Exploring Quito

For my first Sunday in Ecuador, I decided to do a little exploring.  I grabbed a taxi from the area where I live (which is officially called Mariscal Sucre but affectionately known as Gringolandia) to the old part of town. The old town is fantastic, and very historical. Brilliantly colored, colonial-era buildings rise over narrow cobblestone streets.

 

They shut down the main area around a major plaza on Sundays, so it was just pedestrians and a few bikers, which was nice, so I didn’t have to worry about being run over by cars! There were a ton of musicians out and about performing, mostly traditional Andean music, with churrangas (which look like a cross between a ukulele and a guitar and have twelve strings) and tarkas (a bit like a recorder), as well as guitars and singers.

Check out the dancing monk in the middle!

Most of the people around the area were Ecuadorian, but I’m getting pretty comfortable sticking out like a sore thumb. I stopped for some delicious fruit salad and juice at a little café (I had never tried, or even heard of, gyanaba before, but it’s delicious!), and walked around the Old Town for a few more hours, taking pictures and soaking it all in.

 

There are a ton of churches in the area, and all really beautiful. The biggest one is essentially covered in solid gold inside, which is a pretty overwhelming sight. Beautiful, although a bit excessive. Definitely worth visiting, especially since I stopped in the middle of mass. It was Sunday, after all!

 

Starting Out in Ecuador

On Wednesday, I packed my bags and flew to Quito, Ecuador, for the summer. I´m really excited to be here, and very fortunate. I received a Bates Phillips Fellowship to come here for two months to work at a battered women´s shelter. Today I took a 45 minute bus from the apartment I´m staying in to see the shelter for the first time. It´s a fantastic program, the people are all very friendly and welcoming (though the coordinator speaks VERY quickly, which should test my rusty Spanish). I´m still not totally sure what I´ll be doing, but I hope to work with the legal staff at the center. Getting a look at how legal issues of domestic abuse are handled in Ecuador will be fascinating. I may also be teaching some classes, in music or English or yoga, and hopefully getting to know the women and their children living there.

 

Quito is a really cool city and I´m excited to get to spend my summer here. The weather is beautiful (it´s the dry season), the city is bustling and nestled really high in the mountains (I can feel my lungs getting stronger already!) and ringed by towering green mountains–beautiful. The city spreads itself up the slope of the mountains, with little bright houses in pink and green and yellow and orange placed higgly-piggly up the slopes.

 

I´m also hoping to do some travel while I´m here, and see more of Ecuador on the weekends. Next weekend, I´m hoping to go up to this really big active volcano (whose name I forget at the moment) that´s about an hour from the city. Geo majors, eat your hearts out. Just kidding. I´m excited. I have the feeling these two months are going to fly by!