We were led through a little museum type thing by an Ecuadorean man with an awful accent. I learned so much in that hour tour, and being able to experience things first hand rather than reading about it, is such a better way to learn how something works. For example, our guide explained the coriolos effect with a pool of water in a tub. Directly on the equator, the water drained directly down, whereas when he brought the tub to either side of the equator, the water (and leaves in the water) would spiral down either clockwise or counter clockwise. The gravity directly on the equator was very interesting as well, apparently you weigh 2 pounds less on the equator. Anyways, I'll quit rambling about equator lines.. 

 

Today I get to meet my host family and move into my house. I also found out this guy from Scotland is going to be living with the same host family. (I have forgotten his name though.. Blah, so many new people and names to remember. 

 

Oookie, that's about it so far :)