Travel is really, I think, mostly about good people. On that end, this trip has been excellent so far. I stayed at the hostal in Gringoland (the tourist district of Quito) for two nights. There I met people from Chile, Columbia, Holland, and different parts of Ecuador. Gerardo and I and some others that he knew in the area went to a club across the street from the hostal and played pool for much of my second night. I expect that me and Gerard will be traveling together in the near future before he travels to Columbia.
Yesterday I met up with a Couchsurfer named Pablo for a quick chat and he gave me some ideas on where to go during my trip and invited me to join him and a few of his friends in Otovalo next weekend for the summer solstice festival.
I then met my current host Carlos. How do I describe my experience with Carlos... he met me at the hostal with his friend Luis and we went straight to a mall for a wine tasting. I´m sure we looked like a silly bunch- the gringa with the backpack, Luis wearing a suit, and Carlos (the mono) mocking Luis much of the time. We then caught a bus to the end of the world to go to Luis´graduation (only in Couchsurfing). After trekking half the globe Carlos and I were not fancy enough to enter, and Luis nearly missed being called and was the only person in the ceremony not in a cap and gown.
We then went to Sangolqui, where Luis´ parents live and I met his father and spoke with him a bit in broken Spanish. At a small, open air place not far from his house we ate tripe and mote and had some beer for dinner. We had intended to go to a party when we arrived back in Quito, but everybody fell asleep within three minutes of getting to Carlos` house.
Luis and Carlos are great, and both are pretty fluent in English. But to allow all of us practice they speak in English and I in Spanish. We are a crazy bunch.
At some point yesterday I bought a phone for my trip... and at some point later in the day, I lost it. I imagine it fell out of my bag when we were jumping on a moving bus in the rain. At least that makes the best story. Pretty upsetting- but what can you do?
Later this evening I believe that we will head to a city outside of Quito, Ibarra, for a festival or party or something.
Pictures to come.
