The past few months

My failure to post lately is no indication that life has become less interesting on the equator, but rather that I've been withdrawn from it. I've spent most of the summer locked in our study listening to terrible lectures about secured transactions and property, with my nose buried in a bar-review outline. Then Monique and I were in DC with her attending some USAID trainings and me taking the bar exam and MPRE.

Nonetheless, the Citizens' Revolution marches on in Quito, and this past Monday the country celebrated its bicentennial with the inauguration of the new government. I was still in DC, but Monique and my cousin Robin got to greet all of the big Latin American personalities, including Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. Robin is living in our old digs at the Swiss Hotel while she and her husband look for embassy housing, and all of the heads of state stayed there for the festivities. Check out Robin's facebook page for photos in the lobby of all the big-wigs. With the inauguration, President Correa now has 4 more years to push forward his ambitious agenda of battling (or cancelling) Ecuador's foreign debt, strengthening minority rights, equalizing the distribution of wealth in Ecuador, and establishing Ecuador as a leader in the new Latin American left. I'm sure all this will make for an interesting and exciting couple of years for us.

While I was studying for the bar, Monique and I did manage to sneak out of Quito a few times for fun in the mountains. Here are some photos from our jaunt to Quilotoa, a beautiful volcanic lake 3 & 1/2 hours south of Quito:

The trip out here was an amazing drive. We passed about 6 snow-capped volcanoes on one of the clearest days we've had in Ecuador. We hiked around the rim of the volcano surrounding Quilotoa lake for a few hours, then drove another hour on a crazy dirt road to get to the Black Sheep Inn, a very comfortable eco-lodge in a small indigenous community. The next morning we rode horses down into the canyon below our hotel, picnicked on a sketchy bridge across a river, and still made it back to Quito in time for dinner.

A couple weeks later, still struck with volcano fever, we drove to Parque Nacional Cotopaxi, a huge protected area surrounded by three volcanoes. Unfortunately, this time we weren't so lucky with the weather and had to face a lot of fog and wind. It was still beautiful, and after we abandoned our plans to hike up to the Refugio which sits at 4800 meters, we had a great time driving and hiking around the high grasslands, checking out the wild horses, and playing on an ancient Incan fortress where we were the only people within in a few acres.

Well...I hope these photos are enticing enough to bring some of you down here. We feel really blessed to be so close to so much natural beauty (and for those of you frightened by the gloves and hats, we're also just a few hours from the beaches or jungles, where temperatures will make you pine for that cool Andean air). Tomorrow we head off to Greece for my brother-in-law's wedding, but soon we'll be back to the excitement of Ecuador. In September I'll start working full time as the Georgetown Asylum Access Fellow, and I'm really looking forward to continuing my work advocating for legal rights of refugees in Ecuador. We'll keep you posted.

Abrazos,

D&M