Arrival in Riobamba

Today I had a nice quiet morning in Quito. Quito reminds me a lot of Lima, Peru, where I spent a summer 4 years ago. They both have colorful boxy houses on the side of mountains.

Quito also has a statue of the Virgin over looking it.

They both have remnants of colonial architecture all over the place. I also even saw a Chifa

(a Chinese restaurant), which were plentiful in Lima. Interestingly lots of Chinese people immigrated to parts of Latin America once China opened its doors in the 1980s, I think it was easier to get visas, and people at that point just wanted to get out of the country.

good for what ails you

Overlooking Quito

I mostly walked around El Centro or Old Town because I didn’t have a ton of time before leaving for Riobamba.

This picture made me think of China. I don't know why, but there it always seemed to be women doing a lot of the cleaning and maintenance work on the streets, whereas in the US I feel like its more men, or maybe evenly split.

On the way to Riobamba...

This is our driver Segundo, who is Andean and lives in Cacha, near Riobamba.

I got to Riobamba and met my super nice host family. There’s 6 of them in total! I convinced the girls (ages 9, 12 and 23) to play a couple games of SET with me! It was fun :)

find the set!

Here’s some photos of my room. It’s nice!

view from my room

Anyhow, tomorrow is my first day at el Hospital del IESS, (which sounds like “yes” to me when I hear it) in the Emergency Department!

Margaret