YAAAY

I have found a computer and a statistically significant chunk of time!
Where to begin _ crap, I can't even find the front-facing question mark . . . this will probably be super disorganized . . .

So, arrival in Quito was fine. I am staying with Victor and Fanny de Maturana, who, as per the hispanic tradition, have a few additional last names that I can't remember. They are a lovely retired couple who insist that they are my abuelitos.
About -ito . . . Everything in Quito is diminutive. There is not cafe, but cafecito. Not Manuel but Manuelito. And even if you ask for just a poquito de comida, they still give you a five-course meal, with two and a half of the courses being either bread, hminy, corn, plantain, or yuca, two being just rice, and about half a course of fruit. Needless to say, I am not so chiquita anymore . . .

I'm petty sure with all the -ito-ing, that Quito's name will evolve to be Quit-ito in about 20 years . . .

Hmmm . .. I have my own room, bathroom, and lukwewarm water that turns off at some regularly indeterminate time in the late morning. We live in this kind of compound behind garage doors, and I have four keys to get all the way through the doors/bars/etc to my room. Most people put variously colored broken bottles at the top of the concrete barriers to deter ladrones, but I guess we're not that artistic.
A BU student lives above me with one of the single daughters of my family. So, I have a bus buddy and a gym budy and a meal buddy and I'm sure he's quite tired of me at the moment but I'm a gringa girl and I can't go anywhere by myself.

more on details later . . .

THe eco kids start their traveling this weekend, with a trip by bus up altitudinal gradients to look at plantlife, and a not-to-be-missed side trip to some hot springs on the way back *which are, PS, not crowded on Fridays . . .*

Then to the indigenous market of Otavalo on Saturday with all the BU kids - send requests . ..
Sunday will be Cotopaxi - a mostly inactive volcano that, dependong on how you measure it, is actually bigger than Everest
But who the hell measures form the bottom of the ocean . . .

hmm, that's all for now. I'll attempt chronological order when I catch up.
Off to get a $1 cup of coffee . . .