The first stop of the day was exploring the district of the, “Estado Independentista de Guápulo”. The small plaza in the district has a statute of Sebastián de Benalcázar. This is because this explorer was one of the Spanish conquistadors that freed the city of the Quito from the Incas in 1534 and the district of Guápulo was located inside of the city of Quito when he conquered the land. Since then, it has become an independent district, apart from the city of Quito. The plaza where this statute is located is an ideal place for picture taking because of it’s high elevation. Here is a picture of the statute of Sebastián de Benalcázar, which is located on the plaza.

Here is a picture that I took from the plaza.

Here is a selfie that I took from the plaza.

The next stop of the day was to visit the, “Basilica del Voto National”.  This is a very famous Catholic Church. It’s unofficial Facebook page is located here. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bas%C3%ADlica-del-Voto-Nacional/132958213411270

Here is a picture that I took of part of the front of the church.

Here is a picture that I took of part of one side of the church.

Here is a picture that I took of the part of the church where mass is held.

The last stop today was the visit the, “Virgin of Quito”. This statute is on a mountain and can be seen from the entire city of Quito. Here is a picture that I took.

Finally, we went out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. Sadly, it was the last day of the trip and we would be leaving to go back to the US that night. Here is a picture of the menu at the restaurant where we ate.

In conclusion, this trip was one of the best I have even been on in 59 years of life. Thanks to our trip leader, Dr. Raul Leon from Eastern Michigan University for arranging such a great study abroad opportunity.

On this day, the first thing on the agenda was to visit the the, “Tulipe Archaeological Museum”,  located in a town named, “Tulipe”. This attraction consisted of both an inside and outside museum area. I found it fascinating. According to the tour guide, this museum was built right on the actual ancient site built by an indigenous culture called the Yumbo people, whom archeologists believed lived in that area between 800 and 1660 AD.

Archeologists believe that the typical Yumbo male looked like this and that when they traveled, they carried baskets full of supplies on their backs.

What was most interesting about this culture is that the archeologists who investigated the site found three distinct land formations, which appeared to be pools that were formally filled with water, that were apparently used as ceremonial sites by this society. Each one had a unique form and archeologists can only speculate what the different formation meant. Additionally, the pool shaped land formations are the original ones investigated by archeologists and they are located right in the back yard of the museum building.

Here is a picture of one of the pool shape formations.

Here is a picture of another pool formation.

Next, we walked around a crater created after the, “Pululahua Volcano of Ecuador”, collapsed approximately  2300-2500 years ago. This area has been declared by the law in Ecuador as  a, “Geobotanical Reserve”. Here is a sign located in front of the site.

Here is a picture of me walking around the crater area posing in front of some native plants and flowers.

The third location we visited was the  Ini-Nan Museum located around the corner from the, “Middle of the World”, monument. It has a website located here: http://museointinan.com.ec

Here is a picture of a sign located in the front of the museum entrance.

Here is a picture of me standing in the, “Middle of the World”, inside this museum.

On this day, the plan was to first visit a Chocolate Factory and later a Rain Forest. We headed out early in the morning towards Mindo, Ecuador, which was a 2 1/2  hour drive from Quito. Once we got to the factory, we were treated to a great tour and presentation regarding the process of making chocolate. The name of the factory is, “El Quetzal”. Here is a picture of the outside of the factory. The website for this factory is located here: http://www.elquetzaldemindo.com/

Here is a picture of some of the pods where Cocoa Beans come from.

Once the pods are open, they look like this. As shown, you can now see each individual Cocoa Bean.

The next step is to ferment them. Some people do this by placing banana leaves on them for up to three days. The fermenting process drys up the soft milky white outer skin. Once the fermenting process is done, the beans look like this.

Next step is to crack the shell open to find the tiny Cocoa Beans. Some people roast these to help with this process. The presentation ended and then we were shown professional machinery that the factory uses to automate this process. We ended the tour by buying some chocolate from the factory. We loaded up into our van and then headed to the, “Mindo Cloud Rain Forest”.

When we arrived, we found out that there was two paths to take to get to the waterfall areas. The longer path would allow hikers to see four different waterfalls.  The shorter path would allow hikers to only see one waterfall. A friend and I decided to take the shorter path. It was long hike to get to the waterfall but so worth it.  Here are some pictures of the waterfall.

This is a selfie of me in front of the waterfall.

Finally, here is a third picture of my friend and I.

We left the waterfall area and drove to a lodge where we had dinner and spent the night. We checked into, “Sachatamia Lodge”, also located in Mindo, Ecuador.  The lodge is a famous place for bird watchers. The website for the lodge is located here: http://www.sachatamia.com/

The plan for this day was to visit and attend a series of presentations at the, “Universidad San Francisco de Quito” from 9:30 pm until 4:00 pm. This university’s webpage is located here: http://www.usfq.edu.ec/   Students who attend this university are commuters who usually live with host families in the area. It was founded in 1988 by a group of local scholars who wanted to establish the first self-funded liberal arts oriented private university in Ecuador.

Here is a short video that explains the basics of this university. I have embedded the video directly from the university’s Facebook page located here: https://www.facebook.com/USFQEcuador

Currently the university is divided into two campuses. The main one is located located in the Cumbayá area of Quito, the second campus is located in the Galápagos Islands. Here is a small video of the Cumbayá campus that my study group visited. You will notice that it is very picturesque place.

The university is divided in ten colleges, here is the picture showing the names of each college and the undergraduate as well as post graduate professional subject area degrees that each one college offers. International as well as students in Ecuador are welcome to apply for admission to any of these programs.

Currently, the university is the only one in the world that has a campus located on the Galápagos Islands. These islands make up one of the 24 provinces in Ecuador. The islands consists of a volcanic archipelago located in the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, this location is an ideal place for students who wish to study Evolution, Marine Wildlife, Ecology, and Diverse Ecosystems. Here is a picture of the classes offered on this campus.

Moreover, the university also offers a few masters degrees, some professional certificates and one PhD degree. Here is a list of these programs sorted by the colleges that offer them in alphabetical order.

College of Biological and Environmental Science

Master of Ecology
Master of Microbiology
PhD in Microbiology

College of Business and Economics:

Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Master of Banking and Finance
Master of Marketing and Sales

College of Health Sciences

Professional Certificates in:

Orthodontics
Periodontics
Health Management
Orthopedic and Traumatology
Radiology and Imagining

College of Law

Master of Administrative Law
Master of Business Law

College of Science and Engineering

Master of Applied Mathematics
Master of NanoElectronics
Master of Management of Construction and Real State Business

College of Social Science and Humanities

Master of Education

Midway though the series of lectures that we attended, we did have time to eat lunch at the college cafeteria. Here is a picture of the menu. I found the food to be unusually good considering that it was cafeteria style food.

According to the lectures given by faculty/staff at the university, approximately 90 percent of the current faculty have doctoral degrees and have studied and/or worked outside of Ecuador. This is highly unusual for Ecuador as most university faculty usually have masters degrees and very few higher education institutions in Ecuador offer doctoral degrees.

Furthermore, this university is one of the three universities and the only private university in Ecuador awarded a “A” ranking accreditation status, which as I wrote about earlier in these series of posts, is governed  through the, “Consejo de Evaluacion Acreditacion y Aseguramemiento de la Calidad de la Education Superior (CEASES). Also, as I previously stated, this ranking is  highest accreditation status that a Ecuadorian university can receive.

We departed the university shortly after 4:00 pm and headed back home to our bed/breakfast location. Later on we went out to dinner at a local restaurant.

Here is a picture of the front cover of the menu at the restaurant.

Here is a picture of the meal I ordered. It was delicious.

We headed back to our lodging and called it a day.

This morning, the plan was for us to visit one of the best private prep k-12 schools in the country, so we can learn about the kind of curriculum used at the school and how it got started. The plan was to attend lectures there from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm and also enjoy a midmorning snack at the school. The name of the school is, “Colegio Intisana”, which has a website located here: http://www.intisana.com/ This school only admits boys, but also has a sister school which only admits girls. Nevertheless, due to the fact that the sister school is located elsewhere and because of the time constraints, we only visited all boy school.

Here is a picture of the inside of the all boys school. As shown, you will notice that this school is located in a scenic part of Quito.

The school got started when a bunch of neighborhood parents got together and decided that their children needed a different type of school than the schools that were available at the time. The parent group decided that the new school needed to do more than just educate students. Specifically, the new school needed to hire faculty whom were also pillars of the community and who modeled exemplary behaviors that students could emulate to help them become outstanding citizens. The visionary school also needed to address the student’s spiritual needs and had to be non denominational.  Therefore, whatever religion was practiced in the student’s home would be respected by the school.  The school also had make learning the English language a high priority. The school finally opened it’s doors on October 26th, 1966 with a handful of teachers and a few students. 

As previously stated, presently this school is one of the best quality private k-12 prep schools in Ecuador. The tuition at this school is very expensive, however many students who attend get scholarships. Many parents who send their children to the school, do so because many other generations of their families also attended. Surprisingly, some of the first set of teachers whom were hired to teach at the school are still employed there. Additionally, wealthier parents who send their children to this school support the school scholarship fund so that the school can admit students regardless of socioeconomic backgrounds and keep operating.

However, what distinguishes this Ecuadorian school from others, is that on July 27th, 2013, their high school got approval to start participating in the, “International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme  (IBDP)”.  The IBDP organization has a website located here: http://www.ibo.org/ According to the website,  the the IBDP program is recognized worldwide as having high quality rigorous academic standards and that the high school credentials of any student graduating with an IBDP HS diploma, makes them eligible to apply for admission to any university in the world.

In the year 2014, the school also became a pilot school participating in the, “Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)”, exam program. The PISA webpage can be found here: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/ According to this website, these are international standarized exams that test high school students in the subjects of reading, mathematics and science. The webpage also states that students benefit by having their test scores in these three subject areas recognized worldwide as adequate credentials, for admission purposes to universities in all countries that participate in the PISA program.

Additionally, the website states that PISA exams are financed by the governments who participate in the program. The PISA webpage states that some of the schools in the USA also participate in this exam program. Nevertheless, as of the date of this post, Ecuador is still in the pilot stages of participating in this exam program.  Therefore  the county is not yet listed as one of the participating countries on the PISA webpage. You can however, read more information about Ecuador’s pilot plan participation on this webpage here: http://www.elcomercio.com/tendencias/pisa-comenzara-ecuador-pruebas-piloto.html

One of the things that impressed me the most about this school is that the school offers ministry to the entire family. They have counselors available at the school to advice the family’s of the students with any personal problems that they may have. I believe that this is essential if students are to truly thrive in an academic setting.  I was also  impressed that the school has a policy of not assigning homework on the weekends to allow students to have more time for family activities. Finally, this students of this school currently has the highest overall scores on Ecuadorian National Standardized exams. In my opinion, this fact leaves no doubt in my mind regarding the academic success of the students at that school and it’s rigorous academic standards. We left the school around 1:00 pm and went to a local restaurant to have lunch.

Then, we went on to do some shopping for several hours. We visited the. ” Artisanal Market” located in Quito’s Mariscal Region. We stayed in the area until approximately 4:30pm and then returned to our bed/breakfast location until dinner time. Here is a short video showing what the shopping area is like:

Next on the agenda was going out to dinner and also listening to a presentation by an invited guest speaker. The speaker was Ryan Cobey, an American who works in  as the advisor to the Secretary of Commerce in Ecuador in matters regarding International Trade Agreements and Articulations. He is also currently a professor, teaching International Relations at the University of the Americas in Ecuador. This university’s webpage is located here: http://www.udla.edu.ec/

It was during his extended stay in Ecuador for the purpose of doing research for his masters level thesis regarding International Trade Agreements, while a graduate student at East Carolina University in the US, that he decided to make this country his new home. At the time, he was pursuing a Masters Degree in International Relations and National Security. He spoke to our group from 6:30 until 8:30 pm about his duties in his role as an advisor to the Secretary of Commerce in Ecuador and the classes he teaches at  the University of the Americas.. Ryan’s LinkedIn webpage can be found here: https://ec.linkedin.com/in/ryan-cobey-6b9b3657/en

We finished listening to the presentation and called it a day.

On Monday morning, we got up and gathered everything we would need to spend the day at the Natural Hot Springs located in Papallacta, which is approximately an hour and a half drive from Quito. We also packed lunch, which we ate on the way there.

Because my cell phone was not waterproof, I kept it in my locker. Therefore, I  did not take many pictures. Nevertheless, here is a short YOUTUBE video of the springs.

Additionally, here is a picture that a friend of mine took.

Picture taken by Rosa Hanco rugal99.wordpress.com

Personally, I found that the water was very hot. The water is naturally supplied by a volcano and naturally heated by lava. The elevation of the springs is around 9,842 feet  high. As shown in the video, the attraction has many thermal pools. In some of the pools, the water is hotter than in others. To help keep human body temperatures regulated, it is recommended that guests keep rotating between the thermal pools.

We stayed at the Hot Springs until 4:00 pm. At that time, we got dressed and got ready to leave. Just before leaving I noticed a little black bird that seemed to welcome having his picture taken. I snapped a few picture of the bird before leaving. Here is one of the pictures.

Here is a second picture of the same bird.

We got in the van and headed towards the Quito area. Later on that evening,  we went to eat at a Ecuadorian Style Chinese restaurant. The name of the restaurant is, “Restaurant Mei Tou”. It is located In Quito and the food was delicious. Here is a picture of the front of the menu.

On Sunday morning, the weather was especially great.  Most of the days that I have been here, it rained during the day or it was foggy during the daylight hours. Therefore, we decided to visit the TeleferiQo Volcano in Pichincha early, which was originally scheduled for another day. We got there around 9:30 am and waited in a long line after purchasing our tickets. We took a gondola ride to get to the volcano. In my opinion, the ride was very scary for me. I really fear high altitudes. Afterwards, we had to climb a long way to get to the top of the volcano. Nevertheless, it was so worthwhile once we got to the top. We were able to view spectacular landscape from the top.

Here are some of the pictures that I took during that part of the trip. Here is a picture of me trying to look brave during the gondola ride.

Here is a picture of me posing with a llama, which I  encountered while I was climbing up to the top of the volcano. During my climb up, there was a man with a llama offering to let people take a picture with it for one dollar.

This is a picture of some of the trip participants on top of the mountain.

Here is another picture of me and a friend on top of the volcano.

We had lunch at a local restaurant and then headed for the, “Museos de Arte Precolombino Moderno and the, “Capilla del Hombre”.  The website for the place is located here: http://www.guayasamin.org There we visited a museum and the house of a famous Ecuadorian artist. Oswaldo Guayasamin was an incredible artist who depicted the cruelty and injustices of life through his art work. If he were still alive, I would have loved meeting him. His art work touched my emotions in a way that no other artist can match. After consulting with all five of his children, he decided to donate all his artwork, his home and his collection of precolonial artifacts to the republic of Ecuador. I am so happy that he did and that his children agreed with his decision. In my opinion, this generous act is a gift to the world. I really enjoyed learning about him and his artwork.

Here is a picture of me standing in his backyard of the artist’s home. The museum can be seen in the background.

We then stopped off at a locate Quito restaurant named,” Crepes and Waffles, who webpage is located here: http://crepesywaffles.com.ec/quienes-somos This is a picture of the meal I ordered. It was delicious.
We then headed back to our bed/breakfast location and called it a day.

On this day, we got to visit Yachay Tech University, located in the Urcuqui-Imbabura Province, which is around a 250 mile trip from Quito, Ecuador.  The university is also located in a city by the same name. Yachey is a word in the  Ecuadorian Kiwchua Indigenous Language, which means knowledge or learning. Therefore, the area where the university is located is known as the, “Yachay, the City of Knowledge”.

This is a state supported university that started operating for the first time in 2014.  It has very competitive admission policies and in my opinion, it is destined to become the Stanford University of Ecuador. The university’s mission is to become a major research university in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields in Ecuador and also to collaborate with other research public/private  universities both in Ecuador and around the world.  The university’s webpage is located here: http://yachaytech.edu.ec . According to the presentation that we attended, the university has admitted students from all of the 24 provinces, which make up the Republic of Ecuador. The presentor also mentioned that because admitted students come from all of the provinces of Ecuador, the university also provides student housing, which is against the tradition of other state supported Ecuadorian universities.

The university also has a Facebook page located here:  https://www.facebook.com/yachaytech . Here is a post that I have embedded directly from the university’s Facebook page to this website. It shows the pictures, names and positions of the main administrators of the university. In my opinion, this is an impressive list of world-class leaders:

I am also linking this public graphic directly from the University’s official webpage. It shows in great detail what types of majors the university offers and the names of the colleges that house all of the different subject areas.

A  university student affairs administrator spoke with our study group and informed us, that because of the inconsistency of educational requirements  in the many public/private k-12 schools of the provinces of Ecuador, the first thing that the university does for all admitted students is to remediate them in their English language and  math skills. He also explained all the different degree offerings and how the college is structured as shown in the above graphic. Additionally, he told us told that the university currently has 40 corporate sponsors supporting their efforts. Some of the corporations mentioned were Cisco Systems, China Telecom, Intel, IBM, Interworks and Microsoft. Personally, as a college professor who teaches Computer Science, I was very impressed with the caliber of the technology corporations mentioned.

Moreover, the presenter stated that the university is currently establishing partnerships with research universities around the world in countries such as Germany, Japan, Spain, China and the US. Furthermore, that the university is currently adding it’s own k-12 school as well as a community college and plans to add masters as well as doctoral level degrees. Finally, the administrator mentioned that because this university is still in the developmental stage, it has not yet been accredited by the state accreditation agency in Ecuador.

The presentation/tour then continued with a long walk through the university and explanation of the different buildings on campus. Due to the travel time required to get to this university, our group faculty leader planned for the trip to take at least eight hours and thus we did not return to our bed/breakfast location until after 5:00 pm.

As I previously wrote about in my post regarding my study abroad activities occuring on June 3rd, 2016, in Ecuador accreditation is handled jointly by two state agencies. The first is the, “Secretaria de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENESCYT)”. Their website is located here: http://www.educacionsuperior.gob.ec/ The second agency is the , “Consejo de Evaluación, Acreditación y Aseguramiento de la Calidad de la Educación Superior (CEASES)”.  Their website is here: Http://www.ceaaces.gob.ec/

According to these websites,  the agencies  evaluate all colleges/universities on forty eight standards and therefore it takes several years to complete this process. Once the accreditation process is complete, each college/university either earns accreditation status with a national ranking ranging from A to E, with the ranking of A being the highest rank or fails to earn accreditation status. I am hoping that once the first group of  undergraduate Yachay Tech students are ready to graduate, that the college will earn accreditation status with a ranking of A.

Here are some pictures that I took, while I was touring the campus. This is the home of the highest university administrator, the University Rector.

Here is a small picturous waterfall of campus.

On the way home we stopped at the local restaurant to eat and then headed to our bed/breakfast location. Here is a picture of the menu at the restaurant.

The first activity on this day was attending a series of lectures until 1:30 pm at the, “Institutos de Altos Estudios Nationals (IAEN)”, where various faculty/administrators informed us about the goals/objectives of this public higher education institution and explained how it is accredited and governed. Their webpage is located here: http://www.iaen.edu.ec/

This is a state university in Ecuador that only offers graduate degrees and/or certificates for the public servants of Ecuador. Tuition is totally free and the students are all government employees. They offer two types of Masters Degrees. One is for government practitioners and the other for government researchers.  The research oriented master’s degrees are in the fields of, “Security & Defense Pubic Policies”, “Drug Enforcement Public Policies”, Social Development  & Communication Public Policies” and “Social and Solidarity Economic Public Policies”. The practitioner oriented masters degrees are in the fields of, “Electoral and Democratic Law”, “International Relationships with Foreign Governments”, and “International Relationships with Foreign Commerce”.  Additionally, they offer graduate level certificates in the subjects of, “Public Management Policies”, “International Negotiation Public Policies” and “Migration & Globalization Public Policies”.

The college is governed and accredited by three main state agencies. The first is the “Consejo de Educación Superior (CES)”. The website is located here: http://www.ces.gob.ec.  The second is the, “Secretaria de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENESCYT)”. Their website is located here: http://www.educacionsuperior.gob.ec/ The third agency is the , “Consejo de Evaluación, Acreditación y Aseguramiento de la Calidad de la Educación Superior (CEASES)”.  Their website is here: Http://www.ceaaces.gob.ec/  Together, the three agencies approve all course curriculum, create educational public policies & guidelines, establish salaries/ranks for higher education faculty/staff/administrators, award accreditation and provide funds for the state colleges/universities. Here is a picture of our group during the university lectures.

After having lunch at a local restaurant, we spent the afternoon going to a fresh fruit/vegetable market in Colonial Quito and visiting other local shopping establishments. I was amazed at the variety of fruits/vegetables and the amazing colors that they had.   Here are some pictures of the fruits/vegetables.

We ended the day by having dinner at local restaurant in the downtown colonial style area of Quito and attending a live Ballet show. Here is a picture of the sign at the entrance of the show.

Nevertheless, the show is not what Americans expect when they go see a ballet show. Instead, the performers perform barefoot and demonstrate some of the traditional folk dance of various indigenous groups in Ecuador. In my opinion, it was one of the best and most educational parts of this trip. Here is a small YOUTUBE video of part of a typical show. Please refresh this webpage if the video does not appear below this paragraph.