highlights...

so much has happened since my last update….so I will stick with the highlights.

-Cuenca is maybe my favorite place so far in Ecuador….narrow streets, colonial buildings, parks with fountains, a beautiful river through town, incredible markets with everything from fake puma shoes to hand woven sweaters….and the city is very close to national parks with some of the most incredible scenery.
-explored Inca ruins with long, stone walls with no grout surrounded by mountains and indigenous towns.
-nora’s cousin in the States is married to a man from Cuenca, so we visited his parents and sister. They were incredible welcoming as if we were long lost children and the mother prepared an enormous, traditional meal with mote, ensalada, chicken and potatoes.
-back in Quito we took the Teleferiqo (sort of like an enclosed chair lift) up to 4100 meters for the view of the city before hiking higher until we were literally above the clouds. On the way down we got caught by a huge storm preventing the carts from moving….when we finally started the descent, it was so foggy that the wires looked suspended in mid-air.
-went with Nora and her host mother for the best / cheapest haircut of my life ($15). It turns out that Jimmy, the haircutter, travels with Miss Ecuador and the former Miss Ecuador was in the chair next to me getting her hair done, all of which cracked me up. It is not too short, maybe a little below shoulder-length, but it looks a lot less scraggly.
-night tour of Quito with my family in the central historic district to see the churches with lights, then up to the huge statue of the Virgin of Quito for the most amazing view of the city.
-Leaving tomorrow for my internship in Tena, a town in the Oriente, or Amazon region. I am excited for the work and to spend time with my new family, but also sad to leave my Quito family who I am comfortable with at this point. I will be living and working with the clinical social worker, Rocio, her 12-year-old daughter, and I think the husband. I am excited about the opportunity to speak only Spanish and curious about the work in Tena’s large public hospital.