Our country get-away

Life in Quito, a huge city, is what you would expect it to be: busy! Buses, taxis, pedestrians and vendors crowd the streets. When walking through the city, I feel kind of like I’m in a video game: dodge this little old man, don’t hit this tree, avoid the speeding taxis when crossing the street, gain 50 points for swerving through a group of school children walking hand-in-hand on the sidewalk. There’s pollution and honking cars and people everywhere- it’s so alive, but so exhausting!

So you can imagine my relief on Sunday afternoon when we took a bus into the countryside, about 20 minutes outside the city to the quiet, peaceful towns of Santa Isabel and San Francisco (where we will be living and working in a month). When I got off the bus in San Francisco, my entire body just relaxed. Seriously, I had this crazy physiological response to the new scenery; cows, chickens, clean mountain air and a still silence were a welcome change from the bustling city life of Quito.

Santa Isabel and San Francisco are as calm and serene as one could imagine. Small tiendas line the roads, and tiny, old, men and women sit outside shops in felt hats and sweaters watching people pass by. The Andes Mountains line the background, the air smells of burning wood, the people are direct descendants of the Incas, and everything seems to move a little slower.

For now, I’m happy to live in the middle of the city with all its great restaurants, bars, libraries, churches, bakeries and coffee shops galore… but I think I might have left my heart in the quiet, little towns of Santa Isabel and San Francisco.