No Movement Yet

It was another glorious sunny day, which turned out to be much hotter than expected, and I appreciate the warmth. The views of mountains all around is not yet ordinary for me. It is spectacular to look out each morning and be surrounded by the Andes, gentle and rolling in some directions, Cotopaxi covered in snow and clouds to the south, Pichincha angular and grey to the east. I pause as I cross the rooftop to go downstairs for breakfast. Maya had another day of camp, where she participated in a soccer game and described feeling the altitude and needing to stop several times to reach her arms up to the sky to get more air.

Eric directed me to the Sacha Lodge office in the area of Quito called 'La Floresta' where I was able to get some cash, not too much, just enough to last me until Eric arrives next week. I met with Guillermo, who runs a jungle resort called Sacha Lodge, and Andres, who takes care of Casa del Suizo, another resort, which I visited when I was here in March. They were sympathetic when I told them my story of being robbed, but not particularly surprised.

I found that I was far more comfortable with this area of La Floresta, although it is much farther from Maya's school than the area around Erika's home, and rents are far more expensive. Perhaps it was attractive because it was such a sunny day and the streets were full of people. There are bars and restaurants and gyms and an independent movie theatre. It feels more cosmopolitan than JipiJapa, but perhaps less Ecuadorian, and more familiar. Living near Erika's would be more of a local experience, perhaps La Floresta would replicate my former life and be less of a foreign environment.

I found my way to the Canadian Embassy, where I talked at length to a young woman who informed me I would have to go online to register my presence in Ecuador, that I ought to get a Canadian passport for Maya, that there was a need for a psychiatrist amongst the expat community and that she was trying to get a group of Canadian women together regularly to talk about their experiences in Ecuador and I was invited to join. She had been living in Quito for a year, and was starting to adjust!