Well, most of the arrangements have been made for Quito!!  I'll be staying at Casa Foch for a few nights before the rest of the women arrive for our trip.  It looks like a wonderful hotel and the manager is really nice.  Lots of people rave about the food in Quito.  The more recipes I've found, the more the food seems similar to dishes found in New Mexico.  Like empanadas!  The Tesuque Village Market just north of Santa Fe has some of the best empanadas around.  There appears to be a ton of fruit juice bars in Quito - something like 300 fruits only found in Ecuador can be found there!  Yum!  I'm sure we all experience this, but I keep running into more people who have family living in Ecuador or have traveled there.  Lots of great stories.  The one hear the most is that people really don't bring enough types of clothes - especially when you're going from 15,000 feet in the Andes to sea level in the middle of the Rain forest.  I've never had this hard of time packing light!