DAY 3: A TALE OF TWO BUSES

First, though, I have to write about last night - we waited for an hour and a half in front of the Teatro Nacional Sucre, to see ¨Mestizaje¨, a production of orchestral arrangements of traditional Ecuadorian folk music. We were among the first in line, so there was no doubt we´d get in, but I realized that Tom, Quinn and I were not dressed quite formally enough, so we dashed back to the hotel (Tom and I) and grabbed new clothes. We alternated who would go and grab a bite while the others waited in line. The concert was fantastic - we´re searching for discs by a trio that was featured. Quinn fell asleep just before the end, but the rest of us were very glad we´d waited. Full house, clapping and singing along to Ecuadorian folk standards...I couldn´t have dreamed it up better. And the recently restored theater is an absolute gem. The people workng there positively beam with pride as they open the doors.

That was of course after all the walking we did in the park, the mall, and the colonial sector yesterday, so we were all very tired when we hit the hay around 11:00, and the students slept in until about 9:00. After breakfast, we boarded a bus for Papallacta, home of thermal hot springs to soak away the soreness from yesterday´s walk. I remembered the journey being a lot shorter than it turned out to be (2.5 hours, when you factor in the driver stopping for lunch, and gas, at two different places), but when we got there it was worth the long (and GORGEOUS) bus ride. We sank into the interandean valley and up the other side, then started sliding down toward the Amazon before we hit Papallacta. Then we bathed in the pools, a couple of which are big enough to swim in, and Quinn made a friend named Eric, an 8 year old Ecuadorian boy who chased him (Quinn) down before hey left so he could shake his hand and say ¨Hasta luego, Quinn!¨ We then lunched there (Chloe had the potato soup, and took a picture of it; she´s probably the most adventurous eater in the bunch), and hopped another bus back to Quito. But because today was the election, and many people had traveled home to vote n their home towns, the bus was absolutely CRAMMED with people, and we had to stand most of the way. (A very nice pair of young women slid over to make room for Quinn, but the rest of us stood.) It was also interesting to see who populated the bus ' mostly Indians from the Amazon who spoke Quichua, and who now work and live in Quito. We were all pretty tired when we got back to the hotel at 7:00.

Now we´re winding up the day with a short time in the Internet cafe that´s a five-minute walk from our hotel, which Tom, spontaneously, began to sing the praises of today. Out of nowhere, walking, he said,¨¨Me encanta nuestro hotel!¨Brendan said, ¨Me gustan los hoteles en Ecuador porque son unicos¨(I like Ecuadorian hotels becuse they´re unique). I have to say, I heard them laughing and speaking Spanish and enjoying themselves on that crowded bus ride more than I think I had the whole trip.

Tomorrow we´ll wind up this leg in Quito with, I hope, a guided church visit and the cable car to the top of Pichincha. I´ll have to ask about that in the hotel tonight. They absolutely bend over backwards for us there - I asked if it would be OK to bring the hotel´s towels to Papallacta, and they said no, because they were yesterday´s towels, which were probably dirty - and proceeded to go get us clean ones to take with us.

The Vote: Unofficial results: Yes, 78%, No, 12%.

Pictures tomorrow, I SWEAR!

Mr. Johnson