Admittedly, the greeting is a bit delayed since I'm now back in DC, but greetings none the less! I had the opportunity to spend two weeks in an immersion program in Quito last month as part of my Spanish training, and it was fantastic!
First of all, it was a much-welcomed change of scenery. DC is great and all, but after having the same routine since the end of March, I was ready to change it up a bit.
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| Some of the much-welcomed new sights in Quito. |
Second, I got to celebrate by birthday in Ecuador! A very nice birthday gift to myself, I must say.
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| Celebrating my birthday with my host family - and the spectacular birthday cake they made for me! |
And lastly, Quito was lovely! It's located in a valley way up in the Andes at about 10,000 feet. Trust me, I felt every inch of that altitude as I climbed three flights of stairs to my classroom every day. The city is surrounded by volcanoes that provided some amazing scenery. One afternoon, I took a gondola partway up the nearest volcano, Pichincha, and had a birdseye view of the city as well as some other neighboring volcanoes, including Cotopaxi (19,400') which is active and even let out a puff of steam while we were watching.
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| The view from the top of the gondola. |
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| That's Cotopaxi in the back on the left, pre-puff of smoke. |
The city itself is very busy. Outside of the historic, preserved old city (a UNESCO world heritage site), there is a ton of traffic and lots of new high-rise buildings under construction everywhere.
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| Guards outside the presidential building (above) at the historic town square (below). |
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| The Basilica - one of the many amazing old churches in the historic city center. |
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| If you look closely, the "gargoyles" are turtles and other animals! |
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| Views of the historic city from the top of the Basilica tower. |
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| High rises - and a food cart pod! - outside of the historic city center. |
But there is also a huge park in the center of the city - Parque La Carolina - that provides open space and no shortage of outdoor activities (paddle boats, a skateboard park, a BMX dirt bike track, a par course, a botanical garden, miles of paved bike paths, tennis courts... and a dog park complete with agility course) to get out of the hustle and bustle.
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| Some of the activities in Parque Carolina. |
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| Skateboard park, complete with cool graffiti. |
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| One of the coolest dog parks ever! |
I also got out of the frenzy by spending the weekend in Mindo - a little town in the cloud forest about two hours northwest of Quito. I stayed at a local resort on about 800 acres that offered guided hikes each day, and I saw some amazing hummingbirds and other tropical birds. (Bird nerd warning: Many photos below.)
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| So many hummingbirds! |
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| Blue and black tanager! |
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| Mountain toucan! |
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| The scenery wasn't too shabby either. |
There was also a huge UN-sponsored conference going on in Quito while I was there that included a "festival of lights" for several nights in the historic center. It was an incredible production in which many of the ancient churches were illuminated with amazing images and light displays. Hard to describe, and I didn't take my camera that evening to capture the event, but you can see a great 2-minute video clip showing some of the scenes if you click
here.
Oh, and I also studied Spanish. A lot. It was a quick trip, so not enough time to get to the Galapagos... but someday... In the meantime, I'm back in DC and back to the usual routine through December. We're currently scheduled to head to Belize a few days after Christmas, but if I've learned anything from my time here so far, it's that things could change. So stay tuned for the next installment!
