June 1-2

My host family Natacha and Antonio are extremely nice. The only problem is they do not speak English, and I speak little English. But we get along okay. They are in their fifties and are both architects. They have three grown children. Their house is very nice, although the interior decorating could use a little help. They live in a gated community and have a ten foot wall around their own property. The garden in the back is beautiful. It is filled with avocado, orange, and lemon trees. (Mom and Mi-ma you would love it).

In the morning, Natacha made us breakfast which included croissants, fresh cheese, and cereal. However, instead of using plain milk in the cereal, she blended bananas and milk in a blender and we used that in our cereal. It was delicious! That is something I will definitely do when I get home.

Then we went on a city tour around Quito. The scenery is amazing. The city is huge, spread all over the Andes Mountaintops. Most of the city is very dirty filled with collapsing concrete buildings. However, there is a beautiful historic region, where the Spanish settled. We spent a long time walking around this area. One of the most beautiful buildings was La Compania de Jesus. It is a catholic church covered completely with gold paint. The inside is amazing! I wish I could have taken pictures, but cameras were not allowed inside. Then we went into a Panama hat store. Ecuador is famous for their Panama hats, and this store had some beautiful ones but they were too expensive. One thing that amazes me about the city is the enormous hills. We were all terrified riding on the giant tour bus down some extremely narrow, steep, and curvy roads. Dad would have had a heart attack!

... and the food!! I thought I was going to come here and loose weight, yeah right! The food is absolutely delicious. For lunch we had a three course meal. We started with a delicious traditional soup. It is a light potato soup with avocado in it. I have never tasted avocado so delicious in my life. Then we had grilled chicken breast with a buttery cream sauce, cous cous, and corn. But the corn was not like the corn in the US, it was big white cornels and had a much better flavor. And too finish it off, we had a "tres leche" cake for dessert. On the street they sell all kinds of fruits and homemade fruit popsicles. I also tried some plantains (fried bananas), tamarin candy, and fresh pineapple juice and sweet tomato juice. I haven't disliked anything yet!

We also went to the center of the globe! Latitude and Longitude 0'0''0'''. It is located in an outside museum where they have native artifacts like real shrunken heads!! Well I am about to go downstairs for dinner and then the group is meeting at the downtown area in our little town of Cumbaya!