Long Overdue, I know!

Sorry for my lack of posts lately: at first, there was nothing really exciting happening to report on and then it´s been a whirlwind!

After Cuenca, I had a chill week of classes, nothing interesting. The following weekend, the weekend of Valentines day, Josh and I stayed in Quito for the first weekend since we have been here. On Valentine´s Day we went to Volcan Cotopaxi, the second highest peak in Ecuador. The peak of the mountain is the place furthest from the center of the earth in the world because the earth bulges at the equator and it is so close plus so tall equals far far away from the center of the earth =) We didn´t quite make it that high but we did manage to hitch a ride to 4000m (12000 ft) and then climbed to 4800m (almost 15000 ft). Quite the hike! We were past the elevation line where plants stop growing and it was snowing hard. So, basically, I climbed higher than the top of Mt. Rainier! Who would have thought, Madeline?! We met a couple our age at the entrance to the park while contemplating whether to walk in to the mountian. We decided on asking them for a ride (yes, I am also a hitchhiker now...) and good thing we did! It was a crazy long way to walk, the drive took probably an hour thru bumpy dirt roads and streams. The couple were from Quito and are students at the nicest university here, Universidad Catolica, so I didn´t think they were trying to rob or kidnap some gringos. We listened to awesome American rock music the whole way up. We hiked up with them, shared some mugs of hot chocolate and came back down. They offered to give us a ride back to Quito, which we gladly accepted. On the way back, the guy asked us if we minded stopping by his house so he and his girlfriend could change their shoes. Basically, we got to see the Yarrow Point/Cylde Hill area of Quito - if not nicer! It was crazy! All gated community with enormous houses with huge walls around them. When we drove thru this guys gate to his house is was like a compound with a courtyard in the middle and I was in total shock. Then, he told us the US embassador is his neighbor! I guess there are always rich people no matter where you go in the world...
At night, we went out to dinner a fun restaurant with funky chandeliers and paint on the walls and amazing food!!

Last week was another week of classes all in anticipation of being done and vacationing for Carnaval! More on that to come because I am running out of time and have to catch my flight to Peru...this weekend: Macchu Picchu! Miss you all!