I Wonder if She Read the Letter that I Left

Landing in the airport at Quito, Mariscal Sucre, is one of the most amazing and terrifying experiences that you can have in a plane. I´ve never had the chance to describe this before, but It´s amazing because it´s simply beautiful. You come out of zero visibility in the clouds and the mist of the mountains, la neblina, into the valley where you begin to see, if you´re brave enough to look out the window, all of the little houses that occupy the mountainsides and the afueras (outskirts) of the city. Quito itself is found between mountains of the Andes, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha and surrounded by the Cayambe, el Chimborazo, el Cotopaxi, not far from the middle of the world, la mitad del mundo. Imagine coming out of the mist into a valley between so many mountain ranges, and, all of a sudden, a city appears out of nowhere. Now the terrifying part is the same, but you can add to it that the airport is located right in the middle of a residential district of the city, surrounded by homes and buildings. According to what I´ve been told, the airport was built outside of the city, but the politicians sold the land around it and houses were constructed there. The plane that I was on came down with perfection and something unique to Ecuador happened, everyone on the plane started to applaud the pilot.
So here I am, in Quito, Ecuador staying with great friends a few blocks from the Panamericana, the highway that extends from Alaska to the Patagonia in Argentina. I´ll be here for a couple more weeks. I´ve really been surpised by the the nostalgia I´ve felt for Quito in this first week, I´ve been here before, but I didn´t know that a return trip would provoke nostalgia. I find myself laughing inside every time I get on a bus and nearly break my neck from the driver´s "talents" with the gear box. Quito is small, but completely populated from one mountainside to the other. I assure you that I didn´t miss the traffic. The congestion from the cars here is such that they instituted something called Pico y Placa, which means that you can´t drive your car during peak hours during a certain day of the week based on your liscense plate number. Everyone has a day of the week like this. I´ve heard varying opinions on whether this helps or not, but what is clear is that you can simply leave earlier and come home later, causing congestion at different times, or you can register more that one vehicle to drive.
If you would like a good idea of just what Quito is like, google some images and check out the Wikipedia page on it, it truly is unique. Imagine a very large city in length, but very small in width. It really just goes on and on between mountain ranges. Where I´m staying is more of an industrial district, more outside of the city, if you continue on the Panamericana you get to whats known as the Nuevo Centro, the new center, which is very modern, with its shopping centers, metropolitan park, etc. Further on is the Centro, which is simply hermoso (beautiful). Further on, the original Centro contains classic Spanish Colonial constructions, incredible cathedrals, La Plaza Grande (here you can find the presidential palace), narrow pedestrian walk-ways and things you´ve never seen if you´ve never been in Latin America. Overlooking everything, high above the city, is the Virgen of Quito del Panecillo, she represents the Virgen María as described in the the book of Apocalypse in the bible: a woman with wings, with a serpient chained and held under her feet, which represents the beast of 666. Do you think she´s protecting the city like they say?
As I finish here, I write thinking on many things. I have been quite busy this week, registering visas, obtaining legal identification, getting vaccinated against typhoid, etc., but I´m still thinking on a lot of people and things that I´ve left behind. I wonder if my best friend got my message when I called the other day, I wonder if anyone has shed tears over my departure, I wonder if they miss me like I miss them and I wonder if she read the letter that I left.