Quito y Ecuador.

Captain's log: Day 3. Estoy aqui! Bad spanish, three large bags of supplies and all. From the Quito Airport last night, I arrived at the house of my friend Claudia. This was greatly aided by three kindnesses: the full coverage of my taxi fare by my new friend (and suggested husband) Frank, the patience of Francisco, the cab driver, and the kind elucidation of my Spanish directions to Claudia's house by three night-working street cleaners.

A thirty minute plane ride and an hour boat ride are the only things that stand between me and my new home off the Napo. 

Greetings from Sangloqui in the Pichincha province, where ten workers for the efforts of Manna Project International so kindly put me up for the night. My friend and fellow Pomona Alum, Claudia Zaugg, will be working with MPI for the following year. Hopefully she'll be able to come to Yarina to visit!

Only one more day of travel to go. I'll give a short recap of my last 24-some hours. 

The rainy season in Guatemala translates to some seriously awesome cloud formations. 

During the seven-hour layover in San Salvador, El Salvador, I treated myself to an eleven USD feast: my first Pilsener since leaving Costa Rica, papusas con frijoles y maiz,  and sopa de tomate y zucchini. I cannot express how delicious this all was to you. And this is -airport food-. I saw a Gray-breasted Martin trio from the window as I was eating (and creepily pulling out my binoculars...), which marks the first life-lister bird I've seen on this trip. Score. 

A view from the MPI house up towards Quito. 

And some of the inside! It's an awesome house. Really comfy bunks. A luxury of this morning I suppose I'll get accustomed to in the coming months: waking up when the sun's heat reached critical point and made escaping from the blankets imperative.

That's all I have in me for now. The real excitement will come when I can actually post pictures of Yarina, which again, I really hope I'll be able to do! We'll see how the internet cafes are in Coca.

Cheers, all.

P.S.-A woman sitting in front of me and Frank (whom I talked to on my flight from El Salvador to Ecuador) in the airplane last night suggested that I marry him, as he was obviously handsome, enterprising, and would come with me to the Napo. One of the many reasons I love travel: meeting new people...and free matchmaking, I guess? Heh.