Random moments

Today has been a good day. Justin and I went to the gym this morning with Vane, and this time the Spinning class (occurs every Tues morning) wasn´t nearly as deadly. Then we went to the hospital where we ended up working with Dr. Rosas in her morning clinic. It was awesome!! Not only does she speak clearly, but she also enjoys teaching and really cares about her patients. She had us call our own patients back and do a physical exam and get a brief history. At first, I was stressed out by the idea, but it turned out to be fine. I definitely don´t feel fluent by any means, but I can get ideas across. I´m hopeful that by the end of these two months I´ll be even more comfortable. Dr. Rosas is also very efficient. She had finished seeing her patients by 11:45, and she told us to go - saying she´d see us tomorrow. Justin and I took that to mean that she wasn´t going to be there for afternoon clinic, and therefore, it meant she was telling us to take the rest of the day off :)
So we took a bus home, changed into comfy clothes, and headed off to Mariscal/La Foch to eat lunch. Luis recommended this restaurant/bar where we were able to get a soup or salad, main meal, small dessert, and a drink all for $3. It was amazing. Justin and I both have these ginormous appetites that are beyond belief. I haven´t been hungry like this since I ran cross country in high school. I eat like there´s no tomorrow, but I actually think I´m somehow losing weight. Parasites? I don´t think so. I´m still riding safely in the middle train (see the D vs C train below), and I feel great. Regardless, I´ll take it while I can. Maybe eating various strange body parts agrees with me, lol.
Justin and I are making plans for our weekend in Baños. We randomly ran into Anna again at the mall last Saturday (this huge place called El Jardín, which makes the Galleria look puny), and I asked her if she´d like to come with us. She´s on vacation right now, but a lot of the friends she´s made down here are still in school. She was delighted with the idea, so it looks like there´s going to be three of us heading toward the baths. I can´t wait!

Now for random moments: Here´s Justin and me on the flight from Atlanta to Quito. We were so happy to finally be for sure on our way.

Here´s a little playground we passed on our dangerous hike to and from La Virgin. It was old and mostly broken down, but I loved the look of it with the old stump there.

That´s it for today. Check out the pictures I finally posted on the Jurassic Park vs. Sound of Music blog. So cool!

Ecuador vs. Brasil

Soccer here is like college football in Alabama, only perhaps even more important. I´m pretty sure the entire city of Quito (some 3 million inhabitants) watched the game yesterday. The stadium, which is only a few blocks from our house, was completely sold out. It´s possible we could have gotten a couple of tickets for about $100 dollars a piece, but Justin and I decided to go to La Foch (pronounced fosh) with Vanessa and a friend of hers. It´s also called Mariscal, which Justin´s going to blog about, where we attempted to go dancing last Friday night. The area makes up a couple of streets and is filled with restaurants, bars, and dance clubs. It´s a popular spot for tourists and locals alike. Sunday afternoon it was packed. There wasn´t a single seat available in any of the bars with televisions, so we ended up leaning against some stairs to watch the game. The game was close. Ecuador, by far, made the most goal attempts, but they just couldn´t seem to get the ball in the goal. Twice everyone in the bar broke out into ecstatic cheers only to realize that Ecuador hadn´t actually scored. Then Brazil came out of nowhere in the second half to get a goal, making the score 0-1. With about 5 minutes left in the game, Ecuador finally managed to score. Everyone was hugging, kissing, and high-fiving. I´m pretty sure I saw a few grown men cry. The game ended with the score tied 1-1. Not a win, but infinitely better than a loss.

So that was our day yesterday, by the time our bus made it home through the mad traffic, Justin and I were too exhausted to do anything other than go to bed.

Today wasn´t anything much to write about. We went to the gym, went to the hospital, came here. The only thing of note was our almuerzo (lunch). I saw potatoes and I saw some strangely shaped chunks of meat in my soup. One part was gizzard, another part was heart, but it was the last part that got me. You can´t tell by the picture, but this is a chunk of spine, complete with spinal cord and surrounding musculature.

I briefly lost my appetite, but hey, I´m slowly checking off parts of the body that I have yet to eat. Yum, yum :=)

Friday Night Lights

The Mariscal Sucre. AKA "Gringolandia." This is the new town, where all the tourists (and a lot of locals) go for a night out of eating, drinking, and dancing at all the trendy, hip places. Jennifer and I thought that it wouldn't be a quiteño experience if we didn't try to spend at least one night hitting the party scene. The plan was this: go out to eat at a nice restaurant, then find a nightclub and dance 'til the feet said stop. Phase I: Eating. The picture you see is us at a very nice restaurant called La Boca del Lobo (mouth of the wolf). They actually sell Wolf Meat Empanadas. Jennifer ordered a chicken and noodle dish, and I had some fried Yuca balls stuffed with cheese, potatoes, and shrimp plus a set of really tiny spinach empanadas. And boy were they awesome! But the best part was the dessert: Jennifer thoroughly enjoyed her Nutella crepes and I wolfed down (no pun intended) my white chocolate/Amaretto tarts topped with blackberries. Having been satisfactorily fed, we then set out to accomplish Phase II: Dancing. And this is where the night turned a bit south...

For starters, it started raining while we were eating. And neither of us had any kind of umbrella or raincoat. Thus, we were drowned in rain when we left. To make things worse, we couldn't find the nightclub that was recommended to us by Vane (we searched high and low). We actually had to go back to the restaurant to ask them for a nightclub recommendation. They gave us the name of Bungalow 6, a nightclub/lounge/bar not too far from the restaurant. So we went there... and it was virtually empty. Granted, it was 9:30, but even by midnight, there was NOBODY dancing, even though more people had shuffled in from the rain. So Jennifer and I decided we'd try to kickstart things. So there we were, the only two people full-out dancing on a half-empty dance floor. It didn't work, and I'm sure we deflected business from the place (at least my spastic moves probably did). So we left. After another round of wandering, we found a place where people were actually dancing. But as we soon found out, the place was more like a live Spanish crazy TV show, with extremely loud, zany music and people acting a fool. So that didn't work either. Resigned to our fate of a night where awesome dancing was replaced with wetheads and ringing ears, we took a cab back to la Casa. And so ended our first foray into the Quito nightlife. But as they say: those who dance and run away live to dance another day!

Jurassic Park vs. Sound of Music

Today was telefériQo day. Just taking the bus ride up to where the ride began was impressive, but that was only the beginning. Each hanging basket (I´m not sure what the technical term would be) held 4-6 people, and as we ascended the mountain I really felt like pulling out a trumpet and playing the theme song to Jurassic park.

Impressive peaks were partially hidden by mist and cloud and an almost deafening silence replaced the horns and shouts of the city. When we reached the top (over 12,000 ft high), it was impressive how thin the air felt. I´d never really understood that expression before, but I really could feel the absence of oxygen. Had we felt like it, Justin and I could have breathed some flavored oxygen for only $5 :) From the start, I had wanted to hike a trail that ascended another 3,000 ft or so. Two problems. One: The trail was an almost 6 hour round trip hike rated highly strenuous due to the altitude. Two: It was unfortunately common for robberies to occur along the trail. For some reason, Justin was hesitant about going. Silly man. I´m more stubborn than he is, so in the end I wore him down and off we went.
The first hill just about killed us. Justin had warned me about the affect that altitude has on your ability to exert yourself, but nothing prepares you for what it really feels like. I was gasping air like a fish out of water, desperately trying to capture the few remaining oxygen molecules. My heart was trying to beat out of my chest. What would have taken me a minute or so to hike in Alabama took us about 6. We stopped at the top of the hill huffing and puffing and looked in dismay at the peaks rising in front of us. Justin gasped something about me being crazy and going back, which, though I was more than uncertain we COULD do it, made me determined to try. The next hill we took at snail pace, which worked infinitely better, and gradually we began to enter another world of strange mountain peaks and cloud.

Only grasses and scrubby bushes could grow at this altitude, and as the wind blew through them I suddenly felt the desire to sing "Climb Every Mountain", the song in the Sound of Music that plays as the von Trapp family escapes over the mountains in Austria to find freedom.

It was a good day :)

M.I.A.

Most people would consider me a type A person. Quit snickering, Erin. When I´m up and about, I believe in going full force. I like to be on time, and I don´t like to sit around waiting. It is somewhat humerous how much this clashes with Latin American culture. 9 o´clock actually means somewhere between 9 and 9:30, maybe. If I show up 5 or 10 minutes early, I could actually be 40 minutes early. Justin and I have already decided that we´ll just plan to arrive late so that we´ll be on time :) Justin decided to let me write about our day today while he wrote about random things like his shower head and the path to the cafeteria. Unfortunately, work isn´t as exciting to write about as our gazillion mile hike to the Virgin Mary via a robber-ridden path. The only thing I could come up with was our Doctora´s random disappearances. Justin and I would be examining a patient only to turn around and find that she had left the room. When she left the room, she would usually be gone for about 20-30 minutes, while we sat their with the patient and his/her parents and tried to think of something to say or do. We´re still not quite sure what she was doing when she left, but I´m pretty sure we´ll be trying to follow someone else from now on.
Justin and I are planning to visit a part of Quito called Mariscol tonight because Vane was raving about how good the food was and how much fun the dancing is. We´ll see :) We´re putting off Baños for this weekend because we didn´t really plan much ahead. Apparently with being so close to Easter, the hotels could be completely full, and also, we forgot to start our Doxycycline two days ahead of time to keep us from getting Malaria. There are several things around Quito we still want to see - a huge Saturday market, Mariscal, telefériQo (a 2.5 km ride up Volcán Pinchincha), etc. We may even go see a soccer game on Sunday. I also plan on making chocolate chip cookies tomorrow because I have this amazing craving for all things sugar at the moment. Food here, though absolutely, phenomenally amazing, is generally not sweet. I´m looking so forward to cookies I´m almost drooling.
We´ll try to get lots of cool pictures this weekend :)
Hasta luego

The weirdest ad I have ever seen

Look at this ad. This is in the rooftop cafeteria at the Hospital Pablo Arturo Suarez. The ad is obviously advertizing some kind of citrus fruit punch, as evidenced by the big orange bottle on the right. And apparently the agency is trying to use sex appeal to sell the device. From far away, the young couple looks as if they are in the midst of a romantic moment, as they are about to share a passionate kiss. But wait! Look closer...No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Their lip rings are actually intertwined. I don't know about you, but this definitely makes me want to go buy some fruit punch. Actually, the funniest part about this ad is the fact that the girl in the picture obviously looks like she has no idea how this happened...

My Shower

After 5 days of trying to figure out this thing, I decided that my shower deserved its own blog post. As you can see, the shower itself is a cramped but ample space. It is relatively clean inside, although I still feel like one of these days I'll need some tough-actin' Tinactin. But the most interesting thing about the shower is the actual faucet apparatus. If you've ever been to South America, you may be familiar with this type of device. In the right of the picture on the bottom, you can see the showerhead. Pretty straightforward. But look carefully and you'll notice a curly cord running up into a tiny little plastic tube that ultimately connects to a black fuse switch. This, folks, is an electric showerhead. Why? Because it's its own water heater. And boy does this thing suck up the power. The bathroom lights dim each time you turn on the water. Pretty easy, right? Just turn on the water and it heats itself! If only it were that easy. The first day, I was trying desperately to fiddle with the knob until finally I got some semblance of warmness in the water, and then as soon as I hopped in the water came on full force, and it became cold as ice. I nearly hyperventilated. So that was my first discovery about the shower. The harder the water comes out, the colder it gets. So in testing this theory further, I turned the knob so that the water was barely a trickle, and it was scalding hot. The water was at such a trickle that the heater couldn't decide whether to be on and off, as evidenced by the stopping and going of the hum that it makes as well as the flickering of the bathroom lights.

So this was my second discovery - that in order to have comfortable water you had to constantly switch between a scalding trickle and an ice cold barrage. Needless to say this makes for a very exciting shower experience, as it's hard to rinse the shampoo out of your hair with a trickle, but the frigid onslaught that you would have to suffer to rinse off quickly almost makes you want to go to work with a sudsy head.

One of these days, maybe I'll unlock the secret to these things. But until then, who needs coffee when you have such a unique way to start your day?

A surprise phone call

I had just gone to my room last night around 8:30 or so when I heard a knock on the door. It was Vane telling me that Mauricio (our preceptor) was on the phone. Oh how I love talking on the phone in a foreign language. (That was only a teensy-weensy bit of sarcasm). The problem is that all of your aids in communicating an idea are taken away (facial expression, hand and body language, etc) and you have to really solely sound. Even though my heart sank, it ended up not being as painful as I thought it was going to be. The communicating part, that is. I was surprisingly disappointed that we were going to be starting the next day (today) because I´d already made plans to go to a Ramba class with Vane in the morning and then go watch Mateo (her six year old son) play in a soccer game in the afternoon, and I was going to have to miss both of those now. I was also, I have to admit, quite a bit nervous about going to a hospital. I didn´t know what to expect. Were we going to get thrown out there and expected to take histories and diagnose in Spanish? What a horrifying thought! I got directions to the hospital Pedtro Arturo Suarez from Luis, which seemed easy enough, and I finally sank into a rather restless sleep.
We were supposed to meet with one Dr. Corral at 9 am at the hospital. We were told it would take about 30 minutes to get there, so we left the house just before 8:15. Luis was mistaken in his directions, as were about 5 other people that we talked to who gave us vague directions such as:¨"yeah, the hospital is just ahead" (it wasn´t), or "you go down this road, turn right, and it´s over there" (wrong), or "it´s about six blocks that way" (HAH!), or "it´s just around the corner". I´m going to quit giving you examples before I begin to rip out entire chunks of hair. At any rate, we actually did finally find the hosptial- arriving around 9:30/9:45 or so, late even for Latin America.
I know Justin is describing our day, so I won´t recount that. Instead, I do want to point out that it was suprising to see the differences in germophobia between the US and here. Hand washing was hit or miss, the same otoscope piece was used for everyone´s ears, stethoscopes were never cleaned, and the bedding was only changed once after a case of varicella (Chicken pox) came in. However, on a more positive note, it was a pleasure to work with Dr. Roses in clinic this afternoon. She seemed to enjoy teaching both us and the parents (which is HUGE in pediatrics), and she definitely took time with her patients. She also let Justin and I take turns examining patients - oh, I do so love the kiddies! :) Also, as Justin said, she spoke slow, clear Spanish. I definitely learned some new words, and I hope we get the chance to work with her again.
We´re probably going to be working at this hospital for a week or two, and then we´re hoping to convince Dr. Mauricio Espinel to send us to the Children´s hospital here in town, where, hopefully, we could spend the rest of our time. Vacation plans for this weekend are still in the works, but it looks like there won´t be as many during the week vacations, ah well, we´ll probably learn a lot more this way, lol.
Enough for now, except to say that Mateo and I are getting along famously. We have a nightly ritual of hitting a balloon around while music pounds from my ipod. I´ve never seen someone gets so much enjoyment from a 2 cent rubber balloon. It´s definitely been a joy to have a kid in the house!
Ciao

First day of work

I'm sure you all were wondering when Jennifer and I were actually going to start doing what we told everyone was the purpose of the trip - working in pediatric hospitals and clinics. Well, that day ended up being today! Last night Jennifer spoke with Dr. Espinel, who advised us to go to El Hospital Pablo Arturo Suarez, a hospital located in the northern part of the city. She got directions from Luis (Dr. Espinel's brother), and this morning we set out, clad in white coats, to learn some medicine. Unfortunately for us, the directions that we got were a little bit off, and what was supposed to be a 30 minute trip ended up taking an hour and a half. So we arrived on time - Latin American style (aka 30 minutes late). After a bit of confusion and waiting we eventually met our contact, Dr. Andres Corral, who was surprised to see two students instead of the one that Dr. Espinel told him was coming (yeah, don't know what that was about). But after some confusion, we finally met a pediatrician, Dr. Sandra L. (L = last name I can't remember!), who took us to shadow her in the emergency room.

The Pediatric Emergency room is not what you'd think. It's one room. Dr. Sandra sat at a desk, and everyone that needed to be seen came to sit in front of her. Dr. Sandra would then take a patient's file, take the history and physical (again, in front of the other patients), and discuss the diagnosis and treatment, also in front of everyone else. She would proceed this way until her shift ended at 12:00.

Then, we were told to get lunch, and we gladly obliged. Lucky for us, we found an extremely nice maxillofacial surgeon from Brazil who was very happy to show us the cafeteria on the roof (really - we had to walk on the roof outside to get to it). Afer we both ate a really nice lunch of baked chicken, rice, fried plantain, and some vegetable/meat soup for only $1.50, we descended back to the Pediatrics office, where the pediatricians were having clinic. Dr. Sandra went to eat lunch, but not before she shuffled us into the office of Dr. Rosas, another pediatrician. Lucky for us. Dr. Rosas is an awesome teacher, and speaks Spanish clearly and slowly! Needless to say, we both learned a lot, so hopefully that's a sign of things to come!

Our day ended just a little after 4:00, and our trip back home was a LOT shorter, now that we know where we're going. Jennifer, always one to seize the moment, took every opportunity to practice at home what we learned:

Unfortunately, they haven't taught us self-defense yet...By the way - I ate at least a pound of guatita yesterday. I was told while eating it that guatita is good for the stomach. Judging by my very happy stomach today, I can believe it! So fear not the cow stomach - it just may be good for what ails ya.

Will it be the D train or the C train???

For anyone who´s travelled internationally, especially to countries where sanitation can be a luxury, you already know exactly what I´m referring to. When your GI system encounters food it´s never had to process before, it´s really not sure what to do. Should it speed up, slow down, reject the food all together? Justin and I have both had experience with this in our previous trips to foreign countries, but I, at least, have never been so "adventurous" before (re: intestines in my intestines below). Justin says we´ve progressed to being a couple of 80 year-olds who consider their latest bowel movement the discussion of choice. So far, since you are all dying to know, I´m hovering safely on the C-side of normal, while Justin has had only one jump or so over to the D-side. As of yet, we haven´t had to break out the antibiotics we brought down. In keeping with the train metaphor in the title - Justin likes to say that if he gets stuck on the D train he can take the I connector (Imodium) to the C train. He really does crack me up - which is actually rather painful at the moment because I returned to the gym this morning for yet more pain and my abs are killing me.
You can read Justin´s post about our trip today. It was actually really, really fun. I was originally unimpressed with La Mitad del Mundo, but our tour at the second site was much better. Everyday I´m getting more and more comfortable figuring out our way around the city and speaking Spanish. It´s amazing that we´ve only been here three days. I can´t wait to see how easy it will be to speak Spanish in May.
So far we´re still not sure if we´re going to start work this week or wait til Monday. Either way, we´re already excited about planning a trip to Baños this weekend. It´s a town with natural hot springs and lots of fun things to do like horse back riding (Justin´s thrilled about this, heeheehee), taking a bike ride to an overlook of the Amazon basin, and, obviously, the hot water springs. We´ll also probably check to see if we can get cheap tickets to the Galapagos, because that´s high on our list of things to do while we´re here.
I´d post more pictures (for example: of my room, other pictures we couldn´t include on previous blogs, etc) but it takes about a year to get 3 or 4 pictures posted, so I´ll wait until tomorrow.
We love everyone´s comments, so please keep them up!!

Journey to the center of the Earth

Jennifer and I decided to get the touristy stuff out of the way early. So we headed north to a city called La Mitad del Mundo. Taking the bus was an adventure as usual, and we ended up changing buses three times on the same route (mostly due to my own bad direction sense), but eventually we arrived at La Mitad del Mundo. For those that don't speak Spanish, the name of the city literally is "The Middle of the World," and it's famous for having the Equator run right through it. And, by the way, it's hard to miss.The huge monument was built some hundreds of years ago when some French guy wanted to celebrate the fact that he calculated the exact location of the Equatorial line. And there's a line on the ground up near the huge monument where the Equator is, so it just beckons tourists to do this:

But alas, the discovery of the equator has a sad little overtone, because this huge monument was built, as it turns out, about 240 meters from the actual equator. Intrepid in our search, we asked random folks around if they knew where the real equator is, including a very tiring conversation with a taxi driver who was convinced that the equator was at the big monument. But eventually we found out that if we walk down the street a little, we would stumble upon an ancient land...

And lo and behold, it contained the real Equator, as proven by GPS! For $3 each, we got a tour of a replica of an ancient Incan village, complete with spear-wielding tour guides and large plastic figures of men with their penises tied back to their stomachs (didn't take a picture of that... sorry to disappoint). And finally, we were treated to the physical wonders of the Real Equator, complete with water-down-drain demonstrations and a chance to "walk the line," which, due to the physical forces at the Equator, makes everyone look drunk! Naturally, we had to do this again:
And Jennifer even managed to balance an egg on its point! She was awarded an official certificate from the tour guide. So there it is, folks! We came, we saw, we touristed. Hey, guess what? My homestay mom who serves me dinner informed me yesterday that we're having guatita for dinner... stay tuned for Atahualpa's Revenge, part II.

Random Pictures

What we can do on computers...It's OK to leave doors open within a house compound like ours that has a "gate."Did I tell you we're right next to the airport? A bit of home decor...Clocks from the inside are always awesome.

A little curbside vanity

Guts, Virgins, and Fruits...

...In that order. Yes, I am afraid of heights. So after climbing the Basilica I made Jennifer accompany me to La Colmena, an old restaurant that specializes in guatita, a soup with potatoes and tripe in a seasoned peanut sauce. Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good - the tripe was rather chewy but tasteless (thank God; I can imagine other flavors for tripe that are less than ideal) - but we'll see what happens tonight - Atahualpa may yet have his revenge.

Atop a huge hill just south of El Centro Historico looms La Virgen de Quito. She overlooks the city much like the big Jesus statue overlooks Rio de Janeiro. So I decided I want to meet her in person. Little did we know that the hike up El Panecillo (the little bread loaf, as the hill is called) would get us closer to meeting the actual Virgin Mary than we had expected, as we almost killed ourselves hiking up at least 30 different flights of stairs to the top. Yet we know now why La Virgen de Quito doesn't want to come down off the hill - she has AWESOME views of the city! And it was there that we came to appreciate fully how much of a sprawling, congested, tangled mess of a city Quito is!

After the grueling hike, we treated ourselves to a tropical fruit salad and chocolate ice cream (muy deliciosos!) before venturing back to La Casa to ice down our poor legs.

I have intestines in my intestines...

Cow intestines, to be precise. But I´m getting ahead of myself. Last night I had this amazing dinner made Vane (my host mom´s nickname....pronounced Bah-ney...kindof) and was quizzed on all of the object in the kitchen. I have practiced saying refrigeradora eight gazillion times. Luis´s attempt to pronounce fork was far more amusing. This morning I went with Vane to the gym, much to Justin´s horror. He was convinced that altitude sickness was going to strike me dead the moment I stepped foot in the place. After all, we´d only been in Ecuador a day. I did agree that I would take it easy - just run a couple of miles on the treadmill or use the elliptical. Somehow I didn´t quite manage to get this idea across to the owner of the gym who obviously thought I´d come solely to join his Spinning class. He also placed me on the bike front and center of the room, which meant that my pride was at stake whenever he yelled at us to go faster. Sadist. Justin took a picture of me when I returned, however, that picture will NOT be posted on this blog...right, Justin?

After I cleaned up, I put on my daily applications of suncreen to all exposed body surfaces (50spf lotion to the face, 70 spf spray elsewhere), ensuring that I will return with the same unhealthy paleness that I left with. Then Justin and I headed out to the historic district of Quito. We´re becoming quite adept at figuring out the bus system (aka lucky guesses with the aid of our Lonely Planet guide book and a map). Justin and I each picked a place that we wanted to go. I wanted to go to an old cathedral called the Basilica. It was a bit of a hike to get to (which my Spinning-fried legs appreciated), but the view was worth it. See some of the pictures below.

Apparently, Justin is afraid of heights. My main reason for choosing the Basilica was because the description in the guide mentioned crossing a rickety wooden bridge and climbing multiple ladders to get to the top of the towers. I cannot begin to describe how amusing I found this trip. Justin´s profanity was directly proportional to how high we were. Absolutely freakin´hysterical, especially since he´s normally so relaxed and fun. See more pictures below (especiallyt the one where Justin has a death grip on the bar).

I may not be afraid of heights, but Justin is not afraid of food...any food. As repayment for the abuse he had to endure, Justin decided that we would eat lunch at a restaurant whose specialty was guatita - cow intestine. And then we hiked up an entire freakin´mountain to see up close a statue of the virgin Mary. However, as these were Justin´s choices for the day, he gets to blog about our experiences there. I´ll make sure he doesn´t leave out anything important. Enough from me for now :)

Our public transportation guardian angel

Pictured with Jennifer on the bus is Anna, an exchange high-school student from Missouri who has been in Quito for almost 8 months. We met her at the Centro Comercial El Bosque, a sprawling shopping mall on the edge of the city. We were in a random bookstore looking for a map of Quito when she struck up a conversation with us (must've heard our English). We had parted ways after getting some helpful information about other shopping centers and bus routes in town, but 20 minutes later we ran into her again as we were leaving the mall to wander aimlessly in search of a route to a far-off bus station. What luck, because Anna is an expert at navigating the bus system, and she was headed our way! Needless to say, without her help, we would have been in no-man's land in no time, but she was so gracious to ride the bus with us to help us get to our destination. Thanks, Anna! ¡Hasta la proxima vez!