Today Martha and I covered conjugating AR-ER-IR verbs. This is the very last thing I did in the class this fall so everything from now on will be brand new. She and I actually had a little bit of a conversation today but its all in the context of whats in front of me in writing. The only thing I
I like my Spanish teacher, Martha, a lot. She is patient, 49, single, without children. Today we covered about three or four weeks of my eight week class that I took this fall. Almost all the concepts we covered today were familiar. The school is sort of a hodge podge building with apparently not enough rooms. Martha and I were
Quito is a busy city. Its run down, dirty, rife with traffic, noise, and graffiti. Quito is 22 miles long and three miles wide. I felt the 9,000+ feet last night and a little bit today on the walk back to the host familys place. Venturing out on my own, I found a place to have lunch and do my
My host family lives on a huge roundabout on the third floor of a non-descript building that seems to be right under the flight path of the airport. My bedroom has a very large window that looks out on to the cobblestone and grassy plaza that is the center of the roundabout. There is a fountain in the middle of
The travel day from Puerto Lopez was an 8 hour day of travel mostly waiting. Johnny and his moto-taxi found me waiting for Javier at Hotel Pacific. I was checking my email one last time on the hotels wifi. Johnny found himself on Facebook so now I have two South American Facebook friends. He gave me a ride to
The hike and heat yesterday (and a not very good nights sleep) left me feeling low on energy today so the plan was to stay in Puerto Lopez at the pool and beach. On my walk through town this morning Johnny, my moto-taxi driver, suggested I take a trip to Agua Blanco. Theres a museum there and he said they
Hiro was one of our island guides today. While sitting next to me on the boat ride to the island I notice how small his feet were. In fact, I put my foot right up to his and they were about the same size. Later, on the island, we were walking to the beach together and I would guess I
Yamil was on the boat tour today and volunteered a couple of times to take my photograph. He also speaks great English, having studied for three years in New York. He was enrolled in a hotel and restaurant management program in 1995 and currently works in Quito for Swiss Hotels, a chain. Yamil is a runner and Id guess hes
Well practiced in his sales speech, Javier sells tours for Palo Santos. Hes 31, rides a motorcycle in town and literally seems to know everyone. The first time we met, he sold me on the tour and also recommended Los Frailes. He knows the ropes and has a charm about him. Or maybe its confidence. Between the two of us,
The days work was done by the time we got back. The sun was heading towards the horizon and with just an hour of daylight left, people were enjoying the beach. Kids playing soccer, adults getting exercise by running on the beach, others starting the weekend with a drink at one of the many hut-like bars that run at the