A friend in Washington had given us the phone number of some of their friends, Gene and Helen, in Quito. Thus the first task of the day was to make contact. We arranged to meet Gene at 3:15 pm.

Until then we busied ourselves arranging a trip to the Galapagos Islands starting 27th September, sending a large box of souvenirs back to Washington, and generally getting to know the area a little.

We met Gene at 3:15 as arranged and thereafter he took us on a very interesting tour essentially circling the city of Quito by some of its major routes. The city looks much bigger than its apparent 1.5M population. The impact that squatters have had on the growth of the city was both interesting and apparent once Gene gave us the history of some of the more mountainous barrios of the city. The cathedral on the northern edge of the old city dominates views from the mountainous eastern or western edges of the metropolitan area. As the light faded we went back to Gene's place, met his wife Helen, spent a few hours over some local food and heard some of the story of their 55 years in Ecuador, as well as discussing local and global political and social issues. I am not sure we solved any of the worlds big problems but we had a very pleasant time with interesting people.

Helen and Gene, thank you.