Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air

13,400' up in the Andes

Think a little clear mountain air might be just the thing to clear your head sometimes? 

Think again.

Esto es Ecuador

A weekend spent afuera (out) in Quito...

Jakob, Carl, Brianna and I at el Centro Cultural

The entirely cylindrical mall in la Mariscal

Amazingly picturesque presidential Plaza

In front of the famous Iglesia del San Francisco

There's so much to say, it's hard to know where to begin. Pues, para empezar, let's give a HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY SHOUT OUT to everybody at home who're probably gazing skyward at grand fireworks finales and eating barbequed hamburgers and apple pie. I'm celebrating my first Fourth "abroad", but I'll always be proud to live in the USA! I'm loving on Ecuador a lot from this blog, but I'm doing it from an American heart. Which I will always defend as a good thing, even when I take the mindset of a global citizen or find myself in a situation needing to apologize for my country.

Now no te preocupes, this is not a political blog. I want you to read it, after all. ;) But it IS the 4th of July, and it's the first one I've "missed".

Now, back to Ecuador.