Getting to know Ecuadorian life

Now that Tesha and I have adapted to the lack of oxygen, inconsistant water temperature, buses that write where they're going on a board in the windshield, milk that comes in a bag, llamas in the front yard, and kids drooling on us, we've started developing an active social life.
We've been meeting lots of Ecuadorians by helping out at an English as a Second Language group at the church we've been going to down here. About 100 Ecuadorians come each Wednesday evening, divide into beginner, intermediate and advance, and then we listen to a reading or story in English and then talk about topics related to the story in small groups. We normally end up talking about whatever gets everyone talking since the main focus is to get them speaking English. Some of the things we've talked about include: George Bush, the many different sub-cultures in the US, places to travel in Ecuador, differences between the US and Ecuador, why the same 20 oz Coke that costs 50 cents here costs $1.50 in The States, and stereotypes about Ecuador and the US. We talked about stereotypes that other countries have about our countries and how that affects us as individuals. I mentioned how it can be suprising, and even dangerous in some countries, when people assume that because I am American I love guns. The stereotype here that one of the Ecuadorians pointed out was that people from other countries wrongly assume that because his country's government is corrupt, he is corrupt too.
To stay active here, we joined a nice, modern gym called Phisique. We have been really impressed by the quality of the gym and the community that has adopted us so nicely. Our favorite part is that there are always a couple personal trainers there to help analyze your fitness and help you do a good workout routine - something that is not very common in the US because it is so much more expensive to pay trainers in The States. We met the owner of the club, who lived in the US for awhile, and he has helped us get involved with some of the things that the club does with its members. For example, Tesha has started training with a group from the club to run a 15K in Quito in 3 weeks. The club even has a trainer just for runners. Since Quito is 9,500 feet above sea level, we've had to work our lungs hard to adjust, but we'll have a great advantage when we go back to the US where we had been living at 13 feet above sea level.
We've also started riding mountain bikes around the city, which is a great way to get to know the city. Yesterday I rode to Metropolitan Park, which overlooks the city from the outskirts, to try out some of the park's excellent mountain bike trails. The park is huge. To give you an idea of how big it is, I rode my bike for half an our in one direction and then got to a sign that said there was an overlook in 5 more kilometers (3.1 miles); the park is round too, so it is that far in each direction. The park is very diverse with hundreds of trails, a lagoon, a water plant, basketball courts, obstacle courses, soccer fields (Ecuadorians turn any field into a soccer field), volleyball courts (volleyball is popular here because you can use a soccer ball and a string connected between two poles), snack and juice stores, tons of playgrounds scattered about, awkward modern art scattered about, streams, waterfalls, and so on.
At the very top of the park there is a stereotypical third world community of a couple hundred Ecuadorians living in door-less cinder block homes. The community seems self-sufficient; it's likely that they hardly even use money as a means of trade. Kids, with much darker skin than the people we'd see at the upper-class fitness club, play between the houses with anything that they can pretend to be a soccer ball. Stray dogs looking for trash, and chickens that appear stray roam the streets. There's one dirt rode that runs by the edge of the community and I stopped in the middle of it, knowing that no cars would be coming through, ate some peanuts, watched an organized soccer game between competitively serious 30-year-old men, and soaked up the feeling of being the only white person on the planet. Despite the unfamiliar setting, I felt suprisingly safe and I enjoyed how everyone who passed me greeted me as if they genuinely cared how I was doing.
On my way back to modern civilization I took a fun trail through woods in the middle of nowhere and at one point had to get off my bike when 6 horses, 2 cows and 2 llamas, which apparently roam free around the park, were hanging out in the middle of my path.
-Pete