Queso


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 * //__AL$L THE VOCAB IN CHAPTER 9B __//** *all vocab is found in the spanish book on pages 386, 387, and 394 media type="custom" key="3903679"

*All Cultura Vivas in chapter 9B are found on pages 389, 397, and 402 Ecuador!! __//**Ecuador is located southwest of Colombia and north of Peru. The equator cuts through the country just north of Quito, th nation's capital. Ecuador was once part of the Incan Empire. When the Incan emperor died, he divided the empire between his two sons. The divison of the empire however weakend it and lead to its raid conquest by the Spanish conquistadors. Ecuador remained Spanish until becoming the first South American nation to delcare independence in 1809. Ecuador offers visitors compelling natural wonders such as the Archipielago de Colon, also known as the Galapagos Islands. These volcanic formed islands are a national park located off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean. They consist of 600 miles of coastline and are home to an interesting mix of tropical and cold-climate animals and plants that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. media type="youtube" key="Qv80E_mmTiI" height="344" width="425"  __//**Guayaquil!!**//__ If you want to go shopping in Ecuador, you should go to Guayaquil. For the modern shopping in Guayaquil, visit the Mall of the Sun, the biggest shopping center in Ecuador with 187 stores, 25 fast food resturants, 5 banks, 1 large grocery store, 9 movie theaters, cibercafe's, music stores, souviner shops, parks and parking for more than 2000 cars. This mall is super big and very fun. But if you like less modern shopping, and you don't really like malls, then you can go to the Atristic Market of Guayaquil. In the Artistic Market, there are 280 exhibits and sale stands where working artists create and sell their art. Guayaquil offers infinite possibilities. media type="youtube" key="b4RTpS3PEeA" width="425" height="350"
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 * //__The Musical Group: Wave __//**They are in Ecuador, a very nice country. After their concert, the group went shopping in Quito. They didn't go shopping in department stores with escalators and all thst. They went to a province of Manabi, which is at the heart of the Ecuadorian coast. They said Manabi has beautiful beaches but that is not why they went to the town of Montecrish; they went to buy a panama hat for their new "look". Celebrities like Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper and Winston Churchill have used panama hats. Panama hats are not a product of Panama. They are made from a Carludovica plant, which is bolied and then dried and take 3 months to make just one. These hats are rather expensie but are very cool.

__//**[|Ecuador's Correa says AT&T, Sprint, MCI owe fees]**//__ QUITO, Ecuador -Ecuador's leftist president on Saturday accused U.S.-based telephone companies including AT&T, Sprint and MCI of "swindling" his country out of millions of dollars in long-distance fees that he claims they owe. President Rafael Correa said the companies had underreported the number of minutes of international calls they connected to Ecuador, reducing the fees that he said they were required to pay to the government according to the length of each call. An auditing firm retained by the government is examining call and payment records to determine how much in fees the state may have lost, Correa told his weekly radio show. A preliminary report suggested losses of $100 million, he said. U.S.-based spokespeople for AT&T and New York-based Verizon, which acquired MCI Inc. in 2006, did not reply to messages seeking comment on Saturday evening and a spokesman for Sprint was unable to comment on Saturday night. Ecuador's two state telephone companies, Pacifictel and Andinatel, were last year merged into the National Telecommunications Corporation. Correa on Saturday suggested that "corrupt" former officials at the two companies had facilitated the alleged scam. According to Correa, the preliminary audit suggests that Dallas, Texas-based AT&T underreported 274 million minutes of calls, costing Ecuador $38 million dollars in missed fees. He claimed that Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint underreported 148 million minutes, costing $23 million while he said MCI underreported 138 million minutes, worth $19 million. He gave no date or time period for the alleged violations. Spokespeople for Correa did not answer calls seeking clarification about what specific rules would have required the companies to pay Ecuador call-connecting fees. No record could be found of the Global Audi firm he said was conducting the audit, and he did not say when a final report was expected.
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