Far Marvels and Close Encounters

Today was the first near perfectly clear day that I've seen in Quito. When I woke up and looked out the window, there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Kinda weird for a city whose 10-day weather forecast shows all clouds with rain and lightning bolts. But suddenly Quito went from a drab, dirty metropolis to a shining sight to behold. Señora Anita the matriarch of the family with whom I eat breakfast and dinner, wasted no time this morning in telling me to look out the window, because today was so clear you could see the looming volcano Cotopaxi in the distance. And what a view! The picture doesn't do it justice. What a treat to start your day with such a majestic sight! And as the feeling goes around here, when you can see Cotopaxi, as well as the smaller mountain you can see to the left, it's going to be a good day.

So when I went to the roof to take more pictures, I quickly found out that the view far away was much better than the view I had 2 feet in front of me, which looked rather like this:

This picture was taken about two seconds after this hulking specimen of dog had given me a rather firm bear hug. And I mean firm. Although I'm sure the dog had all good intentions, there's still something a little unsettling about being able to look a dog straight in the face... while standing up. Luckily I had Señora Anita on hand to give the dog a stern spraying with a waterhose every time it wanted to tango.

Today in the hospital we worked with Dra. Rosas in the morning and Dra. Luzuriaga in the afternoon. And I realized that the understandability of their respective Spanish is indeed proportional to the pronouncability of their last names. Nothing too exciting to report otherwise. But all in all, the magic of Cotopaxi has certainly made today pretty decent!