Riobamba!

Oh man, it´s amazing what a comfortable, bedbug-free bed in a clean hotel room will do for your spirits!



We are now in Riobamba, we got in last night. We chose to stay in a hotel so we could get cable TV and watch the elections and I´m so glad we did. We were actually next door eating dinner when the prediction came in, but the restaurant had TV so we saw it there. Fun to know that in the future when we remember where we were when Obama was elected, that it was in Riobamba, Ecuador.



We are in much better spirits today which is nice. Geoff leaves on Saturday morning super early and then I´ll get to decide what to do with myself. I would like to spend as much time volunteering as I can in order to learn as much as possible about the pitfalls of philanthropy and the best practices that are out there. The place we stayed in the jungle has a great volunteer program so I might try to head there for a month or so. I will also do more researching once I´m back in Quito and no longer on vacation with Geoff.



It´s looking like the three month visa is pretty strict right now, though it may shift with Obama´s win. Many people have said that if Barack wins, the US and Ecuador can be friends again, if McCain, then no. It´s very hard to tell what´s real, so I will probably have to get a bigger pack and go through my things and send much of it home. I kept thinking I could pack as much as I wanted because I was moving here, but it´s looking more and more like I will be moving around. That´s cool, aside from costing a small fortune, it is a lesson worth learning.



There was a parade in Riobamba this morning that was pretty odd. Section after section of professionals - mechanics, hair cutters, artisans, secretaries, all the schools. Not sure what it was all about but it took about 45 minutes and we watched the whole thing. Figured that if they were going to the trouble of having a parade to welcome us to town, the least we could do was watch it.