Back to business.

Officially past the halfway mark.

Various things I miss: my car, real milk, walking around without getting stared at, my UConn library, a real cell phone plan versus having to buy credit that gets used up unbelievably fast, and good reliable internet.

Things I love about Quito and Ecuador in general:

- Buses. The buses are hilarious. There are three lines that go North-South, have set stops and separate lanes like trolleys. These can be convenient when the city is gridlocked from 5-7 p.m., but they are usually really crowded and harbor more pickpockets. The other buses have set routes but they only stop if you flag them down like a taxi, and you have to yell to the driver when you want to get off and hope they feel like stopping. People are always hopping on and off selling snacks, lottery tickets, candy, CDs, etc. I love the bus.

- Parque Metropolitano. This park used to be an hacienda (ranch) in northeast Quito, on a hill a few blocks from my house. It reminds me of Mansfield Hollow without the water. It's bigger than Central Park, with hundreds of paths crisscrossing through a eucalyptus forest and great views of the city. My friend Amelia and I "run" there on the weekends, usually get our butts kicked by the altitude and end up walking instead. It's easy to forget you're in a huge capital city. There are even people who live in a small community there because they lived on the hacienda, so it's not weird to see a herd of alpacas walking around.

- Talking to cab drivers. Most of them think I'm hilarious =)

- Chifles (plantain chips), 10 cent BonIce (similar to Flavor Ice pops), tostado (roasted corn snack), avocados with everything, popcorn in soup (instead of crackers..try it, it's good!), fresh fruit and juice, plantains in every form possible, $3 lunches that include soup, a main dish, juice, and dessert, shwarma, colada morada and guaguas de pan: a delicious thick cider-type drink made with pineapple, blackberries, and a bunch of other fruit made during October, especially for Día de Difuntos on November 2nd. Guaguas de pan are sweet doll-shaped bread.

- Night Life. Trying to explain our U.S./CT nightlife is always funny..because here when they go out, they go to discotecas or salsa bars to DANCE. Trying to explain what we do at home.
"Well we usually just go to parties at peoples houses..and kind of hang around and play drinking games..I swear it's not as boring as it sounds...sometimes we dance..but to hip hop..."
**Confused look** "How do you dance to THAT?!"
I love going out here although I miss a good house party now and then. It is a lot of fun to go out dancing because everyone has a good time. If I had a dollar for every time a guy told me he could teach me to dance salsa..let's just say I'd be riding the bus for free for a very long time. And no, I can't do it. Always fun to try however, and to watch the crazy Latinos doing what they do best.

- Seeing someone in the street or at the bar who I know - gringo or ecua, I get so excited!

- Picking up slang & dialect words

- Learning random things in class then observing them in action in the streets

- Having five dollars in my pocket and knowi ng I can eat and get where I need to go without a problem. It's funny how cheap we've all gotten here, like "Hey, do you have that quarter you owe me?" This is why I haven't sent any post cards - $2 goes a long way. Unless of course you're buying technology or clothing. If it's not alpaca, it's imported.


I got reproached by a few readers since it's been a week or two but like I've said before, I got STUFF to do! We stayed in Quito the past two weekends, went out a lot, shopped, did some homework...nothing too crazy. One day a few friends and I went to Cotopaxi National Park, about an hour away (or three if you don't ask the driver to stop at the right place and have to take a bus back to where you're supposed to go..oops!) home to the biggest active volcano in the world. We hired a guide to take us through the surrounding park to Cotopaxi then hiked up to the refuge at 4800 meters, almost 16,000 feet. The weather was changing like crazy, from rain and hail as we were driving, to clouds then sun as we climbed up. When the clouds cleared the view of the summit was really, really cool. If you want to summit, you have to spend part of the night in the refuge, leave at midnight and climb with ice picks and other crazy gear. It was nice to get out of the city for a day and wear my $2.50 wool hat from the artisan market in Quito =)

This week: Amelia (also repping CT) turns 21, followed by a trip to the Galapagos. I'm a tiny bit disappointed to be missing an overnight field trip with my Andean culture class to a shaman ceremony..but Galapagos trumps all.