Living Situation In Quito

I live a short walk from the Habitat for Humanity Ecuador office, in an area which is considered the more modern part of Quito.


Quito is a very looong city, and I am in the northern region. Quito is in a valley (or actually, many valleys, but one primary one). As Quito grows is expands along the basins of the valleys

I am sharing an apartment with a 33 year old woman, Francisca, who works at one of the “Fybeca” pharmacies in town. She works a lot and is not at the apartment much. Here’s a pic of the apartment building in which we live, and the view of the city from outside our gate:

This is neighborhood about a street away from where I live:

Here is part of the inside of our apartment:

Here is the part of the house that was most confounding to me when I moved in! The shower water is heated at the point of release; there is no hot water tank.

What is the advantage of this system? We don’t ever run out of hot water.

The disadvantage? There is only so much water the shower can heat at any given point, so the water pressure can only be so high if there is to be hot water. Also, this means that the bathroom sink and kitchen also do not have hot water.