Back		 Ecuador: Arrival 1964
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In 1964, in a further attempt to finish my next-to-last year of High School, I found an opportunity to study in Guayaquil, Ecuador, with assitance from Herbert Evans, the head Peoples Broadcasting (Nationwide)

My original destination of Guayaquil is on the Southwestern coast of Ecuador, slightly inland on the Guayas River. This is Ecuador's largest city, but it is hot and humid year-round. It has long been the economic force of the nation, with the main banks and industries.
Ecuador lies  ont the Equator in Northwestern
South America. In 1965, the population  was just under 4.75 million. 		Unfortunately, when I arrived, there had just been a revolution to depose the sitting president, Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy. Schools in Guayaquil were unable to overcome a disrupted bureaucracy and admit a new student, especially one without the necessary "normal" prerequisites in Ecuadorian history and such.

Quito is in the central mountains, and, at 10,000 feet above sea level, cool and Spring-like all through the year. It is the capital, intellectual and diplomatic center of Ecuador.
In 1964, Guayaquil had about 1.2 million residents, while Quito was a city of about 900,000.

Quito. Circle indicates first location of Radio Musical and arrow shows Nucleo Radion location
My passport stamped for my first entry to Ecuador
Not wanting to go back to the US, and abandoning the informal "exchange" program that got me Ecuador, I traveled to Quito, the capital, where I was told greater leeway was granted to foreign students in deference to the diplomatic community. That was true, and I was accepted at the Colegio Americano ("Americano" refers to "The Americas" and not the United States of America) where I was introduced to classes unknown in Ohio such as Logic and Ethics, as well as practical ones like "Redacción Comercial" (Business Spanish). All instruction, of course, was in Spanish.

The Colegio Americano campus around 1964. Click on the picture to read about the Colegio Americano. The school  was founded in 1940 by Galo Plaza Laso, former President of Ecuador and General Secretary of the Organization of American States. President Plaza is shown in the panel at the left, standing in the center of the group.
My Ecuadorian "parents" Florence and Dr. Galo Ballesteros at their home in
El Batán overlooking the northern part of Quito.
Amid a busy course schedule, I found time to visit most of the stations in Quito. At one, Radio Ecuatoriana, the owner invited me to do a radio program with Top 40 hits from the US every Saturday. I also answered some of the station's English correspondence, like this request for a reception verification. I couldn't spell or proofread then, either. The show, called "Gringolandia," lasted until I made the decision to have my own radio station.


 The letter to the left, received by a radio listener in Pennsylvania in 1964, confirming reception of Radio Ecuatoriana is signed by the station owner and one David Gleason.

Independence Square in Quito, circa 1967. 
The Cathedral is behind the park. The picture was taken from the portals of the Presidential Palace.
The Central Bank is flanked by t
he entrance to the Cathedral.
Quito is only a few kilometers to the South of the Equator. Here is the monument as it looks today at latitude 0.
Because the city is at an altitude of 10,000 feet the climate is "Spring-like" all year around, going from just above freezing late at night to the mid-70s' during the daytime.