Quito y Loja

Bienvenidos de Loja,

Where to begin...our group has done so many things and have been so busy that it's hard to believe we've been here for less than a week. Our first stop included 1 day and 2 nights in Quito, a city with twice the population of Idaho. What a change a real city is from the country life! Our first day included a tour of the city including a few of some astounding churches and basilicas in the city, as well as a trip to the Ecuador. I can now say I've had one leg in the northern hemisphere an done in the southern hemisphere. We also visited the downtown sections of town and the local markets among other places. Quito is amazingly dense with millions of people crowded within a small valley, and on a clear day three large volcanoes can be seen from the city - we could only see 1 (forget the name but it started with a P) while we were there. There are literally NO RULES while driving. You can do whatever you want -speed, cut people off, honk excessively, try and run pedestrians over -it's a wild experience. The flight from Quito to Loja was the best flight I've ever been on because you fly directly over the Andes and some of the local volcanoes. One of which was in the process of smoking. After one day of seeing Loja we traveled to see the study sites of our group. A few people will be doing social science stuff which includes mostly interviewing officials and giving surveys, a few more are doing water quality and stream morphology stuff, and the rest of us are focusing on biodiversity related things. Loja is known as the gateway to Amazon and was used back in the day by Humboldt and other famous explorers. We journeyed into the jungle and saw some amazing waterfalls, local people (Saraguro and Shuar) and tropical rainforest. We also rode in the back of pickup trucks because the road was to rough for our bus. So many things already experienced here and less than a week in. Hope to post some pictures soon.

Luego