Arrival

First night in Quito, Ecuador, and already we've seen some of the country's natural beauty. Our flight got in from Houston at 10 pm, so we passed over the illuminated city as we touched down--strings of golden streetlights and houses that went on far longer than I expected. Quito is larger than I thought, but it is in a very confined valley between mountains. The airport is right in the center of the city for that reason, so when you're landing you fly by grocery and hardware stores not far from the runway!

Once we landed, Bruce and our Centro Magis colleague, Fernando, met us with a van and driver and a whole team of folks to help us bring all our luggage (camera equipment and all) to the hotel. It was a relief and a joy to see familiar faces in the crowd of the airport terminal, and to have such an easy, pleasant drive through the quiet Quito streets to our hotel.

We're staying at Hotel Quito, and the views are unreal. My windows overlook a dip in an enormous, green valley, and from the restaurant you can see the mountains and volcano and all the lights that rise up the slope. I can't wait for tomorrow, when we'll see misty morning fog filling the valley and ringing the mountains. Tomorrow we're going to film the city center to add landscape and background to our DVD, and it will be a great opportunity to sightsee the city a bit (and hopefully practice my Spanish!). We've a full day ahead of us, though, starting at 7:30 a.m., so I'd better get myself to la cama for some shut-eye.