The Big City

Today’s activities centered on Quito, Ecuador’s capitol. Early this morning we were met in the hotel lobby by Hector, our interpreter and tour guide for this portion of the Internship. Hector is a jovial man, fully understandable with our, dare I even say minimal, Spanish. Even the few key phrases and words we sputtered sporadically seemed to impress Hector, or he was feeding our egos, either way we had a great time. Overall, today was long, and it was fun.

Quito has an interesting layout, roughly twenty-five miles long and only three miles wide, as it is situated between two mountains. Hector and our driver Patricio, drove us up into the hills to one expensive neighborhood, where the average monthly rent ranges from $700 to $1,500. With fantastic views over the city this may seem like a steal, apart from the fact that the average monthly income is about $160.

From here we were off to Jardin Botanico de Quito AKA the Quito Botanic Garden. After a short tour of the grounds we met with Carolina Jijon, the garden’s Director. It was interesting for Carolina to tell us the garden was only two years old, which we could barely tell from our walk of the property. The garden has been focusing heavily on conservation of the endemic and endangered species of Ecuador, and one of Carolina’s special loves, the education of youngsters.

This year the garden has successfully reached out to 12,000 of the poorest children in Quito and the surrounding area, with a special program that provides them with food and environmental education, focusing on healthy eating and water conservation. Twenty-two staff including horticulturists, and interpretive staff make up the garden’s workforce. And remarkably in the short life of this garden, they have an annual visitation of 90,000! After meeting with Carolina we visited the Garden’s orchid display, within the semi enclosed greenhouse. Over 1,200 different orchids of all shapes, sizes, and colors were displayed in this breathtaking exhibit.

After our tour, it was time for lunch, lunch is the biggest meal of the day in Ecuador, and Hector wantd to take us to what he considered a typical Ecuadorian restaurant, and if that is how the Ecuadorians do lunch, they do it right! The local cuisine is not hot or spicy, but at all meals a pepper sauce is used to flavor the food, and each region creates its own distinct flavors. At this point we thought it was time to bring up the guinea pig. We had heard so much about the Ecuadorians eating guinea pig that we had to try some. Hector said this may, just may be a possibility, although this particular item is not easily found in the city; hopefully more to come on this in a few days!

After lunch we were taken to Old City, where the architecture is constructed in the Colonial Style during the mid-1500s to the mid-1800s, and differs dramatically from rest of Quito. We walked through magnificent plazas, and beautiful buildings surrounded us as we toured through the city streets. We were even lucky enough to witness the changing of the Presidential Guards.

We left Old City, and ascended to 10,000 ft. above sea level, to see Quito from a different perspective. We witnessed awesome views overlooking the city, and fantastic mountain views.

Tomorrow we will be traveling to these mountains, going 15,000 ft. above sea level to Cotopaxi National Park, which houses one of the only snow covered volcanoes on the Equator, and where at its highest points the permanent snow cover allows no plant life to exist. This should be interesting. Thankfully we will not be going that high up! Good thing we brought sweaters!