Quito Is a Top Ten City!

Quito is an incredible city, and just a 40 minute bus ride away from our Manna Project Ecuador site in the Los Chillos Valley, it becomes a home away from home for many Program Directors. With its beautiful architecture, constant rotation of festivals celebrating food, culture, and cinema, and its gleaming new malls, cafés, and restaurants, there is aways plenty to do in the city for a Program Director on their time off!

We are not the first ones to praise Quito for all it has to offer. Do a Google search on Quito and you'll find that it is regularly praised by travel guides, magazines, and the like as one of the hot destinations for all kinds of travelers. Lonely Planet even named it the #2 destination among its Top Ten Cities to visit in 2016!

Here are some of Program Directors' favorite places to visit in Quito!

Historic Center

The Historic Center of Quito has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its incredible Spanish colonial architecture. It is the best-preserved and least-altered historic center in all of Latin America.

There are many beautiful churches and historic buildings to visit. Last week, I visited the Presidential Palace for the first time, where visitors can see the ornate rooms and lavish gifts given by visiting presidents and diplomats from around the world.

Guayasamin Museum

The Guayasamin museum transformed the home of Ecuador's most famous painter, Eduardo Guayasamin, into one of Quito's biggest tourist attractions and loveliest sites. Not only do visitors get the chance to see Guayasamin's most famous works of art, they also get to see his impressive collection of colonial art and take in an amazing view of Quito spilling over the mountains. Program Directors also enjoy the delicious coffee, juice, and snacks at Omama Cafe just one block away...we even spent time there during our Quarter 4 retreat last year!

The Cafés

(and skull donuts)

There are plenty of cafés sprouting up all over the city, celebrating the world-class coffee of Ecuador, and Program Directors keep a running list of favorites. Although Ecuador has some of the best coffee in the world, there aren't that many cafés in the Los Chillos Valley where we live, so Program Directors will often take their laptops into Quito and work on MPI projects, or take a book and their journal to reflect and relax. One of my personal favorite cafes is Skull Donuts, a delicious café near La Mariscal district with coffee and donuts. Skull Donuts truly puts Dunkin Donuts to shame! They make fresh donuts every day from the most delicious (and creative!) ingredients, including a variety of fresh Ecuadorian fruit.

Parque Carolina

Ecuadorians are lovers of parks, and on the weekends (particularly Sundays), Quito's parks are filled with families spending time together. Parque Carolina is one of the largest and liveliest parks in Quito, and it has so many things to see and do on the weekends: bike rentals, paddle boat rides, and a variety of food stands selling everything you could imagine and more. Parque Carolina is a great place for a picnic or people watching!

Join us - apply to become a Program Director today. 

Carley Clement | Senior Program Director
Sangolqui, Rumiñahui, Ecuador

8 Beautiful Photos of Rural Ecuador

One of the best parts of the Valle de los Chillos, the community that Manna Project International serves, is the proximity to both rural and urban landscapes. Within what seems like just a few minutes bus ride, Program Directors have access to both the bustling metropolitan city of Quito and also the lush, tranquil fields and forests of rural Ecuador.

Last week Program Directors were joined all of Ecuador in a five day celebration of the Carnaval holiday. Many chose to head out into the countryside to relax. Here's your chance to fall in love with rural Ecuador, just as we have:

Amaguaña

Zumbahua

Come work with Manna Project and experience the beauties of Ecuador.

Program Director applications  are due April 5th. 

Carnaval 2016

This Carnaval, Ecuador Program Directors headed south from Quito to Baños for the weekend. Carnaval is celebrated right before Ash Wednesday, so is the equivalent of Mardi Gras in the US. It is typical to throw foam, flour, and eggs (and even mud or paint in some areas) during Carnaval. Thankfully, Baños was just a relatively tame, drizzly landscape of "carioka," the famous white spray foam everyone has for Carnaval.

As gringas, we were prime targets for this holiday fun. Each of us bought a can (or two) of carioka and we spent one afternoon out playing. The streets were full with people running and spraying their foam at any and all who passed by. This community-wide foam battle lasted all through the night, and we had to wait until a friendly (yet very messy) crowd subsided before we were to able to exit our restaurant after dinner one night!

On Sunday, we hopped on a bus an hour away to Ambato, where a famous fruit and flower parade is held every year. We arrived in Ambato and met up with some friends, and spent the morning into the early afternoon enjoying the bands, dance groups, and gorgeously decorated floats of pure fruit and flowers.

While our Carnaval experience was a fairly clean one, other towns got crazy with paint throwing, like here in Amaguaña. It's all in good fun.

Feliz Carnaval!

Meet Tracy Lucas, MPI Ecuador’s newest Program Director!

Name: Tracy Lucas

Hometown: Basking Ridge, NJ

College: The College of New Jersey

Major: Business Management, Philosophy

Why did you choose Ecuador?

After graduating, I knew I wanted to go somewhere new where I could experience a different lifestyle and contribute to that community. I discovered Manna Project International through a Google search for international volunteering opportunities and immediately felt like MPI was right for me. Upon researching Ecuador and reading about its diverse geography and fascinating culture, I felt confident that Ecuador would be everything I was looking for in a new home.

What do you hope to accomplish here as a Program Director in these next seven months?

I mostly just want to contribute to the best of my ability and better the lives of the people I interact with in whatever way I can.

Do you have any cool travel plans for your time here?

I plan to travel around Ecuador whenever I get the chance on weekends; I really want to absorb as much of the country and culture that I can. I imagine these seven months will fly by and I plan to make the most of my time here.

What are you most excited about?

I am really excited about being a Program Director for the Small Business Development program- a program that is currently being restructured. The program's restructuring allows for me to play a big role in designing how the program will run and shaping its future.

Have you ever traveled before?

I studied abroad in Belgium a few years ago and it really solidified my love for traveling. During my time abroad, I of course explored much of Belgium but also ventured to other countries such as Morocco, Portugal, and Holland.

What are some of your hobbies?

I enjoy trying new things, traveling, and watching television. I am passionate about continual self improvement, philosophical discussion with a focus in morality, and bettering the world around me.

What is one thing you hope to take out from this experience?

Overall in life, I aim to gain a better understanding of the world; to achieve this, I must understand the world's components as a means to better understand the whole. Ecuador is one component, and I hope living here will serve as one step towards a clearer view of the world and the people that live in it.

Oh, The Places You'll Go

One of the most amazing parts of the Manna Project Program Director experience is the incredible ability to travel. Having Nicaragua or Ecuador as a home base makes traveling around the country, or around Latin America, ten times easier (and less expensive!). The Program Directors are constantly improving their Spanish skills, which makes communicating while traveling even easier.

Here are some of the most incredible trips taken by members of my team in Ecuador:

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu: one of the new seven wonders of the world, Machu Picchu is so much more than any photo can capture. Clinging to the mountainside, breathlessly high in the Andes, visitors can walk among ancient ruins and learn about the Incan civilization. While it might be a common tourist destination, there is a reason Machu Picchu draws a crowd: it is truly an unforgettable site. Every year a group of Program Directors heads to Machu Picchu. Some choose to do the four-day hike to the site on the Inca Trail...others enjoy arriving by bus!

The Amazon

The Amazon: if you descend the Andes mountains from our site in the Los Chillos Valley, you'll soon arrive at the Amazon jungle, an ecological and anthropological gem. Almost every Program Director in Ecuador has the chance to visit the Amazon. This year, we even had the opportunity to take our second quarter retreat in Tena, on the edge of the rainforest. Visiting the Amazon is a chance to see unique wildlife, practice extreme sports like rafting (or something a little bit more calming, like tubing) and also interact with the local community living in the jungle.

Colombia

Colombia: another popular destination for Program Directors, Colombia is only a few hours north of Ecuador by bus. It is is even more accessible by a short flight. Though we share a border, Colombia is vastly different from Ecuador, and the comparison is a striking demonstration of the diversity within Latin America. Program Directors have visited the cosmopolitan cities of Bogotá and Medellín, the beautiful coast, and the coffee plantations in the mountains.

The Ecuadorian coast

The Coast of Ecuador: Manna Project's site in Ecuador is located in the mountains, which have a striking difference in both landscape and culture from the coast. An overnight bus or a quick flight takes Program Directors anywhere they could want to go on the coast, including the popular destinations of Puerto Lopez, Canoa and Montañita. The mountains where we live can get chilly, so having the coast nearby for a quick getaway is amazing. It is even warm there in January!

Don't get me wrong, we work hard on site at Manna Project! We aren't traveling ALL the time. More than anything, Program Directors find our time in the communities we serve to be the most fulfilling part of our work with Manna Project. Building relationships with homestay families, students, and other members of the community is made even more amazing when the setting is such an incredible home base for traveling Latin America.

Traveling is definitely another major benefit of working with Manna Project, and one that allows Program Directors to see the diversity of cultures, environments, and peoples within Ecuador and across Latin America. Program Director applications are due February 1st - join us and find out what it is like to have these amazing destinations near by! 

- Carley Clement