The past two days have been amazing! After school on Friday we got everyone together and went to Pinchicha a mountain right next to Quito. The view was amazing!! A gondola took us up 4000 feet and once we got there we could see all of the city. Words and pictures really can not describe or depict some of the incredible scenes we have seen. We hiked around the mountain for a few hours, Davis and I didnt eat much for lunch so we got pretty tired early on and the rest of the group galavanted up a huge incline and played around for a little while. We met a missionary group from Birmingham while we were on Pinchicha and they gave what they thought would be a helpful ride back down the mountain. In actuality they led us to a pretty sketchy part of Old Town, far from all of our houses! We walked around there for a while which was scary for a few minutes but finally we were able to hail a taxi and eventually get home. We left at 7 this morning on our first excursion to the highlands! The drive was amazing it really felt like we were in the Truman Show or something because the scenery was so fantastic. We made a few stops and tried an indigenous fruit that was pretty good.. it tasted like something in between a pear and... something ive never tasted. Then we tried some local biscuits and goat cheese which I was hesitant to eat at first but were actually really good! Next we stopped in Octavalo, a great town with an incredible outdoor market. The weather was literally perfect and the market atmosphere was so fun! I bought a fadora, a pair of overalls, a shirt and some bracelets- all very cheap. It was fun to barter with all the venders. They think just because we're gringos that we are going to pay double! Sarah and I bought some big Pilsners and just enjoyed the surroundings for a while, lots of crazy food tons of people endless things to look at. After that we headed out for another quaint town called Catacochi? I may be spelling that wrong. It was soo cute. If I ever moved to Ecuador this is where I would want to live. Cobble stone streets, bright colored buildings- so cute and SO quiet. This was a really nice break from the urban jungle of Quito. For lunch I had some grilled camarones (shrimp) which were humongous and delicious! After this we went to the base of a volcano, who's name I can't remember!! There was a crystal clear lake at the bottom so the group hopped a boat and sailed around the islands for a half hour or so. We met students from Clemson, Boston College and Georgetown today. There are so many American students here it is crazy! Tomorrow we are headed to some hot springs and another mountain! Should be great!!

I think the most interesting part of today was just seeing all the people who lived in the highlands and realizing how different their lives are from ours. They all still wear indigenous clothing, and walk around with llamas, goats and pigs. It is incredible how it is a completely different lifestyle from ours back in the US and even here in Quito. The number of beggars was really sad, old women would tug on our clothes and you could tell some of the little kids working in the market were so tired, but still knew exactly what to say to sell their products. I'm going to try and post more pictures, we have Addison Dent with us on our trip who is basically a professional photographer so I can't wait until he posts his pictures too! xoxo Chao!