Day 1 in Quito

Hello from the Southern Hemisphere! I believe this is the first time I´ve been down here. Despite the fact that it´s only $1 USD an hour to be on the Internet, I will make it quick. In fact, Í´ll just copy the email I sent to my parents. Sorry for any awkward punctuation. This is a Spanish language computer I´m on.

Hey Fam,

GL and I have arrived and we are having a great time in Quito. We got to our hotel at about 1am (after about an hour delay in Miami), slept a bit, and then got right to work. Today, we diid the Lonely Planet walking tour of Old Town and saw a lot of churches and plazas. We also planned the next two days. Tomorrow, we´ll take a bus to Otovalo (sp?) to go the famous Saturday market there and on Sunday we´re going with the Biking Dutchman tour group to a volcano (Cotopaxi) where we will hike up and mountain bike down (we think). It it very cool here and we just had a downpour. Thank goodness I packed my rain jacket at the last second.

Just wanted you to know that we are safe and enjoying our time here already. We will hang out in Quito on Monday, but don´t have firm plans for our hours that day. We´re hoping for some guinea pig (totally kosher, right?) and ceviche (no shrimp, of course). I don´t plan on getting sick from food here, so we have to keep an eye on what´s in our food. Or at least I do.

¨California Gurls¨ just came on the radio in this internet cafe. Who knew they were listening to this song here too! If I have time, I´ll touch base on Monday before we fly to the islands.

m