I'm pretty sure when I decided to do three student trips back to back the only person who thought I was normal was my saleswoman at EF. Everyone else (moi included!) thought it was a terrible idea but if people want to see the world then who am I to stop them?
This is the fifth EF tour I'm leading but first to a place I haven't been. With the tiny group of 7 I have never been more excited for a trip and today went exactly how I imagined. Easy, quick and smooth. I don't want to jinx it but last year's Costa Rica trip started on a terrible note with student(s) trying to escape through the balcony on the first night. It made me bitchy and paranoid the rest of the week and here I am hoping for something different.
Onto today! Everyone slept on the red eye
and was in awe of the views as we were landing in Panama City. We flew over the Panama Canal and the busy financial district full of skyscrapers. It was gorgeous!
We did absolutely nothing at the Panama City airport since it's small and the only thing to do was eat American food. Someone did have Domino's Pizza but I'm not saying who.
Our second flight was short and shaky but we landed in Quito surrounded by beautiful mountains. The landing is a bit of an adventure in of itself since there is not much time to descend once you've gone over the mountains. But in the end it was smooth and we were safe!
We got our Ecuadorian stamps, met Fabian, our tour guide, and checked into our rooms. The rooms are more like suites, wifi works and there is hot water. We are living the dream!
http://www.quitoadventure.com/espanol/relax-ecuador/lugares-turisticos-quito/naturaleza/teleferico-quito.html is where we went next. Quito is one of the highest capital cities in the world sitting at 9,300 feet about sea level. Surprisingly, we all handled the altitude change well. A few comments were made but overall we weren't super bothered by it. The Teleférico took us up to 13,450 feet and we were rewarded with a view of a lifetime. On one side, Quito. On another, multiple volcanoes and volcanic craters with mostly clear sky above. Wow.
The students tried local meat empanadas, almost froze (it's cold up there!), took lots of selfies and we headed down.
From there we visited Vulqano Park, Ecuador's biggest amusement park. Hrmmm, let's say it's a tad smaller than the fair that gets set up by Southland Mall but who are we to argue with such titles? The kids went on several rides, happily almost killed me on bumper cars and played foosball.
We ended our eve in our hotel by having a delicious dinner (I don't often say that about EF food so yeah!!), journal writing and nice conversation.
We decided we were too tired to go to the Centro Historico and made the mature decision to hang back and go tomorrow once we've had some sleep.
And with that, I'm off to do room checks.
Happy Tuesday!
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