Confessions of a post teenage runaway

Oh, hello!
I know what you´re thinking... I thought she was dead! But no. I am alive and well in Ecuador.
I don´t have any spectacular stories to give you yet but I will tell you that I am spending the day wandering around Quito with my trip leader, Jim. He´s pretty damn cool and I have a feeling that in just a few days I will be itching to get back to the internet cafe to fill you in.
So far I´ve eaten a stale roll with some cheese and it was one of the best things I´ve ever tasted.
One of the greatest things I´ve seen today was a man in a shop the size of a closet with a beautiful antique sewing maching making shoes. I waved and he looked puzzled. One of these days I want someone to wave back. There´s also an incredible cathedral we walked by that is one of the most ornate things I´ve ever seen.
Two things I wish I had done before the trip are... cut my packing in half and learned Spanish. Yes, dad, you were right. But, private lessons start on Monday so I will be on my way to fluent in no time.
Anyway, more later.
love and bugs,
Betty

PS. Like the title, david?
PPS A little elf snuck into my bag before I left and hid notes for me. Thanks Erin, that was amazing.

Due South

Aaaaaaaaaaaand I'm off!
Love and bugs,
Betty
PS. xoxoxoxo

Traveler underestimates the weight of her backpack

Dallas, Texas-- Betty Teaspoon, a young traveler headed to South America, suffocated last night after being trapped for almost six hours under her own backpack.
Her father warned her that her pack was too heavy but she insisted that everything in it was necessary. "As soon as it reached 73 lbs I thought 'this is absurd!', but she's always been hard headed. She liked to do things her own way and if she thought she needed that six pack of LoneStar and gallon of salsa to remind her of home, by god she would have it."
"I just didn't see it coming." says her mother, "I warned her about being sold into white slavery. I warned her about wandering off into the desert (she tends to do that) and being attacked by iguanas. I even warned her about the dangers of the coca plant; I mean it took me years to rid myself of that habit. But I was the one who made her add that eighth bottle of spf 50 sunscreen. I just didn't want her to get sunburned."
We all worry about the dangers of traveling. Pick pockets, muggers, they're all on our minds. But no one expects the danger to set in before the trip even starts. "She had been working out so regularly," her sister comments, "we all thought she could handle it. I guess now I get to keep all her clothes permanently; before she was only going to let me borrow them while she was away. And at least I won't have to buy sunscreen next summer."