City on a Hill

After four flights and a night spent on the floor of the Bogotá airport, I finally arrived in Quito on Tuesday morning. We’re staying at a beautiful hostel in a gringo-oriented neighborhood near the center of town. I’m not sure whether the best feature of our living accommodations is the fresh-squeezed naranjilla juice every morning or the hummingbirds that like to hang out in the small garden/patio area in front of the hostel:

It’s no surprise that the birds love this garden, because it is full of flowers like these:

Even though we’re in the middle of the city, it’s hard to walk two blocks without seeing an beautiful fruit tree or exotic flower. But of course, what really gives Quito the gorgeous city prize is the Andes mountains. No matter where you might find yourself in the city, nothing can block the view of the mountains above the rooftops:

Since arriving, I have spent the bulk of my time in a conference room at a hotel not far from our hostel learning about pickpockets and unpleasant intestinal ailments. WorldTeach is very interested in us being well-prepared for a couple months in a new country, so our orientation has included lots of talks on health and safety issues, the Ecuadorian education system, teaching strategies, and what to expect as a visitor to Ecuadorian culture. These sessions have felt a little long at times (especially when we were all running on our Columbian airport sleep the first day), but I’m definitely feeling more ready to deal with challenging cultural situations and/or uncontrollable diarrhea. We’ve also started Spanish classes at a local school. Today, my three classmates and I practiced our subjunctive skills by piecing together the lyrics of a beautiful song by the Cuban musician Silvio Rodriguez and learned how to play Ecuador’s national card game, Cuarenta. Our teacher Luis told us that the most important part of the game is the slang-filled intimidation and joking that goes on between players.

Yesterday, the group took an expedition to the old center of the city (“Old Town”), which dates back to the 16^th century. At the main square of the old city, we overheard a band celebrating the contributions of Manuela Sáenz, Simon Bolívar’s longtime love interest and revolutionary compatriot. We also visited La Basílica del Voto Nacional (Basilica of the National Vow), a 19^th century cathedral whose most interesting feature is its gargoyles:

It’s a little hard to tell, but they’re animals indigenous to Ecuador’s jungles and Galapagos Islands. From the cathedral’s plaza, we could see Quito’s Winged Virgin of the Apocalypse standing on Panecillo Hill.

Later, our bus wound its way up the incredibly steep slope, and we saw the aluminum-plated statue up close. The size of the towering structure was dwarfed by the sheer scale of Quito itself as seen from above:

More to come soon, but for now, I'm off to dinner.