From EcuadorWiki
DAY ONE
HOLA! DAY ONE IN ECUADOR!!
After arriving in Quito on Sunday, all the students dispersed to their designated host families and settled in for the evening. We got up early for our 8:30 a.m. spanish classess at the Academia Latinomaericana de Espanol. After meeting our director, Patty, we took our placement tests (OPI) and were then assigned our classes according to our individual spanish competency. NO MAS INGLES!! Then, we took a City Tour around Quito given by Diego, one of the heads at the academia. We also got familiar with the ecovia (bus transportation)...twenty-five cents for one ride! Our city tour consisted of visitng Independence Square, the Presidential Palace, Cathedral, and the Church and monestary of San Agustin (1580) and the church of San Fransico (1535). Beautiful scenery and a great time for photography was enjoyed by the Alma students during this "first glance" at Ecuador. Our tour guide shared a lot of information with us about the culture and history of Ecuador.
Guitar Man on streets of Quito
Alma Group waiting for the bus
After our city tour, we headed back to the academia for lumch - we were extremely hungry after walking around the city at such a high altitude (we were just a little bit higher than the level of Michigan!) We enjoyed the fabulous food...mucho arroz (much rice)! After lunch we had a general orientation about expectations of the trip and went over the travel itinerary for the upcoming weeks. Then, it was free time...many people walked around in the streets trying to get familiar with the area, others returned home, some took a nap, and others enjoyed the local cuisine of Ecuador.
