Vivo en la mitad del mundo ahora

I arrived safely in Cayambe after a very long day of traveling Monday evening around ten at night. The road from Quito to Cayambe was through and down a mountain, where it was very windy. The driver was a friend of Juan Carlos, the manager of the center where I´m teaching. She was very confident in what she was doing and wasn´t afraid at all of passing on curves or going around trucks. It was pretty intense!

After what seemed like a long drive, I arrived at my apartment. Pictures will come soon when I have a few minutes to take some. For now, though, the apartment is very open. There are a lot of windows and the landlady that I live with has a mini garden in the middle of her house. The area where I´m at seems quite safe and modern, though it´s customary here not to go outside after dark. It´s one of the reasons why my apartment is directly across the street from the school, so that way they don´t have to worry about me walking to my apartment when it´s dark outside.

In the very close background, I can see all kinds of mountains. The volcano Cayambe is in front of the town, and my apartment is facing it. In many ways, Cayambe and Ecuador are similar to China. Cars have the right of way on the streets, not people. You have to be careful of what you carry when you´re walking as pick-pockets are very common. It´s quite typical to see motorcycles dashing in and out of cars and if the road is blocked, cars will drive up the sidewalk to pass. The streets aren´t made of cement, but they´ve got blocks and designs on them...kind of like old England. There´s even a major street near me that´s just dirt. There are crosswalk lights, but the cars don´t follow them at all.

I live about maybe ten minutes from the actual equator, called here ´la mitad del mundo´or the middle of the earth. The people in Cayambe are proud to say that the actual equator is here, where as the one in Quito is more for tourism and is about an hour off the actual mark.

Well, that´s all for now! I´ll update later with some pictures of the area!

Adios!