ESPOL

I arrived in Guayaquil at 23:30 last night and was picked up from the airport by X, who did a PhD in our group a few years ago and invited me to visit and give a graduate course. Ever since I shared a flat with an Ecuadorian guy in 1987, I've had an affinity with the country. Indeed A and I visited the country for seven weeks in the summer of 1992. So X's invitation provided a great opportunity to return. 

Having slept well and done some work in the morning, X had lunch with me at my hotel, and then took me up to Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) where I'll be teaching next week. There he introduced me to his daughter D who was to act as a translator, when necessary. Having spent the ages of 12-16 in Scotland, she speaks flawless English but, bizarrely, with a strong US accent!

I was taken on a tour of the campus, which is on the edge of the city, so is quite rich in wildlife. This iguana was lying along the branch of a tree on the edge of an artificial lake. We also saw green lorikeets in mango trees. One stop on the tour was the Artificial Intelligence department, where I was introduced to a professor and half-a-dozen graduate students, two of whom presented their work to me. I'd feared not knowing enough about AI to be able to feign interest, but the demonstration was practical and I found it genuinely interesting. After that I attended a welcome meeting, consisting of an opportunity for colleagues of X to ask me questions. Having received numerous apologies for the fiasco of yesterday's flights, I also started the process of being reimbursed for the tickets that I bought.

Once we'd fought our way through Guayaquil's awful rush hour traffic, I had dinner at my hotel with X and D, before I retired to my room.