¡San Viernes!

I made it through my first week here in Quito! Classes are going great, my teacher Manuel is teaching me so much! Even at home, we only speak Spanish. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, are pretty much extra study sessions that help me practice. Hopefully at this rate I will be fluent in no time.

Kristen and Natalie arrived Wednesday night and I rode the Eco Via (the bus here in Quito) to their hostel Thursday morning. Together we went to Old Town, which is filled with many museums and historic buildings. Old town sits on a hill on the south end of town, so we had great views of the city. The main plaza was so beautiful. It was filled with orchids and other plants. There were some protesters arguing the new constitution for Ecuador that will be voted on here shortly. Supposedly their new president is taking this very far left from where they have been.

We ate lunch in a little cafe. The meal was so big and it only cost $1.25! We were stuffed! We also purchased a funny looking reed type thing. The woman we bought it from said it was guava. We had to twist it to crack it open and inside were little white seeds. The white part had a cotton like texture and you were supposed to strip it with your teeth from the black seed inside.

Today after school we are heading to Tena, which is a small town near the Amazon (about five hours by bus from Quito). I am super excited and can´t wait to see more of this country!

Hope all is well with everyone at home.

Much love