Quito

Well we are finally here...actually we have been here for a few days but have not found an internet cafe close to our house (sorry to our parents who probably thought we were dead). Its been three days and already we have had our fair share of adventures. Well to begin with thanks for all the prayers because we arrived safely with all our lugguage and even had Jose and his father pick us up at the airport. Jose and Cynthia have graciously let us stay in their house untill we head out to the amazon tomorrow. Quito is nice and we have enjoyed being here. Its kind of a funny climate, changing from rain to hot sun, and then back to rain within minutes, but it is a beautiful encircled by luscious green mountains. On friday Jose and his family invited us over for a traditional Ecuadorian meal and some good conversation...it was a lot of food!! Then yesterday Liana and I braved the Quito transit system via bus as we ventured to a place called Mitad del mundo (the center of the earth). It was a bit confusing trying to figure out what buses went where, and where our stops were according to the color of bus we were on and random names of parts of the city we did not know. But with the help of some nice ecuadorians we made it(and even returned home). What made this all worth it was standing in a bus crammed full of ecuadorians with a sign that said "occupancy - 37 sitting, 40 standing" and having a bus full of tourists half asleep drive by. They were seeing all the sights but missing a great adventure. Today we braved the transit once more and went to Cruz Loma, which took us up a gondola to a station overlooking the city, from which we continued hiking up the mountains for about 2 hours in the fog. The moments when the fog broke made the trek worthwhile as we were rewarded with breathtaking mountains and a great view of the city. Tomorrow we head off in the morning to the Amazon so it will most likely be a week or so untill our next entry.
Ciao
Dennis and Liana