A long 24 hours

Hello everyone!

Yesterday we met Marie for lunch. She picked us up from the airport and has been extremely welcoming to us the past few days. (This was after walking around old town for 2 and half hours). We walked to new town from our hostal in old town. A little over half way there we realized we would never be at the meeting spot on time and grabbed a cab. Marie and her friend took us to a nice restaurant and the food was delicious. Marie invited us to go to her hacienda (farm). We thought, why not? So we gathered a few necessities from our hostal (because we would be staying overnight) and headed outside of Quito to a town called Pifo. Her friends met us at her hacienda where they cooked empenadas and mini pizzas. Katie and I were not able to get to bed until late even though we were already exhausted.

The next morning her parents and brother joined us at the hacienda (they have a nice apartment in Quito that they stay at during the week). Her father teaches riding lessons and we were able to watch part of it. This is also when I realized how beautiful the hacienda and the surrounding area was. They had a barn, riding ring, a few paddocks, their house, and a house for the family that cared for the hacienda when they were not there. The mountains in the distance were partly hidden behind the clouds as well as Cotopaxi, a huge volocano. They took us to a horse show which was more like a parade of different groups of people on their horses. Each group wore a different costume and the horses were a little wild.
Later her family drove us around to some surrounding towns. It was very busy on the streets since its saturday. Marie drove us back to new town in Quito where we caught the bus back to our hostal. We are exhausted...its has been a long 24 hours.
-hallye