Day 1: A Thrilling Start

Here´s a rundown of day number uno. We started off the morning with breakfast and a logistics meeting, talking about the program, the clinics we will be working in, and our general itinerary. In the aftenroon, we did some exploring around Quito, walking around the quaint "old town". We had some lunch (tasty tamal de pollo), and then decided to head up to see the Virgin de Quito statue, which adorns a wonderful viewpoint overlooking the city. Pictures will come later but all I can say for now is this: Quito is huuuge. Astoundingly so. It seems to go on forever in every single direction. The city is like a giant bowl: completely flat in the middle with similarly sized buildings, surrounded by vast hills -- completely covered with houses -- which slope off into the distance. I think one of the reasons the city is so impressive is the sheer density with which it is packed full of buildings. It will be hard to do it justice with pictures, let alone with mere words (even despite my attempts at elegance).

Oh yeah. So we debated for a bit as to how we should get up to the viewpoint. Our guidebook said it was dangerous to walk, but a local told us we would be fine in a group at that time of day. So, we decided we would take the stairs to the top. Almost immediately upon reaching this decision, a fight broke out in the street among a group of locals, who promptly started picking up boulders and throwing them at eachother. The single policeman was utterly ineffective. Hmmm. On second thought...let´s grab a taxi. 

Finally we visited the Basilica, a huge cathedral which absolutely dominates the view of the city, especially when seen from atop the viewpoint. It was beautiful from the outside. But it was the view from the top that we were really interested in. So, we payed our two dollar admission fee and started the long trek. We climbed stairs. Followed by ladders. Followed by more stairs. It just... oh wait, then came some more ladders. It just kept going and going. The view from each subsequent floor was more spectacular than the last. Upon reaching the top, we were astonished. It was breathtaking. An absolutely wonderful experience. The one downside was the sheer, unbelievable quantitiy of graffiti and writing debasing the walls. Sad.

 It´s fun to just walk around the streets. TONS of people are walking about. There are people playing music, vendors with all sorts of delicacies (ice creams, pastries, and cool-whip-like dessert). There are loads of places selling incredible baked goods, which emit powerful aromas into the streets to entice hungry food-lovers over to the dark side of indulgence. Hmm, perhaps just one.