Quito is the second largest and capital city of Ecuador. City is located between volcanos about 3000 meters up to the sea level. Quito has really nice historical city center and a lot of view points because of vulcanos.

Best view and one of the most famous view to the city is from Basilica. Historical center is really beautyful and teleferico is nice place to visit and know the vulcanos aroud.Our favourite club was Katari in Cumbaya.

Best option for travelling is with guys from IAESTE - trips include all. If you want to travel alone, it is possilble of course. Don´t be scared and enjoy it. Ecuador is not so danger country. I was alone in Mindo (bus cost only 3,6 USD) and Otavalo (bus only for 3 USD) and I didn´t have any problems. Of course respect some basic rules as don´t go alone at night out or don´t go to dangeres part of city. Nature around city is amazing. Places I visited are: Papallacta, Mindo, Otavalo, Tena, Galapagos, Cotopaxi, Quilotoa, Mitad del Mundo. Of course Galapagos was my best trip because of nature and amazing fauna.

Universidad San Francisco de Quito

My project was originaly about new material consist of concrete and some nature fibers, but my professor was really interested about my main field of study at my university and she gave me new topic. Because my main field is about fire safety of buildings, I was researched about fire safety of garages mainly about fire resistance of prestressed conctrete beams. It wasn´t necesary to be every day at university, so I worked from my home. This internship was for me very interesting and helpful for my next studies.

425 USD/month - this salary only covered accommodation and food

At university is English enough, but outside most of people understand only Spanish, so better is to know some basic words in Spanish. On the other side, I speak only English and started to learn Spanish and haven´t got problems.

250 USD/month, I lived in host family - by recommendation from IAESTE and this was the best choice. Family was so nice to me, they prepared sometimes some local food for me.

The IAESTE members in Ecuador are really nice people. They make every weekend trip and of course some special events like International evening or chocolate testing. And all the time they were here only for us.

We had WhatsApp group where we talked about program, sometimes we met at the city centre, sometimes we went for a beer and sometimes played some games. All the time we were in touch.

Et this university, there is a lot of options for sports activities, we played voleyball with guys from university, or football. Of course, in city, there is a lot of options for sport activities of culture programmes.

Local food is completely different from food in Europe. Of course, I tried some local specialities, but I prefer European cuisine.

In the city, there is no problem with connection of internet and a lot of places have public wifi, but of course, some places are without signal and for example at Galapagos, there was really bad signal.

Don´t be scared with this beautiful country and safety (only respect some basic rules as don´t go alone at night out or don´t go to dangeres part of city). IAESTE can hepl you with everything you need.

mosquito protection, sun protection, hat

new friends, new experiences, new knowledges about my main field of study, better communication skills

everything was good, i haven't got any negatives