Everyone has arrived and our trip officially began this morning. We met for breakfast and enjoyed beautiful spread of native fruits and juices, Ecuadorian breakfast dishes, breads, and of course coffee. We started our trio this morning with a tour of the 'old town' Quito - visiting the Basilica and the Presidential Palace, seeing different styles of colonial Ecuadorian architecture, and learning much of the history of Ecuador - from the pre-Incan culture of the Quitu Caras all the way through to the present-day Ecuador. Next we headed slightly north of Quito to visit La Mitad del Mundo, or the middle of the world. This is the term used to signify the site of the Equator, Ecuador's namesake. At the Equator, we toured an ethnographic museum and experienced some physical phenomena associated with being exactly on the Equator. We'll have a relaxing dinner at The Magic Bean, a popular restaurant/cafe in the Mariscal district of Quito. I will check in tomorrow after the team's first training hike up Rucu Pichincha.