El Parque de Cometas y Orientacion

Yesterday we went to the Paque Itchimbía, one of the larger parks in Quito. It’s up at the top of a hill in the middle of the city so when you’re up there you can see all the way around the valley and get a 360 view of Quito. It was really cool. Because it was Sunday, it was of course crowded. I’ve noticed that Ecuadorians really like their parks, and thus they are significantly more crowded, especially on the weekend. The park was filled with families, people riding their bikes, walking their dogs, and I think more kites than I’ve ever seen in one park. Hopey, Marcia, and I walked around the park and got an awesome view of the city, while getting to be in a relatively calm place. I really liked that there were lots of plants and trees throughout the park.

Hopey and I, being the biology/ecology geeks that we are, got really excited at one point when we saw a bug pulling a dead spider across the road. It was super cool, almost as good as national geographic.

It was nice to have a calm day and get to take a little retreat from the crazy traffic of the city. I have never lived in a city before, and this is unlike any city I’ve ever spent an extended period of time in. There’s tons of traffic and pollution, while still being incredibly beautiful and surrounded by mountains and with streets lined with trees. It’s a very interesting juxtaposition between an ecological hotspot and an overpopulated, super-urban center. If you’re off the main roads, the neighborhoods are actually quite calm and relatively quiet.

One of the nice things about being in such a populated city is that the public transportation system is incredibly strong and HIGHLY utilized by everyone in the city. The buses themselves are exciting enough that they deserve their own post so more on that later.

Today we also had the actual USFQ orientation with most of the other international students. It was fun to be on campus and have other students around. Us K College kids have been on campus all last week with intensive Spanish language classes and K-specific orientations, so today was mostly review of last week’s things and pretty boring. Despite this, I’m really excited to meet other students, not just from Ecuador (they come on Wednesday when classes start) but also from the US and other countries. I met a few students from Holland, Oregon, California, and other places around the US. After one week of slowly getting used to Quito, things are finally starting to get rolling!