Day 1 Narrative part 1

Day one starts with a beautiful buffet breakfast on the rooftop restaurants which was directly above my room.   I know how hard the staff worked making all those pieces of fruits, cheeses, breads etc as they began the process about 4 am, singing and chopping and clattering dishes around above my bed. Thank goodness for a couple a glasses of strong tea at breakfast. 

We assembled at 8:00 for a PowerPoint presentation by Carlos and Marco, where we learned about the wonderful diversity of Ecuador.  There are 4 distinct regions, the Galapagos, the shoreline, the highlands of the Andes and the jungle.  Each area has unique climate and terrain.  The altitude goes from 600 ft above sea leave to 30,000 feet.  The expedition to find the Spanish gold began in Ecuador.  Although it was never found, the Ecuadorians are very proud in their part of this quest.    Quito was founded by the Spanish.  Originally Quito was called San Francisco.  The Jesuits established the Catholic religion here.  We will see three of these areas in the next two weeks.  Carlos tells us that Ecuador is “like a banana”  - long and skinny.  The Andes run the length.  Quito comes from the word meaning “Middle”  There are 1.9 million people in Quito.  It is the second highest capital city in the world.

After a brief meeting and some safety ground rules for the students, we load into the bus and spend the day exploring the old city downtown.  We stop to see one very ornate church, then go to one that rocked our socks off.  The church of Jess Christ the Campany or Iglesia de la Compania was built in the early 1600’s by the Jesuits.  The inside is the most amazing site I’ve ever seen in a church, with over 1 ton of gold decoration.  It is most ornate.  Carlos gives us the history of the artwork, and the restoration of the church and we all are overwhelmed by the glitter before us.  We can’t take pictures in the church, but we all came home with a post card of this amazing site.  I’ll try and scan that to share when I return.

We walk around the park, and up to the President’s house.  We enter the foyer to the courtyard to get a glimpse of the grandeur.  Carlos tells us that there were 8 presidents in 10 years so the government doesn’t have a stable record.  He assured us that the newest president was good for the country and will be there for a while.

We climb back into the bus and head to the south side of Quito and up the mountain to the Angel statue where we can get a 360 degree view of the city below.  We are fortunate to have such great weather.