I joined expat.com on 05 October 2011.
Pictures by jm141302
My wife and I work daily at Universidad Catolica, in Quito. When not working, we try to visit nearby places of interest. My goals while in Ecuador are to learn Spanish, improve my GIS skills, and experience life in a different culture. The latter involves trying the various local foods, shopping where locals shop, and not exclusively hanging out with other expats. I feel my time here would be failed if I did the same things I did in America except in a different country. I also enjoy climbing the many mountains in Ecuador.
The people are very nice and helpful especially in the rural areas. The food is also very good and inexpensive. The landscape is gorgeous.
The mountains and poor road quality make traveling between places very time consuming. It is difficult to go very far away from Quito for just a weekend and make it worth it.