The croissants are only 6 cents!!!

Im standing below the observation tower
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For breakfast, Bogar and I went to a nearby corner store to get some eggs, croissants, and milk. The croissants were only 6 cents a piece! For breakfast we had eggs, croissants with mozzarella cheese, and hot chocolate.

In the morning, Bogar, Andrea (Bogar´s sister), Gabo (Bogar´s brother), and I went to a park so that they could play basketball. One of their friends picked us up and drove us in his jeep to the park. The park is located in a housing area that consists of houses for upper middle class families. It is very nice because there are two security gates with security guards that controls who comes in the housing area.

it is popular to go to the park on Sundays because Sundays are known as the ¨sunny¨ days

Parque La Alameda...hmmm...It looks a little unsafe to be in that water...
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Bogar, Gabo, and Andrea played basketball with a group of people that they usually play with on Sundays. While they played basketball, I went running around the housing area for around 20 minutes. I am not in great running shape, so the run was really hard considering that we were in a very high elevation and I had to run up hills for half of the run. Basically you either run down the hill or up the hill. When I was done with my run, I was breathing so hard... I sat on this tree branch next to Bogar. Well, I ended up sitting on all this sap..so I had lots of sticky sap on my shorts. I was pretty embarssed so I tried to remove it with water but it didn´t work too well.

Bogar chillin near Parque La Alameda
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After basketball was done, their friend took us back to the apartment. For lunch, Bogar and I went to a Chinese ¨Chifa¨ restaurant. It was Bogar´s idea because he loves Chinese food! I got fried pasta with vegetables and fresh piña (pineapple) juice! I think the fresh juices here are the best food/drink in Ecuador.

After that we went to the Alameda park. Yesterday I had gone by the  park and had seen these people in these little boats on this river. I wanted to do that, so we checked it out today. Well, when I got a closer look I realized that the boats looked really old and I didn´t trust them. Also, it was 3 meters deep...so if the boat tipped over I would probably drown:( So we didn´t go on the boat. Instead we walked through the park for awhile and went on top of this observation tower. It was a pretty small observation tower but it was a really interesting structure. It is one of the first observation towers in Quito. One of the most amazing things about the park was the amount of people there.  It is popular to go to the park on Sundays because Sundays are known as the ¨sunny¨ days.

me on top of the old observation tower in Parque La Alameda
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Next, we went to a mall to get some coffee. We ended up walking around the mall for awhile. It was a really nice mall that reminded me of a typical American mall. So when people think that Ecuador is not very developed, that is not completely true. They do have some modern buildings like the mall that would be comparable to a ¨first world country.¨ Finally, we ended up in this coffee place which  had a very nice European design to it.  Bogar and I both drank frappacinos that were good. They cost a little under $2 a piece which was a pretty good price.