We are just grinding away in Spanish classes. We are in class for 4 hours in the morning and then spend much of the rest of the day trying to memorize all the material that gets thrown at us in class. The family that we are living with is very nice and has two children -- a girl and boy. Children are definitely good for learning a language since they never get tired on repreating words. This weekend, we will be heading to some of the mountains surrounding Otavallo and should have some good pics to post. To the right is the family we are living with -- Edwin, Pillar, Jorge, and Mabel.

Gary gets tear gassed, Rick balances an egg on the head of a nail


OK, maybe Quito is not that great after all. Students there were demonstrating against a free trade agreement with the United States, and the police dispersed the crowd with tear gas. Unfortunately, Gary was a bit downwind visiting a basilica. The following day we were walking down the street and Gary noticed a familiar burning in his eyes. We asked a fellow approaching in the opposite direction, ¨¿gas de los ojos?¨ Si, he said, rubbing his eyes and pointing. We made a quick detour.

Today we traveled from Quito to Otavalo, stopping at "the middle of the world," as Ecaudorians call the Equator. As mentioned in the previous, Rick was expecting water to spin counter-clockwise on the north side of the line and clockwise on the south side of the line. He was not disappointed. In fact, when a basin is placed exactly on the Eqatorial line, water drains with no spin, the only place in the world where this happens.

Also, because of decreased gravitational pull, resulting from a greater distance from the earth´s core, an egg balances on a nail head more easily. Rick was awarded a certificate for accomplishing this feat. An average person weighs about 1.5 kilograms less here, too!