¡Hola nuestro amigos y famila!

Our adventure has officially begun! We came to Ecuador with no plan, (except the language school) no guide book and little idea of what to expect from Ecuador. No plan is okay, a guide book would have been handy to have (especially in Quito) and little of idea of what to expect makes things more interesting!

The first night we arrived in Quito we went out to explore and see what the city had to offer. Quito is really a beautiful city with many rolling green mountains surrounding the city, geraniums in every window and yellow,red, green, blue and orange houses and buildings. It has lots of character and funk. We found an intriging angel statue at the top of one of the mountains with about 300 stairs going up to the staue. We thought "¿PORQUE NO?" so we started up the stairs but about only 100 stairs in we were being pushed away kindly by some construction workers to leave immediatly because of robbery. They pointed to the building by the stairs, and yup, sure enough it said "Caution Tourist, Robbery Zone, Do not walk this street, DANGER." We got out of there fast.

We took a 9 hour, windy, cliff dropping, bus ride to Guadquil. We stayed a night there then waited in an hour long line for a bus to Montañita. Finally we arrived after 12 hours of buses. Fewwwwww. But a treat was waiting for us at the other end. Okay so close your eyes and picture this: a beach with endless red, blue and yellow umbrellas, white sand, waves that keep on tumbling, restaurants of any type of food you could want, cocktail ally, and a party every day where the music doesn´t die until 7am every morning, this, mis amigos es MONTAÑITA!

We started languge school a week ago. We are starting from the beginning learning verbs, how to conjugate the verbs, vocabulary and how to formulate simple sentences. Our teacher is a 29 year old Ecuradoran. His name is Miguel. He is a good teacher and really pushes us to learn learn learn! We go to school in morning for 4 hours then head to the beach to study. I tell ya, its a tough routine ;)

As for the homestay, that fell through and we were unable to stay with the family because they didn´t have room. A little frustrating in the beginning ,but it only worked out for the better! ( I love how life works out!) We are staying at Kon-Tiki hostal and the owners of the hostal are an ADORABLE, did I mention, ADORABLE couple. Its pretty much like staying with a family because they have a kitchen for us to cook in and they love helping us with our Spanish. They speak to us as though we are fluent speakers, though they know that we only speak a little. They are very eager for us to learn their language. Jorge and Rose are wonderful and we are so happy that we are parked at their place for the month!

We are happy and healthy. We are so grateful we are able to do this.

Oh and, yes, I say I forgot my thong because I am pretty sure I am the only woman here with out one....maybe next time I´ll bring one....

Adios mis amigos!!

Justin y Anna

P.S: I wanted to leave you with this....If you could do one thing to help improve our world, what would you do?

P.P.S: I am unable to upload pictures right now. Pictures to come soon....I hope!