Dear Family and Friends,
Today was our first full day in Ecuador and in our new home here in Riobamba! We started the day watching a beautiful sunrise in our hostel in the historic center of Quito. We had an awesome view of the Andes Mountains and the sprawling capital of Ecuador. We then quickly headed out to our host city of Riobamba. During our trip we got to see farm lands and some of us caught up on some sleep. As we arrived to our new city we were introduced to El Tren Dorado; our new home for the next 2.5 weeks. It is a cute little family run hostel. We settled into our rooms then started team building activities to get to know each other.
After some fun and engaging icebreakers we had a hostel and safety orientation where we got to meet the owners of El Tren Dorado. We also talked about ways to stay safe and healthy in our new country and learned more about our program coordinators here in Ecuador. Following our seminars we had our very first lunch at Roma Santa. The chef welcomed us with open arms and was super excited to meet us. We tried pineapple pork, rice, salad, and fried plantains with blackberry juice. We ended our afternoon with a Culture seminar where we learned a little about the Ecuadorian culture,its customs, and how to be a good traveler.
Our day concluded by having empanadas for dinner then coming back to our hostel for our Nightly Meeting and Self Reflection. During our Nightly Meeting we learned that each student will be challenged to step up as a leader and lead the whole group through their activities for the day. We also shared some feedback for the group including Big Love shout-outs to the amazing members of our team. Lastly we went over tomorrow’s exciting schedule and during self reflection we discussed our first impressions of Ecuador.
We can’t wait to embark on this journey!
Con mucho carino,
RB2B