After a whirlwind couple of days – tying up loose ends, visiting friends, and a bon voyage Zen Mustache show – Ted and I arrived in Quito, Ecuador (via Miami, FL) safe and sound. Sadly, our backpacks did not but we’re optimistic they’ll be at the airport tonight when the next flights from Miami arrive. We have been told that having our backpacks delivered to us is probably not going to happen so we’ve decided that a quick trip back to the airport is in order.

Upon arriving we were reminded that Quito is at 9222 feet so though it is quite close to the equator, it’s actually cool with temperatures probably in the 60s today. We also learned that South America is much closer than you would think – our flight was only 3 hours and 40 minutes from Miami. We’re on the same time zone as Chicago and Minneapolis which is crazy to think about because we FEEL like it shouldn’t be so.

We spent the day wandering around by foot and exploring different plazas, churches and windy roads of the ‘Old Town’. The ‘New Town’ is on the agenda for tomorrow.

Ted has had to quickly dust off his knowledge of Spanish and is doing quite well. We’re told that the New Town (aka ‘Gringolandia’ – seriously!) has quite a bit more tourists and I imagine English speakers will be more common there, but for now we’re getting by with what we’ve got and are quite enjoying it.

Well, I think that’s about it for now. As we continue to decompress from our last few insanely busy days in Colorado and adjust to the wonderfully overwhelming new sights and smells of Ecuador, I imagine we’ll become more descriptive and exciting bloggers and storytellers!

In the meantime, we’re safe, we’re happy and we’re excited to see what comes next!