Beautiful Sunday :)

I was really happy we stayed in Quito Saturday night A) because I was sick and B) because I wanted to have a whole day to explore the city! I have been here for two weeks but haven´t had the chance to see much beyond the new town. Which if I didn´t mention before, Quito runs north to south in the Northern part of Ecuador. The Northern end of the city is called, ¨New Town¨and is just that, new and modern with shopping centers, plenty of McDOnalds and other fast food resturaunts, businesses, hotels, schools, etc. The southern end is the ¨Old Town¨or as the locals call it, El Historico. It is full of churches and cobblestone walkways and plazas. It also has plenty of hole-in-the-wall resturaunts (which I love) and little boutiques. Before we explored its grandur, ¨our group¨(Julia, Jay, Katie, Me, Alisa) met at the bus station to go to ¨Mitad del Mundo¨(the middle of the Earth=ECUATOR). It was finally nice out for an entire day and we definitely took advantage of it!!

We then spent all afternoon Sunday strolling the beautiful, colonial streets of Quito where we sat outside for lunch, had samples of ice cream shoved in our mouths at the country´s oldest parlor, climbed the sketchy ladders to the top of the Basilica, witnessed breathtaking views and had a gaucho ride by and yell either ¨I love you or I want pizza¨and then anticlimatically ride away as his hat flew off. I have to go eat dinner that is why this is so short! I can not believe I only have a little less than 2 weeks left. CRAZY!! I´ll try to write more this week. love and miss everyone!!

Love Hilary