Oct. 23rd, 2010
My apologies for those who I had promised to start this blog once I began my journey but events as usual have swallowed my time .
The conference has been interesting to say the least. I have been meeting many fascinating people. At some point I shall report on some of the presentations.
As I came here to find my sanctuary in the sun , serendipity has blessed me in the form of being introduced to Peter , a Hungarian, Australian.

After a two hour delay by Air Canada, I arrived in Bogata, Columbia. There I madly boarded another plane for Quito, the capital of Ecuador. My one check on bag was not so fortunate.
Upon arrival, I waited for my bag to arrive. After the conveyer belt was shut off, I realized that I would have to return to fetch the lost bag.
While waiting for the bags however, i befriended an interesting french woman. She had done her Ph.D. in public administration at Quito University and was teaching there as well as being on a team to reform the government by streamlining it . She had taken a train from Montreal to Toronto and then boarded the 3 p.m. flight to Bogata , Columbia on her way to Quito. She appeared exhausted with red eyes that found it difficult to keep open. She had grown up in Paris she told me.
My seat mate on the trip was a Columbian woman who was traveling with her husband. I observed that they hadn’t exchanged a word with one another during the entire 7 hour flight. She told me they were from Calli.
On the Bogata to Quito portion of the flight my seat mate was a lovely ,young German student. She had studied art ,music and biology and was coming to Ecuador to study Spanish as she had not found work and it was something useful to do she told me.