¿So this is Ecuador?

We had to get up at 4:30 AM today (This is starting to become a bad habit) so we could catch our 11:30 AM flight from DC to Miami. Think that seems a little like overkill? Yeah, so did we. Anyway, it was hard to get up because I hadn´t slept more than 30 minutes that night (too much nervous energy). The flights were OK and we landed in Quito around 7:30PM on the 7th. There was a bunch of PC staff to meet us and then get us though customs and immigration. Then they rushed us out into the parking lot and we were blown away because there was a big group of current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV´s) at the door waiting for us. It was grat to have such a warm welcome.

We spent the first night in a Hostel in Quito and then got up early on Thursday for a bus ride to Cayambe (1 1/2 hour North and on the other side of the Equator). The ride was awesome as we were heading through a river valley in the Andes. We took the Pan-American Highway and the drop-off on the side of the road had to be about 500 feet to the river.

In Cayambe we did our country specific training and started language training. The compound (I can´t think of a better word for it) that we stayed in was a nice walled in group of buildings where we can all eat take classes and sleep. One of the last things that they did was to give us our groups for Community based training (CBT). I´m with four other PCT´s in a small town halfway between Cayambe and Quito. I´ll be staying there for the next 10 weeks with a host family. The idea is that by integrating as much as possible we will be able to learn Spanish faster. Sometime during CBT we will find out our 2-year assignment location and work details. We leave tomorrow morning to head to our new homes, so tonight we are taking it easy. As I write this (on paper because I have no computer access) I´m looking out the window at the sun setting over the Andes. I´m excited to get this adventure finally really started, but I wish you all were here to see this.

Jay