Adventures with Niko and Kaia: First days in Quito

Business is even nicer on standby

No playground codes here

breakfast at Hotel Plaza

Hola! Arrived safe and sound in Quito, and getting a little more used to the fact that we can hardly order breakfast in Spanish. Picking up words here and there, along with lots of gesturing and flipping through our dictionary (which we bought here and it turns out was missing the D's through the E's).

So far
- we've visited a few markets,

instrument market

- walked around the Old Town,
- checked out several playgrounds (including one with a DC-3),
- encountered our first tarantula,
- saw the Cotopaxi volcano at a distance when checking out a possible house for rent,
- tried a few new fruits including the rather tasty but repulsive looking Granaquilla, and
- spent hours and hours at the Direccion General de Extranjeria office trying to get our visa registered and our national ID cards issued. We're going back tomorrow for day 3.

David-please identify genus and species. And yes, that is my cell phone...
(NEWS FLASH: David thinks it might be a South American White Bandit) So David...is it "friendly"?

Kids are handling it all really well - with zeal in fact! Random sidewalk potholes the size of small water wells, being completely squashed on busses no matter what time of day, and having the kids' blond hair attract attention and even physical inspection, are just a few of the things that make all of us realize we're not in Minnesota anymore.

Another highlight is the fact that the Ecuadorian National Symphony Orchestra happens to practice in the house next to our hostel. It's pretty great having Dvorak or Brahms float in through our window as we're waking up.

Sorry for the strange layout and stream of consciousness impressions. Bear with the rookie bloggers - we'll get this figured out!