Quito Bonito

Hello from Ecuador. I´m finally here after a long day of traveling on Wednesday. I arrived in Quito around 9:00 wed. night and went straight to the hostel. the volunteer on duty showed me around the place and showed me where i´d be staying. my room is called ¨the cave¨because there are no windows, but past volunteers have painted lovely murals on the wall, so it´s not so bad--hey, it´s free. thursday morning i went to a museum with some girls from the hostel to see the work of a famous ecaudorian painter, guayasamin...i think. then, thurs. afternoon at 3 i started my first shift. i´ll be working at the secret garden for at least a month. it´s a good deal for me because even though the shifts are 8 hours, 6 days a week, i get free food, bed and spanish lessons. and i automatically get to meet people. so i´m glad the volunteer position worked out. the people i´ve met have encouraged me by telling me that there will be no problem for me to get a job teaching english. so after the hostel, my next step will be teaching or volunteering depending on my money situation.

on another note, quito is beautiful. it´s surrounded by mountains and so far the weather has been amazing--sunny, blue sky and 70 degrees. the view from the hostel´s 5th floor terrace is gorgeous, and it´s the view i get all day while i´m at work.

i haven´t had time yet to walk around the city and see much, but there´s plenty of time. i´m living in the old town, the colonial part, which is the most beautiful and safe part of the city. the new town is where many tourists stay. so i´m happy to be situated in the ¨best¨part of town.

i will have pictures soon...i promise. i was waiting to write a first blog until i had pictures, but i decided on a whim to write a bit. so hopefully this will tide you over until i get pictures. thanks for reading, and as they say at the secret garde, ¨cheers!¨ (many of the travelers who stay there are from austrailia). and as they say in ecuador (or any spanish speaking country) ¨hasta luego.¨