Speaking of Safety Measures...

On our way from Quito to Cuenca we decided to take a detour and check out a train that goes down a mountain called "Nariz del Diablo"...in english, The Devil's Nose. We had heard that this ride was beautiful, but slightly hair-raising. The first reason is that the train switchbacks down the steep face of a mountain and, secondly, that they allow people to sit on top of the train cars.

When we arrived we were a bit disappointed to find out that they no longer allow passengers to sit on top of the train because two people had been decapitated during the ride in recent years. The passenger cars were filled so our next best option was a cargo car. We actually, ended up having a better view because our windows were from floor to ceiling.

We began moving out of town toward the edge of the mountain when, BAMM, the train came to an abrupt stop. Apparently, there was a pile of logs set too close to the train tracks and the train ran over a couple and derailed. Immediately, the train's crew began working to get the car back on the track. It wasn't long before a good portion of the town's on-lookers began pitching in to help get this train on the track.

About two hours later and two feet further away from the train track we began to think this trip down the mountain wasn't going to happen. We also knew that a refund was less than likely.

Amazingly, they managed to get the car back on track and we began our journey down the mountain. The ride yielded beautiful views and there were plenty of points where there wasn't much more dirt under us than the width of the track. Thank goodness we hadn't derailed further down the mountain because if we had, there wouldn't have been anywhere for the train car to go but down.

We made it all the way down the mountain and most of the way back up when we felt the familiar halt we'd experienced at the beginning of the trip. We had derailed AGAIN! Expecting a similar timeline for repairs, a handful of people began walking back into town. Surprisingly, the crew had the train back on the track and moving in about 10 minutes. We were satisfied with our decision to stick with the train when we passed the people who decided to hoof it.

Guess what happened another five minutes after we started moving...yep, we derailed AGAIN!

At this point Brandon and I joined the faithless group of walkers. We made it most of the way back into town when we heard the train coming from behind us. Luckily, the engineer slowed down so that we could jump back on the train.

And there's another thing we can check off of the list of things to do before we die...jumping onto a moving train.

La Basilica

The second highlight of our day in the Quito was the Basilica. It's a huge church at the north end of Old Town that sits on a slight hill.

The city of Quito basically sits in a valley surrounded by the Andes mountains. Therefore, the view from this church's clock tower (about 400ft high) is pretty killer.

Like most countries outside the U.S. safety measures are a bit more relaxed. Needless to say some of the rebar ladders at the top felt a bit sketchy. Thank God we weren't up there at the top of the hour.

Chicken Heart Soup...mmm

After cleaning ourselves up from the plane ride and catching a good night's sleep, Brandon and I decided to explore the city of Quito. The city is just like any other big city in the world, but there's a new part of town and an old part. We ventured over to old town via trolley and checked out a few parks and an Andy Warhol exhibit at a museum (it only cost $1 each).

The first highlight of the day occurred while we were having lunch. In Ecuador, lunch is the largest meal of the day. Most times lunch is a set menu consisting of soup, main course, dessert, and juice. At $1.30 per person we weren't exactly sure what to expect.

The first course came out (soup) and looked just as innocent as any other soup I'd seen in my 27 years on this earth. At first taste it was pretty delicious. At about my third spoonful into the soup I came across a piece of meat that looked a bit curious. Not feeling too daring I dumped the meat back into the soup and tried for another spoonful. Yet again, a strange looking piece of meat was on my spoon...this was different than the first, but was strangely similar to the first. Upon further examination of both pieces of meat I found an aorta on each. Not wanting to come to terms with what might have been marinating in my lunch, I had Brandon take a closer look and he confirmed that I had two chicken hearts in my soup.

Did I eat them? Hell no. Just couldn't stomach biting into atriums and ventricles. Did I eat the rest of the soup? Of course...I wouldn't let the entire $1.30 go to waste.

We've Arrived in Ecuador

Hey All!

We're done working for 2007 and, now, we're on the move again. What an exhausting 5 months :)

We arrived in Quito, Ecuador this afternoon. Brandon and I both agree that so far this is looking to be a much easier than the trip with the van. Just imagine, it only took us 9 hours to get here and we didn't get lost once.

On top of the speedy travel, our spanish isn't as bad as we thought it would be. So far we've been able to manage our way around the city pretty easily.

Still trying to decide what our next step will be...we're thinking possibly the Galapagos Islands or getting into a Spanish School/Volunteer Program (but not exactly sure where we'd like to settle and study).

If any of you have traveled here and have any helpful advice we'd really appreciate the help.