You know, your typical week in Ecuador

The Boy Scout in me has had a serious lack of camping and hiking in the last six years so when I first heard about the possibility of hiking Cotopaxi, a volcano just shy of 20,000 feet, I got pretty excited about it.  Previous ChACErs have made the trek and I'm hoping to join their ranks.  The altitude is a problem for many (I even found myself struggling in Quito the first few days) so they suggest hiking around the city a bit.  Rucu Pichincha is just to the West of Quito and is a constant reminder that we're in the Andes.

Tuesday after classes we piled into our familiar yellow van with Hugo to check it out.  The ascent starts with a gondola ride from 2850m to 4050m and then the hike goes to 4700m (15,500 ft).  A far cry from Cotopaxi but a good barometer for whether or not the trip is doable.  There were definitely some issues with altitude but 5 of us climbed with Hugo as far as we could go with the sunlight.  We didn't summit but Ryan and I want to return to poke through the clouds.  I like this picture because the

 natural beauty of the peak in the clouds distracts you from the fact that my eyes are closed.  Sorry Mom, I'll try to get some better ones in the future :)  We only missed the peak by about 30 minutes.

Here's the view of Cotopaxi itself from Pichincha.  It looks like the Paramount logo.  Looking forward to climbing you.

 Tuesday was also Rosa's daughter's birthday so we took her out for a surprise sushi dinner.  Sushi in Ecuador is legit.  We had so much of it and I enjoyed every bite.  I would say it was comparable to if not better than most sushi I've had in the states.  Expensive, but delicious.

 The name of the restaurant is Noe, which is the Spanish version of Noah.  I wonder if they ate shushi on the ark...

We also listened to a Juan Gabriel song in class this morning about a bar called Noa Noa (worth a youtube view) and I watched 2012 in Spanish tonight with Mateo which ends with everyone piling onto arks awaiting a tsunami.  Very in touch with my name this week.

 Here's Diana blowing out her candle.  We didn't sing but apparently they do have a tradition of pushing the celebrant's face into their dessert.  Her boyfriend Peter did the honors.

 Ryan and I have started to get a little claustrophobic in the language school so we asked if we could explore the city during class time a bit.  We know the grammatical side of the language pretty well so most of our classes are just conversation and reading which we can do outside the building.  We're learning lots of vocab which is what we need.  We stumbled across this group of students in the park performing traditional Ecuadorian Indigenous music dance and theater.

 Wednesday afternoon we took our first salsa class!  If you saw the album on facebook we had a short demo our first week and we were all sold.  Jonathan is our instructor (on the left) and he has some serious moves.  I think we're going to take a set of 10 classes during our stay.

Wednesday being The Ascension (thanks to Dan and Laura for remembering!), we all went to church in the evening.  Very few Ecuadorians attend mass regularly and The Ascension isn't a holy day of obligation here so there wasn't much of a turnout but the church was beautiful and I love hearing mass in Spanish.

On Thursday all 7 of us went with our professors to the Centro Historico de Quito which most people refer to as "The Old City."  Ryan and I walked while the others took the bus, and I'm glad we did because we passed the Basilica on the way.  This church is huge, and it's unique because of the way it's set into the hill.

 The plaza around the outside was very tranquil and allowed for great views of the giant facade.  I especially liked the crypt entrance which you can see on the left side of this picture.  You go down a set of steps from the plaza and the crypt extends under the church to the street on the far side so you can enter from ground level as well.

 Ryan and I paid the dollar entrance fee (new to me, paying to get into a church) to see the inside.  The stained glass was beautiful.  This was my favorite, I always love images of Jesus ministering to the young.  Something about being a teacher.
My favorite part of the basilica was the adoration chapel at the back.  It was stunningly beautiful.  No pictures were allowed so I just prayed :)

 The street from the Basilica to the Centro Historico is knows as "La Calle de Siete Cruces" because there are 7 huge crosses like this one outside of 7 churches on the street.

 There are two giant plazas in the Centro Historico.  The first we came across is known as Plaza Grande or Plaza de la Independencia.  This monument is in memory of the heroes of August 10th 1809 when Ecuador gained independence from Spain.

We went inside a beautiful building where we could step out on the roof to get some good views of Quito.  On the way up I spotted this abacus.  Math is everywhere!

The second plaza is Plaza de San Francisco.  According to legend the church was constructed by the devil after he made a pact with the architect.  The deal was that the devil could have the architect's soul if the church was constructed perfectly overnight.  A small crack was found in one of the towers so he got to keep his soul.

 After all that walking around and speaking Spanish we had lunch in a beautiful mall.  Lots of the buildings are constructed in Spanish (as in Spain) architecture from their rule prior to 1809.  They're all terraced with a courtyard in the middle and a fountain or statue at the center.

I have found my favorite juice so far.  Tomate de Arbol, which literally translates to Tree Tomato, is a fruit native to Ecuador.  The flavor is fantastic, something like an orange creamsicle.

Thursday afternoon I went to the grocery store with Rosa.  Definitely not a U.S. grocery store.  As you can see the meats are all on display, not behind glass.  Many of the dairy products and eggs are sold warm.

Our trip to the grocery store was largely in preparation for the Guac-Off that happened this morning in class.  Dan is known for the quality of his guacamole as is Rosa so we had a blind taste-test today during break.  Dan won in a unanimous decision.  Both dips were fantastic.  Dan's secret ingredient and texture were what won out though.

Off to Mindo in 6 hours, watch for a post soon!