I experienced my first earthquake tremors today! The epicenter was Esmeraldas, a city on the coast. It happened around 6am this morning. I was obviously sleeping...and thought it was all in my dreams. But, when I went to breakfast this morning, Marcelo said it was for realsies. I told him that it was kind-of nice with the building swaying...I felt like I was being rocked to sleep. He thought that was quite funny. Well, after breakfast and a conversation about los terremotos (earthquakes), I was off to meet Sian.

Sian and I arrived at the orphanage, and were set to the task of peeling potatoes. Max, the German, helped us as well. We each had these gigantic knives to peel with, and it proved quite difficult to maneuver. I think about half of the potato was gone by the time we were finished with them. I'm guessing it took the three of us as much time to peel those potatoes as it does ONE cook from Ganas (the name of the orphanage), because the cook kept coming out saying, "Mas! Mas!" But, you'll be glad to hear that no one lost any blood or philangies! And, we did eventually, after about two hours, peel enough potatoes.

Later on that day, me, Sian, and my roommate Dejonae took the trolley into Old Town (Centro Historico), Quito. What a workout! The streets heading to the basilica are at QUITE the incline. I'm attributing it to the alititute, but I had such a hard time breathing! Despite all of this, the area was beautiful! The streets are all cobblestone, and the houses are absolutely gorgeous. The picture above is from one of the streets in Centro Historico. This part of Quito was built centuries ago by indigenous artisans and laborers. Our visit was just a quick walk-through, so there'll be more to come in the future.

And that was our day!