Day 2

We were all able to get a good night’s sleep last night and had a lovely breakfast at the Hostel. Devotions were led by Sue and then we packed up and headed into Quito to tour.

First stop was the Basilica which we learned took 100 years to finish after it was started in the 1870’s. Our team was able to explore the steeples and spires and take in some amazing views of Quito. There have been some nice updates and repairs done on the Basilica including a safer walkway to the steeple at the far end (those of you who have gone before will understand).

We attempted a drive to the downtown area of Quito to tour The Golden Church but there were so many people and cars in the streets that we deemed it impossible to do and then headed to the equator. Our translators think it was because people did not go down town yesterday due to the protests that were scheduled for the city square and we’re all out today instead. The protests were about the high prices of gasoline, but everything was calm today except for the large numbers of people who were out. We did get to experience a lot of cultural things from our van while sitting in traffic from beautiful doors to street vendors as well as street performers. It was fun to just be surrounded by the people of Ecuador and their beautiful culture.

We stopped for lunch at a hamburger restaurant and all filled up on delicious burgers, fries and Coca-Cola (with real cane sugar).  It was a short 20-minute ride from there to the Equator museum. Here we learned a lot about the native people of Ecuador as well as about the physics of the equator. There were a number of fun demonstrations of how gravity is less on the equator and about how the magnetic poles work.

Leaving Quito behind we traveled about 1 1/2 hours through beautiful countryside to Cayambe…

Our home for the next 9 days. We saw a lot more of the rural and mountain regions of Ecuador on this drive and arrived at our hotel just as the sun was setting. We unloaded our van and quickly settled into our rooms before dinner. Tonight we were served what seemed to be Chinese food from a restaurant, but our translators said it wasn’t from a Chinese restaurant. It was delicious!

After a brief team meeting about what to expect at church in the morning everyone headed to their rooms for the evening to get settled in and hopefully to get a good night’s rest.