Food. Art. Food.

When we rolled out this morning, having agreed to meet up at 8:30, the sun was nowhere to be seen. If it´s especially cloudy and hazy, it doesn´t seem prudent to trek up to the top of the mountain by cable car, because the view is bound to be spotty at best. So we decided to do the vegetable market instead.

We wanted to trolly to the market, and paid to do so, but the trollies were all too crowded, so we grabbed some taxis. The great thing about taxis is that the students get to chat with them on the ride (Matt L is particularly adept at this, I´m told), and get their thoughts on everything from emigration to recent politics. The bad part is that they often aren´t completely up-front and fair about their pricing. I arrived and found out that the cabbie for the first group went back on the pricing he had agreed to with me and instead shook them down for $4. It was something that ticked us off, but not a great loss. Something you have to put up with, I guess.

The vegetable market was a big hit. The students (and adults) tried any number of new, strange fruits and vegetables, including mote, a huuuuge-kerneled, soft, bland corn that´s served in little plastic bags; pitahuaya, which is a gelatinous grey sweetness surrounded by a horn-like peel; pepinos andinos, which, as Matt L put it "tastes like a cross between a melon and a potato"...I bought a knife for 85 cents (just found out that the Spanish keyboard has no "cents" symbol), to facilitate the peeling of the fruits, and we charged around buying a dime´s worth and sampling for quite a while.

The students seemed fascinated. Chocolate sold in disks a foot high that look like cross-sections of trees; a dozen rozes for a fraction of the cost of roses at home (the boys were well versed in the price of roses, as well as being the first to buy flowers); hand-woven baskets that cost essentially nothing...It was real, relaxed fun.

One of the things you can get points for on this trip is appearing on Ecuadorian television. And sure enough, while we were at the market, a TV crew showed up to try to do a story on food for some reason. And the Americans immeidately ran off to stand conspicuously behind the person being interviewed and make faces at the camera. Unfotunately, we never got to see today´s news broadcast, so we´ll never be able to award the points. But they definitely gave it the ol´college try. As Matt G rolled his eyes like a madman, Shyam S jumped up and down, and Emily R and Megan F pretended to make lengthy, heavy dicisions over which tomatoes to buy, a little tear rolled down my cheek. It was a very proud moment.

We walked back to the trolley when we were finished, hoping it would be emptier in the other direction. Ms Gernat spotted a likely spot for buying coffee, and pretty soon everybody (almost) had gone in to buy some, as well as other souvenirs. It was a very good turn of luck to find that place. And then we leapt aboard a nearly-empty trolley and were home much faster than we had been able to come in a taxi. The trolley has its own lane, you see, and only stops at its stopping places. It´s a great system. I love it. Hate the thieves on it, but love the system.

We had a long break for lunch (in the place of your choice, again, provided you aren´t alone), during which I zoomed back to the mall and exchanged something from the day before. My cab driver said Presidente Correa is different from all the other corrupt presidents they´ve had before, and that he is a big fan of him, but that he fears he will be assassinated. Food for lots of thought.

We were to try to go to the Guayasamin museum at 1:00 (Oswaldo Guayasamin, 1919-1999, a Quito native from a poor mestizo family, being arguably the greatest Latin American painter of the modern age), but the website said it was closed from 1:00 to 3:00. So when we reconvened at 1:00, it wa sjust to say "See you at 2:30."

Guess what Laurie E and Emiliy E spent that downtime doing. That´s right: Going to museums.

I love this group.

We took cabs to the museum, where we had a FANTASTIC guide. Well-dressed, professional, young, guapo (hey, I´m not blind), eloquent, with great presence and Spanish that was very clear and easy to understand. And Guayasamin was an unbelievable artist. I have a new favorite, in fact. We learned about the various periods he went through, and ended in front of a portrait he painted of his daugher.

Laurie E and I were still talking to him - about a portrait he painted of Fidel Castro, which we saw a reproduction of, hanging behind the gift counter. He painted Castro 4 times, and we learned that the friendship between the two (both atheists, as well as socialists) was such that whenever Castro came to Ecuador on state business, he stayed at Guayasamin´s house. Amazing tour.

But as we were talking to the guide about the Castro portrait, he said "Oh, there she is," (in Spanish), and gestured back at the portrait we had been looking at, then over at a lovely woman in her fifties. It was Guayasamin´s daughter, who is one of the trustees of the foundation. That was a very surreal moment, looking back and forth from the portrait to the person.

Matt G and I couldn´t resist and plopped down more money than certainly I had been thinking on spending for a full-sized reproduction of the Castro portrait. It was painted for Castro´s 70th birthday, and portrays him with the hands that are typical of Guayasamin´s style and philosophy. The whole thing has such a fantastic story to tell about art, Latin America, politics, and the currents that run throughout this whole New World, that I was irresistably drawn to the possibility of the conversations it will inspire in class. I can´t wait to see parents´faces when they come to conferences and see it looming in the classroom. (Actually, check that. I can wait.)

Back to the hotel in taxis, where, following the advice of Ms Getzen, who has been indispensible in reading the mood and timbre of the group, I declared that it would be an Unstructured Evening. Every man for himself (as long as he´s not alone) for entertainment and food. I think it was very well-received.

I found a place to eat with the adults that we are going to spring on the students tomorrow, and I will wait until then to tell you about it. To bed!