It's been one week and a day since I arrived in Quito, Ecuador for the very first day of my South American adventures. It has been awesome. So far I've covered the Old Town (Historic City) and New Town (Plaza Foch), met tons of cool and interesting travelers from around the world as well as local Ecuadorians.
I'll start by speaking directly to all of you who laughed at me for cram studying Spanish ahead of time, saying that people speak English everywhere: you could not have been more wrong. Almost everyone in Ecuador, and I am in the capital, does not speak a word of English. If they do, it's just that -- a word or two. I was super happy to have a functional and even slightly conversational proficiency in the language from the second the hostel's airport transfer driver picked me up from the airport and started yammering away in Español. We chatted the whole 40 minute drive to Colonial House Hostel in the heart of The Historic City Centre. Upon arrival at Midnight last Wednesday, 8/31, I met my two dorm room mates, freshly home from the bar. Sarah is also from Los Angeles and Allen is from Scotland. Sarah was actually taking Spanish lessons here in Quito, which is something I am definitely considering doing in the near future, probably in Colombia. She is brand new to Spanish, and I was actually able to help her with some of her homework. Her class was just her and one other student, and they had a running faux feud to be the teacher's favorite. The other student told her he was writing their teacher a thank you poem. When Sarah learned that I am a writer, she enlisted my help to write a poem to top her classmate's. A love poem. I think we nailed it. Over the top, yet somehow still kinda good. I'll try to get a copy and link to it.
There are quite a few travelers here from around the world that don't speak Spanish and I find myself playing translator quite often which is fun. Most people I meet are very experienced travelers and help me be more efficient with buses, saving money, and other good advice, so it's nice to also provide an essential skill. But more about that later. Let's be somewhat chronological:
My first day, Thursday (9/1), I walked around the city alone. I headed out around 9:30 and walked most of the historic center, then because I couldn't find a walking tour I joined a hop-on-hop-off bus tour. This corroborated my previously held opinion that bus tours are NOT for me. On the bright side, it did get me to the New Town, Plaza Foch, where I hopped off and again explored on my own and found an authentic Ecuadorian almuerzo (lunch). Ecuadorian food is not the best, and it is extremely limited in variety (pretty much rice and chicken all the time), but it is CHEAP! We are talking $2 for lunch, including soup, salad, rice and chicken, juice and tea. Ecuador uses US currency. This is not to say I haven't had some very good food in Ecuador, there just doesn't seem to be (according to everyone else I've met as well) anything to write home about. After lunch I did, reluctantly, hop back on the bus which got me to The Basilica, the tallest church in Quito that towers over the city. For $2, you can walk a bridge over its cathedral ceiling and climb ladders up to its clock towers and spires for unbelievable panoramic views of the city. I did all of this, slightly out of breath since Quito is 2.8km (9k feet) in altitude (the higheat capital city in the world). My favorite part was looking down from the clock tower at the mostly deserted plaza below to see two children playing tag. A girl and a boy. They ran around in almost synchronized step, one neither gaining on nor increasing lead over the other. They ran in long swivels, carving gracefully along the cobblestone in wide turns like a skier down a mountain. It made me smile, widely, and I won't try to explain why because I think that's the beauty of it.
That night I met four people playing cards in the dining room at Colonial House: Shane (Ireland) and Luke (Poland), a couple who have been living in London but are moving to Ireland after these travels (have been traveling for 4 months so far), and Rachel and Alex (Arizona), a couple who left the next day but are back in Quito now. I am hoping to go to Mindo with Rachel and Alex on Sunday; but first I had many adventures with Shane and Luke.
Shane, Luke and I did the walking tour of the historic city the next morning, joined by two girls: Marcela (Manta, Ecuador) and Tanya (Switzerland). The walking tour was great! We saw most of the same things I did during my previous day of walking, but this time with context. We finished around lunch time, at which point Marcela and I took off to explore Pichincha, the highest volcano in Quito. We took the cable car gondola (the TeleforiQo) up and had some amazing views, especially of the rain pouring down over parts of the city. Afterwards, we grabbed Tanya from her nap and went to Plaza Foch to meet up with Diego, a guy I had corresonded with via the Couchsurfing app. He is an interesting guy, and I mean that in every sense of the word.
Diego told me that his grandfather was the previous right-wing Conservative party president of Ecuador who had been deposed from office amidst many corruption allegations but on the grounds of mental incompetence. Demonstrations following his removal from office forced him and his family to flee Ecaudor all together. When the family (Diego's family) returned, all of their property had been seized except for a farm outside of Quito, where Diego and many of his family now live. Meanwhile, the left-wing liberal party came to power in 2007 with the election of Rafael Correa, a social democrat, for president. Rafael is largely considered an extremely popular and effective president, with the tour guide on my bus tour actually making the claim that, "Most Ecuadorians consider him to be the most important person of all time." A pretty extreme claim (gotta love those bus tours) and certainly one that Diego's family would dispute. Regardless, his family persists as a relic of a largely disgraced party, but a proud one that very much intends to regain power.
The girls left for an early morning flight, and Shane and Luke joined us. The four of us had drinks in Plaza Foch in a bar called The Dirty Sanchez. My theory on Plaza Foch is that a handful of South Americans briefly traveled in the US, maybe a little in the EU and AU as well, and then created this tourist oasis of clubs and bars largely based on crude pop culture puns and western innuendo. By the staff attire and the bars decor, you can tell that the owners definitely know what a Dirty Sanchez is, even though Diego, who had been there many times, did not. There is even a club called "Selfie."
The four of us had fun hanging out for a bit, then Luke and Shane went to a club while Diego and I went to La Ronda, the bohemian nightlife street in the Historic City where I wanted to go. La Ronda is the oldest street in Quito, and is now like the Bourbon Street of the area -- far cleaner in all imaginable ways, but also filled with live music, dancing, drinking and culture. Diego and I drank
Canelazos, the traditional Quito beverage, on a balcony overlooking the night life and with a view up to the winged virgin on the hill, El Panecillo.
The next day, Shane, Luke and I visited La Mitad Del Sol - the middle of the world, latitude and longitude of 0. The following day, Luke and I found some free Yoga in the city, then Shane joined us for a walk up to El Panecillo, and we readied ourselves for the night bus to the Amazon...
