Wednesday Marius and I ended up going hiking above the other side above Baños. Not really to eventful. Just a nice day to get out - keep working them tired legs I guess.
Thursday AM was all about getting on them bikes and going for a ride. 60 km to Puyo, the biggest city in the Oriente (the Amazonian lowlands in the east of Ecuador). The ride is called the Route of the Waterfalls or something. Hmm, there seem to be waterfalls all over the place. It was kind of nice. The road was under construction so for a lot of times we didn’t see any cars because they were only let through in one direction for a 20 km stretch. Of course when they did come by, they really came by. We rode the cable car across the river. Scoped some waterfalls. All the standard tourist things.
There was a tunnel along the way with a sign “Biciclettas Prohibido”, bikes forbidden… Yeah, right how bad can it really be. Marius and Falk went ahead and rode into the tunnel… I was a good ways behind, When it was pitch black ahead and there was water dripping on my head and I was inhaling nasty fumes it was times to turn back. I hitched a ride in the back of a red pickup truck and found those guys on the other end. They had made it through - it was definitely a bit dangerous. Maybe with my proper bike lights and reflectors I would have done it,… Well, no harm done, an interesting time. We pushed on.
It kept getting warmer and warmer as we descended alongside the Pastaza River down into Puyo where we had ourselves some yummy juices and pizza - took a half hour to wander and then it was time to cruise back to Baños via bus.
The bus station was cute. In Quito there’s about 30 people behind counters all yelling out the names of destinations and you just have to find the correct one. In Puyo there were only 2 while we were there. The one lady with the shrill voice was yelling out AmbatoAmbatoBañosAmbatoBañosAmbato AmbatoAmbatoBañosAmbatoBañosAmbato about every 20 seconds, maybe 30. She’d be having conversations with someone, take a step back and let her announcement fly. There was no stopping her. Every… say 3 minutes the guy behind the outher counter would let fly a deep guttural Perna (or something like that) It was cracking us up. It reminded me of one of those frog mating rituals or something, like in the nature films.
AmbatoAmbatoBañosAmbatoBañosAmbato AmbatoAmbatoBañosAmbatoBañosAmbato AmbatoAmbatoBañosAmbatoBañosAmbato Perna AmbatoAmbatoBañosAmbatoBañosAmbatoAmbato
AmbatoBañosAmbatoBañosAmbato
Hey, the system works and you become desentitized to the noise after a while.
Back in Baños I went to see “Y Tu Mama Tambien” at Casa Hood and the boys went to the thermal baths. Watched some futbol (Cuzco vs. Quito) on the TV and crashed pretty hard at midnight.
We cooked a kick ass breakfast at the hostel (eggs w/ onions,tomatoes,…), french bread, croissants, homemeade guacamole, cereal with fresh fruits, and some stir-in coffee :) Studied some vocab for a while and headed to sign up for Spanish School for next week. I start on Monday, 8:00 AM.
Now it’s time to head back to the Hostal Princesa Maria to meet the crew for some more bathing in the hot springs and maybe another movie at the Casa.
I tried uploading some pictures today but was having problems… maybe another day, hopefully soon, I’ll get the next set up.
It was good to get a bit of time to myself. Writing some cards to y’all at the Mexican restaurant. Actually, I traded 2 Starroot cards for Ecuador cards ‘cause I didn’t have any more cash on me and wanted to keep writing. Bartering is alive and well here. I watched “Like Water For Chocolate” at the Casa Hood. good movie, reminds me a little bit of the 100 Years of Solitude way of life in a film… I guess Marquez was onto something when he started to write in his style that captured all the folk beliefs. LWFC captured the superstitious/surreal/traditional life very well. Yay, Casa Hood.
One more night in the Little Room that was too expensive. Chill breakfast on Tuesday AM (pancake covered with fresh fruit and yoghurt, i came back for more from the previous day) and I’m off to the Hostal Princesa Maria to see if I can find a room. As I go to ask the hostess lady is there, explaining a hike that I was thinking of doing to these two German guys, Falk and Marius. I show interest. Talk to them for a second, go back to grab my stuff from the old room and we’re off into the hills :)
Before I even pull out my camera we talk photography and Marius asks me what kind of camera I’m carrying, might it be a Nikon. Sure enough. He just bought his new Nikon digital camera right before leaving on his trip but didn’t bring along the software to upload to the computers. I didn’t bring the cable but I did have the forethought to pull the new Nikon software and burn it onto a Cd to bring along before leaving home. Sweet. A match.
We talk photography for a good while, I’m learning and relearning how to talk about photography in German, grr, and here I’m supposed to be learning Spanis. So it goes, at least I’m learning something.
Three hours and 4 snack stands later we came to the top of the hill south of Baños and had some Humitas con Cafe for lunch at the next snack stand. Down down down, having a great time, killing out 26 and 27 year olds’ knees by running down the path and goofing off and shooting movies of our jumps on the digital cameras. Along the way when we passed houses along the path we could see all the kids scramble along the path as fast as they could to get out and see us, I even has a pen for the kid who asked for a pen. Cool Deal.
Into the valley down down down, some photos with the burro and we end up catching a ride back into Baños with a pickup truck full of locals.
The mentality is interesting. How we Gringos are perceived. I was asked how much my camera cost, how much flights cost. They asked Falk if he owns his own airplane. From having $800 for a flight to having your own airplace. I guess, once you get past a certain threshold it doesn’t matter. For some of us it’s wow, win the lottery, a million dollars. I can do ANYTHING. For the local campesinos it’s wow, you have $1000, you can do ANYTHING. No Limits. We’re all lottery winners in their eyes. Interesting. Interesting. In a way I envy their lifestyle, what they do and don’t know, the simplicity. Am I corrupting it by walking past their house and telling them about a bigger world?
This AM we met at 5am to head the the Hot Springs, the joint was even crowded at 5am. Not as bad as Carneval time. Breakfast and a 4 hour nap ensued.
Maybe tomorrow we’ll rent some bikes and do the ride down the river to Puyo, there are lots of waterfalls along the way. I hope the weather holds.
$2 an hour internet keeping my mind from rambling without end. All is well. Great new place to stay. More quality people. I’m hungry. Peace.
Oy, Internet here is now $2 an hour. I was so spoiled in Quito.
Well, I’ve officially payed a gringo tax by taking a little bit too much time chiling out over my beer at the bus station in Quito. I had a ticket for the 2:30 bus in hand - going to Papallacta I had gotten to the gate way too early and had to stand around watching my bag in a crowd for half an hour. This time, chill over a beer and go to the bus, oh, 15 minutes before departure. RIGHT.
Uhm, Saturday, Carneval. The line to get to the bus gates was about 25 minutes long. It’s not a security check. It’s a queue where people have to pay an extra $0.20 to get to the bus gates. Why they don’t add this to the ticket price. I don’t know. I missed that 2:30 bus and got on one of the 3:30 buses. $3.40 in the hole. Life goes on.
Baños is packed. I imagine most resort places are. The masses are fleeing home for Carneval. I got into town not having planned a whole lot and ended up having quite the time finding a place to sleep. I stopped by one Hostel and tehy had no room but I was offered to stay in the family´s house if I really couldn’t find anything. I had to look a little though.
I asked around a few other hostels and they were all full when I asked the owner of a little chicken restaurant for some directions. He asked me if I needed a place to stay - turns out he’s got a room upstairs that he rents out. It’s pretty shotty and I’m moving out after Carneval is over - but for now, it’ll do. Just enough space for the bed and a shitty mattress… actually it might just be a clump of sheets on some wood beams that form the bed. I’m glad I brought my sleeping bag and thermarest.
That night I ran into Katrine (Norwegian who had travelled around CA with Michael) and her new Norwegian friends. Last I had seen her she was in Otavalo studying some spanish for a week. Oy, I’m on the gringo trail. A gang of us piled onto the the roof of the party wagon open sided bus that was going up to the Volcano observatory. The Volcano had decent eruption a few years back but has chilled out since. We didn’t see anything of it, but did just kick it around a campfire for a while while others were sining karaoke.
Later that night I got my, uhm, white boy groove on to some latin dancehall and latin salsa and lating this and that.
Sunday a planned day of exploring Baños turned into a half a day of exploring Baños and a half a day of kicking it around the Casa Hood eating a little. Finishing Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and continuing to read El Principito (The Little Prince, Le Petit Prince) in Spanish. At 8 they had a showing of The Life of Brian. I think they have a film every night that they’re open. Neat place, very warm feel. Good food, and a nice book exchange.
My favorite thing about Casa Hood has been the Suggestion box next to the toilet, little notes to write on and different slots for categories of notes:
— Notes to Ray (the owner)
— Service Comments
— Random Thoughts
— ???
— Rants/Raves
— … and on and on
there were about 8 slots in all. What a nice way to spend the sacred poop time - writing a few notes.
Today I also just wandered around. I was gonna rent a bike at first and ride down towards Puyo (jungle-ish area) which is 58km away from Baños. There’s a mess of waterfalls on the way and you can just throw your bike on a bus that’s returning.
I got stuck in Baños. There’s too much music going on. Too many parades. I felt like I’d really be missing out if I didn’t stay here. I’ll have another nice day when I can go ride a bike.
Music stores here are interesting, there are about 20 CD stores in town, not one of them legitimate. They even sell MP3 cd’s - oif which I bought 5 today. They’re not all full so the next time I find a CD burner that’s not too expensive to use I’m consolidating to one CD and sending the masters to tmo for safe keeping. Some lating reggae. Some traditional tunes. This and that. It’s a nice sampling of the music I’ve been hearing here.
This afternoon I spent about an hour or two just sitting on a photogenic street and taking pictures of everything that passed by: Trucks full of people, four wheelers, mopeds, motorcycles, dogs, skipping kids, push-carts,… I shot about 200 frames all in all. I guess I do have to find that CD burner.
Bustling town, music, music, dance, dance. I’m ducking back out to find the cool looking Mexican restaurant I was eyening last night…
Ok. Enough of this Jungle talk. I sat down and talked to this homey for a while trying to itemize some prices and all and he’s talking about getting a $200 cut for his hard hard guiding work. That would work out to about $60+ a day. Last night I basically decided to call this stuff off, maybe go to the jungle from Peru or something… we’ll see. This morning he suddenly dropped his Amigo rates down to where he was basically not getting any cut at all. Yeah, sure, I had a good deal in the end but trust was destroyed and I couldn’t go through anymore. The hardest thing of it all is that he didn’t understand what the problem was even after i pretty much laid it out there. Different Expectations. Different Cultures. Me Gringo.
Anyway, I’ve got to start moving south, I’m off to Baños today to see what awaits me there. I’m glad to get out of Quito. The coast will have to wait on me a little bit.
a camping spot I found, at around 4060 meters, according to the topo map. Beautiful view, nicely nestled away from the wind, soft yet firm ground for sleeping on. I could stay there for two nights. I did.
I didn’t sleep well that night, I think it was the altitude. My sleeping breathing rhythm is something I’ve grown used to for 26 years now. Probably never varying very much. Suddenly deep slow breath in, deep breath out, pause, deep slow breath in,… wasn’t enough. I kept finding myself gasping for air after a few minutes of breathing. I was fine when I focused on breathing, but focusing on breathing is not conducive to falling asleep. I fall asleep much better when I focus on nothing. For a while what I was focusing on was… a nice dub groove, a Matt Murphy’s Altitude Music dub groove, go figure. Tuesday Night. Altitude. It’s only natural. I rolled around all night. Hours and hours. Sleeping some but not well. The next morning i felt… weak.
The next day was lazy lazy, Oatmeal breakfast followed by experimenting with the new alcohol stove - i made some melted cheese toast in an improvised oven built out of stones and the aluminum windshield. yum. I tried going for a little hike but just didn’t feel up to it. Turned out it was me and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for the day. Good book to be reading up there, maybe I’ll try to take up Sophie�s World next for some more digestible philosophical discourse.
I slept better on Wednesday night - I imagine in part because I was quite tired and in part because I was getting a bit more accustomed to the altitude. I had a relatively uneventful hike back down; much easier than the ascent. It was refreshing to swing by the Papallacta hot springs. They were a little bit too developed for my taste, I kinda prefer primitive hot springs out in the woods somewhere, but it was still enjoyable.
After the hot springs I had, hmm, $4.11 to my name. The bus ride back to Quito would cost $2. From the sketchy sketch bus terminal I had to take a cab to a bus stop that would take me back to the hostel. I didn’t have enough cash to take the cab all the way back to the hostel. Hey, it’s all good fun. Next time I do an excursion I’ll bring a bit more money than I think I need. It is kinda fun ending an excursion on $0.36 though. I could always have opted out of the hot springs and have been fine :)
Quito again, I stopped by the hostel to drop off my stuff and headed to the SAE clubhouse to pick up the stuff I was storing. Never got around to getting my stuff. Too much other stuff to do, donate my topo maps, conversation with a guy who doesn’t know how to stop yapping, and then there was a presentation about the Quichua Indigenous cultures, one of the installations of the Thursday night events at the SAE in Quito. Much discussion ensued about inidgenous culture and the impact of tourism and industry on their lives. The usual stuff.
One of the guys there was a volunteer coordinator for an animal rescue center south of Quito and they really need some people to work there. I’ve got his email address in case I run out of things to do :)
Back to the hostel, dry the tent and water filter, refuel on cooking alcohol,… post camping stuff. Good night of sleep. Breakfast I run into Bolivar again and I’ve agreed to head out to the Jungle with him. Won’t be super cheap. Paying him about $300 for 6 days of Jungle touring including food and shelter and whatever - and transport should be another $150 dollars including a hop into the Amazon hinterland on a bush plane. Hey, you only live once. I’d be spending about $20 a day in Quito just being here - that works out to about $160 for 8 days that I would be gone anyway — Hell, I have nothing to justify.
Now I’m trying yo figure out If I’m going to the coast for Carnival with Katrina who was out at ultimate — we were originally gonna gang up to head down to Ba�os this weekend, but now she’s headed to the coast with a gang from her spanish school, coast might be fun. If I hear from her I’ll head there and meet up with Bolivar for the Jungle on Tuesday. If I don’t go to the coast I reckon it’s off to the Jungle on Sunday. Oh oh, the contingency plans.
Politics: Oh boy, I’m starting to get a healtht dose of all that. There are uprisings by the indigenous populations all over the country. Blocking roads and all that. They’re basically pissed off at president Guti�rrez because he’s breaking a bunch of campaign promises to the indigenous people that he made ot get their vote. Apparently this has happened with other presidents in the past. Standard fare. Another nice story about Guti�rrez is how a few years ago when he was a Corporal in the Army he sold a whole mess of weapons to the FARC in Colombia and then when weapon inventory time came about he blew up the armory. Oh boy. Oh, and just recently some pictures of him with some Colombian druglords have surfaced. Should be fun here in the next little bit.
So dinner was with Bolivar, (a common name in these parts) he’s one of the Hourani indigenous people of the Ecuadorean Amazon. He was in my dorm room in the hostel, i played him some music on the mp3 player (i just checked and the ogg beta firmware is out :) :) A bit late for me to bring all my music in Ogg, oh well. Anyway then, Bolivar does some guiding around his town in the Ecuadorean Amazon and said he’d cut me a nice deal. The plan was to catch up with him on friday AM over breakfast at the hostel or something. I’ll be seeing how that pans out.
He’s really excited about his home and happy to show it off. Maybe a little pushy to get me to go. That turns me off a little bit. But he’s pushy in general. Maybe that’s his nature. Or his culture. Walking into the laundry shop to try to get my clothes dropped of he’s immediately doing his little whistle to get the attention of the lady behind the counter. Yes there are 2 people waiting ahead of us. Yes, she tells us this. I know this. Maybe it’s a cultural difference. Impatience. Unaccustomed to cueing up. I don’t know yet if I’ll travel to the Jungle with him. Hmm.
No maps on Sunday. No books on Sunday. I waited until Monday to make plans. Heading to the South American Explorers Clubhouse is always a good idea. Topo maps and hiking books-a-plenty. Otavalo and Ibarra areas had too many little squares indicating houses on the topo map. Mindo seemed too established to me. Papallacta seemed neat. A two hour bus ride away and some acclaimed hot springs - o yeah. Here I come. I stopped by the IGM (institute geographic military) and picked up a topo map of Papallacta and the lakes region to the north, not a bad deal at $2 a piece.
Hmm, a bit late in the day I almost stayed in Quito for another night, it’s not so great getting to another place after dark - but I decided to hop on the bus to Papallacta anyway. Standard bus ride, as the bus leaves the city about 6 sets of people selling their respective wares from ice cream to pork rinds to pork dinners hop on and off the bus and return to the city with buses heading in the opposite diretion. It’s kind of a freelance flight attendant situation and quite amusing. These kids riding in the back of the bus decided to sell their little perfume bottles - the brand-name ripoff kind, $5 a bottle. I can’t believe they sold as many as they did; maybe it had something to do withg the 35 minute monologue expouting the amazing properties of these particular fragrances. The lady beside me taps me on the shoulder and asks me to open the window, shwooop, next thing I know her whole styrofoam box and cup from KFC are out the window and lying by the side of the road. Maybe when my Spanish gets better I’ll be better able to take a high moral stance and tell her about world peace and Chicken Soup for the Soul and stuff like that,… for now its just smile nd nod. I think sometimes I let things like this build up in me too long and then when I finally get around to giving someone hell I really give them HELL. I got off the bus and soon found myself eating dinner at the Residencial El Viajero, rice and and egg on top, classic classic food. The owner asked me if I wanted to maybe watch some TV, “No Gracias,” I pointed to the old jukebox in the corner and gave a big grin. He walk over - turns it on. A beauty with a mysterious new world of music only costing me 5 cents a piece.
G5 - Yanahura by Polito Bunces (Cumbia)
C6 - Margarita Luge by Llorando Sangre (Pasacalle)
Q8 - Cumbia Triste by Polibio Magurga (Cumbia)
C4 - Pidete la Otra by Cecilio Albe (Bolero.)
A knock at the door and Romero-Romiro-Rom..meh… something is also looking for a room for the night. Pleasant fellow from Bogota Colombia. We take turns dropping nickels in the Jukebox,
C3 - Virgens del Sol by Fenix (Cumbia)
U6 - Estoy Sin Ti by Hugo Mazzini
E4 - Chica by Mentura Costa
P5 - El Ponch by Los Rumbaguana
…we run out of nickels, it was fun while it lasted :)
So while in Boston, talking about nightlife and junx, May-Li would always bust out the term “Gomelo” in lack of a better term. It’s Colombian, more specifically from Bogota as far as I know. It wraps uppety, sheeshee, image-centered, flashy, fake, plastic,… and all that stuff into a nice little 6 letter adjective. Maybe my new friend would appreciate if I bust out about the only thing I know about Bogota…. It was a hit, he couldn’t stop laughing for about a minute. Why the hell did Gringo-boy in Papallacta know gomelo - I can’t wait until I meet some more chill Bogota folks. I want to use the term again :) It was time for bed.
Mix some trail mix, brush the teeth, make sure the alcohol stove works at altitude, and I’m off to sleep.
Breakfast, pay for the hostel, start the hike. Up the road past all the buses kicking up dust, up the road passing various tourists in their cars returning for a lovely catered stay at the lovely Papallacta hot springs resort. Keep hiking. Pass the hummingbirds on the left. The cows on the right. Past the hot spring entrance gate (hmm, methinks I like primitive hot springs) and up through the lovely resort nature trail where the cloud forest was left intact amidst all the cattle land so that that tourists could enjoy a lovely walk through REAL cloud forest. It was actually quite nice. Keep going. Up. Up. Follow the water pipeline that supplies fresh clean water to dirty stinky Quito. Compass, Map, Where the hell am I? Check. Can’t breathe. This climb is killing me. Hmm, I feel like I’m writing Naked Lunch style.
I eventually get to the top of this segment of trail and hit, hmm, a road - i reckon my topo map was maybe just a bit old. No biggie, follow the road for a while. Look, a person - he’s actually Luis, the ranger of this here park. Cayambe-Coco Ecological Reserve. He takes me to his brick ranger station so that I can pay my $12 foreigner park fee and my $3 camping fee. I only have $10 bills and $3 in change so he takes $13 and gives me a ticket and a wink. $13 will do.
Up up up, The scenery is getting quite stunning. It was foggy and cloudy all morning but things cleared up a little bit. The mountains are so green. So tall. I’ve never seen anything quite like this, except for in pictures. Random sounds escaping from my mouth, oohs, aahs, ieeee, stuff like that. Spirits are high and after a total of about 6.5 hours of hiking mainly uphill at about around just under 4000 meters I arrive at a nice large lake and call it a day, dop my pack and look for a camping spot…
Once again I’m getting kicked out of the internet cafe. grrr, gotta start doing this earlier. I hope to finish tomorrow… sorry.
So I’ve really been keen on getting out and doing some hiking but that entails storing my non-hiking stuff somewhere and buying some topographical maps and/or a guidebook. Sunday here is dead as far as being able to aquire any of these items. Saturday wasn’t all that great either… what else can I do with a Sunday, I headed to Mitdad Del Mundo.
Middle of the World, Equator, 0deg 0’0” longitude. It’s a big complex with artisan gift shops and museums. On Sunday it gets real crowded and they have music and dance performances. Lots of fun. I’ve been meeting lots of people from Bavaria lately. One girl at Mitad del Mundo, one guy was in the hostel room when I got back to Quito. The british, kiwis, and germans seem to run in cycles. Yes, that’s my wisdom for the day.
Acutally I met the Germans at Museo Inti-Ñan, just north of Mitad del Mundo at the REAL equator - meausured by GPS. Mitad del Mundo is actually at the historical equator. They don’t like to admit it, but it’s true. So right outside the wall of the Mitad Del Mundo complex there’s a quaint little museum of indigenous culture and some equator physics experiment. The experiments are full of shit.
Experiment 1: It’s easier to balance an egg on the Equator. Uhm, yeah. This impressed me about as much as Jacob balancing his egg on equinox or solstice or whatever. Somehow I’m not convinced. I’ve balanced plenty of rocks that are a lot harder to balance than eggs, and that was, in Italy or something, damn far from the equator. The guy who holds the records for stacking golf balls, where did he do it, on the equator? I think not. What a farce.
Experiment 2: Coriolis effect draining the tub of water. So I’m supposed to believe that by moving the tub of water 1 meter to the north or south of the equator the coriolis forces are strong enough to make the water swirl in different directions and that if it’s on the equator it flows straight out. Bullshit. The tub was left to stand when they pulled the plug on the equator. The guy poured the water in from the left in the South and from the right in the North. That’s all. Waht a farce.
The cultural museum was nice though.
I’m being kicked out of the internet cafe,… I had an interesting dinner conversation today with an interesting fellow, more on that later.
It’s interesting. This state of Limbo. I could do anything. I could travel to the coast and lazy on the beach. I could go to Mindo and go tubing and kick it around the cloud forest for a while. I could go to Papallacta or Ibarra and do a little bit of hiking for a few days. Oy, time to hit the internet.
Last night was my last night staying with Marisol, the homestay that was arranged by the Spanish school. It was good. I learned a good deal. Unfortunately she was quite busy and a bit sick this week so there wasn’t a lot of casual hanging around and shooting the shit in Spanish to be had. It was more of a let’s talk a little bit over meals. That’s OK. We all have our ups and downs. I might try to do another homestay for a week in Baños. We’ll see if that materializes and how good it is.
Today I mailed my MSR Whisperlite Stove back home. I’m gonna go with the alcohol stove option. Much lighter. I’m still lugging a lot of crap. Some of the expendables are definitely books , but books are only so expendable. I guess when it comes down to it music is also expendable, NOT. Also going back home: The fleece shirt that I didn’t mean to wear onto the plane, the sarong that just takes up too much space, the two shoulder bags and necklace I bought in Otavalo, and the Art of War and The Teachings of Buddah. I’m holding onto the Tao Te Ching for now. I’m liking it quite a good deal. It fits nicely with my travel philosophy. The package weighed in at just under 2 kg and cost $14 to ship. Not bad.
I also aquired a new book. It’s a Spanish Grammar book. I was telling Marisol that it was easier for me to learn about the different Spanish verb tenses by reading about them in English in my little 301 Spanish Verbs book and here she busts out the book that’s brand new and she’s in the credits for. Sweet deal. I’ll but that from her. It’s a hell of a lot easier to digest than the handwritten notes that the Spanish Profesoras have been writing for me.
One-to-one Spanish instruction - Sitting across from a teacher for 4 hours a day, yapping for 30 minutes about the past week and home and whatever, general conversation topics. Then it launches into some grammar study with lots of examples. At this school the teacher would write out the rules and lots of examples on pieces of paper that we could keep and study from. This was all great with my first teacher, R., who had nice neat handwriting and was well organized. After 6 days with her I figured… maybe switch up teachers and learn to understand another dialect or person or whatever… d’oh, S. was quite unorganized and really insensitive to whether I had even gotten close to understanding what she had just said or explained before moving on. Maybe that’s good. It kept me on the edge. Having to push the limits of my comprehension. Fine. But then there’s the notes. R. had nicely separated the rules and examples and underlined things in a consitent fashion. S. was all over the place. The notes are basically useless - hence my motivation to buy Marisol’s book.
It was fun playing some tunes at the house. Plugging into the receiver I dj’d lunch and dinner most of the time. Jazz and Blues mostly. A little bit of Orchestra Baobab for the Saturday breakfast today.
Today I went to Moggely Climbing one of the premiere trekking and climbing guides here to see if they have any advice or maps for where might be nice to go for a little bit of solo hiking through the countryside. The I got some reccomendations on locations but for maps I’ll basically have to wait for the Military Map Store to open up on Monday. Maybe I’ll stick around Quito for one more day, do a little day trip tomorrow, and get a map for the Ibarra area or Papallacta on Monday AM and get myself out of Quito before too long.
After talking to the guy at Moggely I headed to the used bookstore across the street. They were playing some BB King in the boombox. 2 older men. I had a great conversation in broken Spanish. They were super amiable. I bough a used kids book for $2 and the owner gave me a free postcard. Hey, whoever posts a comment for this entry gets the postcard :) How’s that for incentive.
Highlight: Damn, what the hell is she wearing. It’s a skin tight grey pant-suit with black mosquito mesh over the belly. uhm. Wow.
Highlight: I’ve never seen so many people whistle at one time as when the 2 lesbian ladies were kissing on the corner of Fock and Reina Victoria.
For inspiration, I’ve been browsing Michael’s Photos and it’s quite quite nice. My desire to catch up with him in Peru or Bolivia is steadily rising. Oh whatever will I do. I have my last day of Spanish classes in Quito tomorrow - time to decide what to do next. Maybe I’ll do a bit of gawdy touristing this weekend and head to the coast for a bit next week. Stop by the cloud forest in Mindo on the way. Maybe, Maybe.
I guess when you’re at a crossroads you end up just having to make a choice.
I reckon that I’ll have to find some time to sit down at an internet cafe with the sole purpose of looking into some volunteering oportunies as well. It seems that’s a good way to experience the rainforest. Some good old-fashined physical labor if nothing else.
I think it was the first day I was here. I instinctually reached for the cold water know signified by a C. Oops, no. C is Caliente. It’s easy to know what the C means when you look at the other one and see either an F or an H. I‘m just waiting until the day when I find a sink that has both F and C, or better yet both C and C. Maybe I’ll do that when I get a house.
Caliente and Cold. Duh.
Maybe color-coding would help, but then again some people are color blind.
Here in Quito the Carnival tradition is to throw water. Pistolas de Agua. Bombas de Agua. It all flies. When I was riding to the ultimate game on sunday a kid on the corner threw a water balloon in the drivers window and it splattered on the door-post, close call.
Kinda reminds me of when I was 18 and it was the last day of school. We drove out to wait for our school bus to come around the corner and nailed a couple of kids in the chest with water balloons. Kinda like in that school shooting videogame. I love that videogame. It’s so fun to shoot up teachers and buy crack in the gym alley…
nevermind…
I think trying to learn how to use the verb tenses in Spanish is making me insane.
Somehow the kids here in Quito have decided that SillyString, that stuff from the cans, is a good replacement for water. Just 20 minutes ago I watched some poor chica trying to pick a huge wad of oozy silly putty out of her hair. wtf? Whatever happened to flashing boobies like in New Orleans?
word, i just got some pictures uploaded.
damn, gotta get to ultimate. lata gata. damn that girl has an annoying laugh. am i stressing yet. gotta get to ultimate.
(update: yay, I got all the comments done for the pictures)
Friday was uneventful. School. Lunch. Internet. Oh, Dinner.
Michael, Brigithe, Katrinna, Kate, Janis, Emily, and Volker went to Mongo’s, the all-you-can-eat select-your-own-bowl-of-meat-and-veggies Mongolian BBQ place, staked out a large table in the back and played cards for about 4 hours. Asshole was the game. It was fun. A standard Asshole game.
The notable quote was definitely Michael talking about whether he should get his California vehicle registration renewed for while he’s driving through Peru and the rest of SA. “I may have to pay something… If I don’t pay something”
Oh right, later that night we headed to the dreaded Blooms again. I see the same characters there every time. One guy, I can’t help calling him Status of Liberty is this big latino guy who does his hair up in this spiky Statue O.L. style and ends up there every night. Then there’s haughty dreadlock guy who thinks he’s better than everyone else. Hmm, maybe that was me a few years ago. The music wasn’t so bad this time. Cover was only $2 and It was fun dancing to the music up in the corner where the girls would show up from time to time when they’re have too much of the machismo on the dancefloor.
Late night kebabs on the way home and all is golden.
I didn’t really pursue doing anything with Beth on the weekend and wasn’t really sure what the hell to do because I wanted to stick around and play some ultimate on Sunday. Michael, Briithe, Katrinna, and Kate were headed to the big market in Otavalo so I figure why the hell not and I check it out.
Late risers on Saturday. I needed some rest. We eventually get to Otavalo at 2pm or so, the market starts shutting down at 6pm. We walk through the Market a bit I bought 2 bags and a necklace. Looking at clothes was painful. I ran into the same problem as in Bali. Either too small or the quality was CRAP. Shirts with single seams that I know will come off after the first washing, yes, even a handwashing. It’s a shame about all the nice fabric they use to make this clothing. I’m sure I would have found a store that caters to consumers of quality clothes somewhere in Otavalo but I didn’t have the time to wander around for too long. Maybe I’ll go back on a lazy day.
The best thing we found,… well, Michael found it, was a bunch of 13 nacked baby dolls. They were perfect for the rear-view on his jeep. Haggle Haggle Buy. It was only later that we discovered that these damn babies are squirt guns. We did a whole series of photos - hell of a good time - i love getting together with someone else who shares my passion of taking pictures os silly things :)
Oh shit would you look at the time, 6:15 already. Kate and I, the going back to Quito contingent, said our goodbyes and hurried back to the bus stop to catch a bus back to Quito. Hmm…. The lot is nearly empty. Crap. Ask around, no more buses to Quito. Luckily we were near the Pan-American highway and took a quick cab out to it and within 3 minutes we were on a $2 bus back to Quito.
I actually had the presence to ask the bus driver what the best place to get off in Quito was. We were taking a cab any way - we were able to avoid the super-seedy bus terminal by jumping off the bus at a highway interchange and hopping into a beautiful old unmarked rogue Datsun station wagon cab to take us back to the hostel. I’ve heard some sketchy things about cabbies gone bad from time to time… but hey, ya gotta have some adventures too.
Indian food for dinner. Sleep. Wake at 7:30 and meet the ultimate players at 8:30 at the Mr. Bagel on Portugal Street.
One of the guys works at the German School in the Cumbaya (sp) valley adjacent to Quito and we all drove over there to some lush field at the expensive high school for all the rich kids of germans/swiss/austrians/… working in and around Quito. Goddamn, you get winded playing 3 games to 10 and 1 game to 5 at this altitude without subs. Good fun though and I was already feeling a lot better than I did on Thursday. The dog was running around chasing birds the whole time. Baby was lying in the shade. I was teaching thumbers.
Kick ass ice cream and some quiche bridged me over to the BBQ that the ultimate crew was having. Sure enough, it was a BBQ, burgers, beer, wine in a cool little apartment overlooking the aforementioned adjacent valley. I don’t remember hardly any of these people’s names. It’s hard when I meet 15 people at the same time. Maybe little by little I’ll get it down. Lots and lots of teachers among them. So many. Teachers and a few were in the flower business.
Monday morning I packed up all my things and stashed them at the hostel before going to spanish school. Yay, I got to learn to speak in past tense on Monday. I’ve been so cripppled without it. I should be studying rather than writing this.
At 3pm I went to the school and Jose (manager/owner of the school) picked me up on Ecuadorean time and we cruised over to Marisol’s house where I will live for this week. It’s a nice little 3rd floor pad above a noisy street, well, at least I’m carrying my earplugs for a reason. We went grocery shopping and cooked dinner. There’s also a 19 year old girl from the US that lives there and being the sucker that I am I can’t remember her name either. I’ll wait deparately until Marisol calls her by name another time. It’s good to get away from the Hostel for a bit. I spend more time studying Spanish and speaking it. It’s not so easy to get distracted.
Oh, and she already had a mini-plug audio cable plugged into her reciever so I was able to rock some jazz for dinner over the mp3 player without a hitch.
On and on and on, I’ll head to ultimate soon and return to the house for dinner… I’m starting to have to decide where I want to go after this week. Hmmm… Some friends went to the hot springs in Papallacta last Sunday and gave great reports. Alex and Becca say I should check it out too. Maybe I’ll find a chance to do that this weekend.
Michael emailed to check If I want to meet him in La Paz in early March to drive around the Atacama Desert in his Jeep… oy, that’s really hoofing it through Peru. I have some thinking to do. And flights to Bogota at $154 dollars. Stabbing up there might be nice as well, everyone whom I’ve talked to who was there has loved it.
Oy, I’m a bit sore. After class yesterday I had a great cheap lunch, internetted for a while, left the international traveler hostel district and managed to find an ultimate game in Parque la Carolina… so for all the others out there that might be web searching….
Ultimate In Quito:
Pick-up game is played at El Parque la Carolina on Tuesday and Thursday after 5pm. Ultimate Time. Latin America Time.
The crowd is very American and Canadian, with a German influence. I felt like I had stepped onto the field of another pick-up game in the States somewhere. I was trying to run hard as I generally try to do when first playing pick-up with a crew. Damn did I ever get winded. 2800m (9500’) are not to be fucked with. I kept up the game though, a bit rusty, but it was fun.
Turns out the ulti folks are getting together on Sunday am to go play a mini-tourney on some nice lush field outside of town - I reckon I’ll be meeting them Sunday morning at 8:30 am at the Mr. Bagel in order to leave for the fields.
As far as Saturday goes, there’s a one day music festival out of town, De La Tribu is playing, could you have guessed that they’re hip hop?
Maybe I’ll go to Otavalo to check out the market. Reckon I’ll call Rabah’s friend Beth to see what she’s doing.
I should get out of Quito, pickpockets and hold-ups are getting annoyong. My friend Michael had some thugs liberate him of $30 when he took a wrong turn walking back to the hostel at midnight. It’s all about carrying a $20 bill just to keep the bastards happy.
Well, that’s it. Interdimensions is finally ceasing business. I had a good time in my 3 1/2 years there. More fun in the beginning though when everything was all exciting and new. Things were never quite the same after the first round of layoffs.
One of the funnest parts of the job was naming the local dining establishments:
Blue balls or not, I learned a lot and had a good time getting to know Boston-town.
I reckon I have more to say on the topic, but not right now, it’s a beautiful sunny day in Quito.
I did this collage right after I stopped working there. Loads of fun.
Ok, lemme check where I left off…
So I had found a Spanish school and was ready to settle into the new place. Turned out to be 2 nights. The facilities at the Hostal Alcala were much nicer than the Posada del Maple but but it was very much lacking the community that I’ve found to enjoy over breakfast. It was fun to talk to the American college kids that were on a semester in Ecuador to study ecosystems and stuff like that. Anyway, I slept better at the Alcala - ain’t no thang.
Somehow the the batteries fell out of my alarm clock and discharged. I don’t know how. I forgot to buy batteries yesterday so i had a very uneasy sleep making sure that I wouldn’t oversleep my first day of class.
The school is pretty chill. Nice and airy. It gets loud sometimes. Today a dog was running around barking and some people were laughing too loud. Maybe a bit distracting but it nicely breaks the monotony of concentration. Laughing and Dogs are fine with me unless I’m being mauled by them. I think I’ve only been seriously mauled by laughter about twice in my entire life. I guess it hurts a bit - but it brings a grin to think back on it.
Yesterday I was tired. After class I had some lunch with Janis and basically headed straight to bed to nap for about 2.5 hours. Much needed. Maybe it is nice to have a quiet place to crash from time to time. I don’t think the road noise would have bothered me at this point, though.
Before dark it was time to wander the streets for a bit. I like exploring new places. There’s so much excitement in it. I dare say it’s one of my favorite things to do… Oh, look, that restaurant is full of locals for lunch, i’ll go there tmorrow… wow, that dead cat with the bulging eyes is pretty nasty, i don’t even think i’ll take a picture… no sorry kid, i don’t want to buy and gum… hi hat guy, good to see you again, no i don’t think i’ll buy a panama hat from you this time… oooh, and sunglasses boy, i’ll signal to you that my sunglasses are in my bag and that it’s a cloudy day anyway… that restaurant looks good too… oh cool, i’ve been trying to find a yoga studio for a couple of days…
I’ve been looking at some plans online to build an alcohol campstove out of soda cans, thanks for the instructions, Adam. Yesterday after class I read the webpage and decided to make one since I could not find any damn white gas in this town. grrrr.
… o yeah, walking around I also spotted a little place that sells denatured alcohol in Quito, (I think it’s on Lizardo Garcia between Seis de Deciamebre and Almagro) they had a little blue sign out front. I guess I’m all set to build a stove.
Sitting around the Friends Web Cafe Bar (On Jose Calama between Mera and Victoria). I like this place. Good optical mice. Windows XP. Good screens. Nice music. Best I’ve found yet. I’m not really lookign anymore. I was studying some Spanish and reading Spanish National Geographic, cradling a Pilsener beer. Mellow mellow. Fending off street kids from time to time. These guys sitting near me start talking to some other folks and I overhear that they’re down here to do some trekking away from all the established guided routes. I’ve got to talk to these boys.
Introducing John from NYC and Al from Rhode Island. Fanatic lightweight hikers. We talk gear for a long time. I present my stove dillema, no white gas to be found. Tunrs out John is quite the expert in building the alcohol stoves and, oh, in fact, between the two of them they actually brought three. What the hell, why not let Volker have one?
I go back to the Crossroads Hostal with them and it turns out John has the same bed that I had 6 days before. We shoot the shit about hiking and I give them shit for not stopping at the Homeplace when they hiked half the AT. Nobody’s perfect I guess. One of their friends bailed on the trip. The friend who was supposed to bring some medical supplies. Right now I’ve got a 6 Cipro pills and 2 clean syringes in my bag. I told them I’d give them these If I see them today. As a trade for the stove if you will, and to lighten my load. We tested the stove in the dorm room, all good… I had to get to bed, class in the morning.
I’ve got an alcohol stove. It just came to me. Wow. Flow.
Today:
Breakfast I meet a British guy who was on a wine tour of the world. Ecuador doesn’t have any wines but he’s been to Cali and Chile and Argentina and France and Spain and wherever else they have wine. I know, Rix, but no - he didn’t go to Virginia. He was tacking Ecuador onto the end of his trip for good measure.
On the way to class I see a poster advertising a music festival for Saturday - hmmm, options presenting themselves.
After class It was straight to the South American Explorers clubhouse for me. I kick it around for a while looking at some volunteer info and as I’m studying the big map of Quito to do some planning I hear “Hey, mind telling me your name?”
Eh, ok… uhm, Volker. She says something like “I knew it. I’m Beth, Rabah’s frined from Fredricksburg.” She’s the one I’ve been meaning to call for the past couple of days and have always had too many distractions in the PM. She’s just getting a tour of the clubhouse, thinking about joining. She suggests that she’s trying to get out of the city for the weekend - we’ve just got to decide where to go… hmmm, options presenting themselves.
She takes off and I go downstairs to page thorough the clubhouse copy of “Trecking In Ecuador.” Putting it back I start talking to the girl that’s working at the club and she says that If I want to go, she’s going to some kind of an Ecuadorian celebration with her host family. Somewhere out at a farm. Out in the country. Then she gets to talking about one of the permanent workers at the club setting her up on a date with a 55 year old guy today. She’s a bit nervous. She’s 17 she says. Right interesting,… I guess in a remote kind of way… hmmm, options presenting themselves.
I left a not on the bulletin board pleading for the time and place of an Ultimate pickup game or maybe just someone who’s down with tossing a bit. Maybe there’s some other mean thumberer hidden somewhere here in Quito.
Walking back to the hostel I duck into an outdoor gear rental store. Crampons. Locks. Stoves. stuff stuff. Standard fare. I walk around the corner and then decide the check at the Podads del Maple if they have space now. I look into the window at the outdoor store again and HOT DAMN. There’s a big damn container of Coleman Fuel White Gas right there in the window. I inquire inside, $5 per liter - but hey - they’ve got it!!! For all the web searchers, here are some keywords and directions (Quito Ecuador White Gas Coleman Fuel for Whisperlite found, available at Condor Trekk on Reina Victoria near the intersection with Juan Rodriguez)
Now I face a big dillema. What stove? I’m pretty sure if I find any Americans that are flying home I’ll send my Whisperlite with them and use John’s alcohol stove. So much lighter.
The Posada del Maple had space again - I get into the room and there’s an ultrastar frisbee on the bottom bed of my bunkbed and the Norwegian girl that owns it walks in minutes later. I have to inquire. Turns out her boyfriend plays ultimate and she’s trying to get better at throwing. Don’t know how long she’ll be around but maybe I’ll at least have someone to toss with.
Stove, Gas, Beth, Frisbee. Things just coming together… It just goes to show, Flow. Maybe it’s time to start reading the copy of the Tao Te Ching that I brought along. Maybe it’s not necessary.
Well, at 11:30 tonight I will have been in the country for a week. Good fun and now it’s time to settle into really learning some spanish. I didn’t get around to looking at spanish schools with all the mountain biking and wandering around the park and being tired and it being sunday and whatnot.
This AM I set out to look at some spanish schools recommended by the South American Explores Club. Beraca was kinda low rentand therefore cheap. Amazonas was more expensive and in a fancy new office building. Maybe a little over the top.
I was sitting outside the Amazonas spanish school when I was approached by a lady that started talking to me. Immediately my GringoSelfAwareness kicks in and I watch my ass to make sure I’m not set up for some kind of a crappy situation. Not being an ass, just watching out. She no speak much English. I spoke more Spanish. Pretty Damn nice to practice. She reccomended the same Spanish school that everyone else has been talking about gong to and my friend Janice from the Posada del Maple (hostel) is also studying there.
So Elina, the woman who approached me on the street tells me that her sister lived in Germany for a bit and speaks both English and German. I’m still sorta trying to figure out what’s going on. She tells me that Latinas re very spontaneous. OK. So we call her sister and a half an hour later we meet with her sister Rosalba at Papaya.net cafe. Wow, what a perfect time to whip out the…
Well, let me back up —
On Saturday night it was Janice’s birthday. We ended up at Blooms and walking back to the hostel we found a pile of ID cards and credit cards on the sidewalk. Here goes GringoHyperAwareness. As the others pick up the items I look around to make ure we’re all legit. Things were cool though and when we got back to the hostel we checked out our find. A Credit Card, Pharmacy Card, Personal ID, A first grader’s ID card, and a few romantic notes. I was left with the cards and since everything is shut down on Sunday I decided to hold onto them.
… cards that I found on the street. We go to a phone booth and call the daughter’s school to figure out the parent’s phone number and proceed to call the father. Turns out he owns a hotel at the end of the street so we head down there. He’s grateful. It’s a pain to replace all those cards.
This is where logic gets silly. I guess I’m in South America.
He manages/owns the hotel. I don’t have a place to stay lined up for the night because a whole mess of American college kids on a semster studying ecology and sustainability are staying at the hostel. He offers me a discount on a room for the night. The room that normally costs $22 he offered for $15. Woohoo. I can stay in a shared dorm for $5 or $6. A private room at Amazonas Inn or Hostal de Reina for $10. I refuse as politely as I can in Spanish and instead he slips me a $10 bill as a reward.
Ok, so… I could have turned around and applied those $10 towards the discounted room. Maybe the discount didn’t stand along with the offer of a cheaper room. Either way, I think it would have been more economical for him to give me a room for $5 - I think I would have taken him up on that - even though that gets kinda lonely. I need the dorms to meet people. It’s a lot easier than on the street.
I took the $10 and treated Elina and Rosabla to lunch. Ecuadoran lunch. I’m slowly but surely checking off the food items of the Ecuadorean Sierra.
Moving on we cruised to the Cristobal Colon Spanish School (That’s Christopher Columbus in Spanish, no?). I like. I like. It’s got a nice open atmospheres where you can sit outside for your one-to-one classes and lots of students there - I guess that’s a good sign. I signed up to start classes on Tuesday at 9am. My teach will be Roxana.
I hope to arrange to stay with a family so that I can get more immersion. Hanging out with all these Gringos every night is fun but it’s not the best way to learn Spanish. Plus, so far I’ve had some quality time with all the Ecuadorean that I have chatted or hung out with.
I missed trying to get to ultimate pickup. I guess I’ll check on wednesday afternoon. There’s a great Ecuadorean restaurant by the park anyway and JoJo’s old teammate Kate says that there’s a good icecream joint near Parque la Carolina as well.
I went back to the Posada del Maple and it turns out they opened up another Hostal that they own to be dormitory style living so I got a bed there in a room with 2 chicas from California.
I reckon I’ll go back to the Posada del Maple soon to see if the usual suspects are still hanging around to maybe get some dinner.
Maybe I’ll give Elina a call in a week or two when I’m actually able to communicate a bit better.
Random Fact over IM: Thanks Podin, now I know that Colma, CA is the only city where the dead outnumber the living.
New Revelation: The street kids that try to sell you bubble gum and other junk are much better dealt with If you play with them a bit. At least then they smile when you walk away rather than pouting that another inhuman ass didn’t give them a dime.
Big plans to walk around the car-less Old Town turned into sitting around El Ejido park trying not to fall asleep. There’s a bit of a market there on Sunday. I was impressed by some of the paintings - beautiful textured pieces, bright colors.
Tired yuch - Until last night I kept having a hard time getting to sleep. Too many new things. Too much for the brain to process. Can’t stop thinking, planning, plotting, … Last night it finally caught up with me and I got a solid 9 hours of rest :)
I’ve been going out for dinner and drinking most nights with people from the hostels and such. Damn, it’s easy to spend money here. I need to get out of Quito - It’ll be nice finding a place where I can strap on my backpack, carry some food and not spend any money for a few days. For now I guess I’ll live it up in the city.
Ultimate - Now I got a tip that there’s some on Sunday and maybe Thursday - that means I might have missed it yesterday. It sure is elusive. When I find out for sure I’ll post that stuff all over this blog so that other visitors will be able to find a pickup game in Quito. It’s got to exist.
Well, So far I hit one Spanish school today… I reckon I’ll swing by a few more and then decide on one. Another day of walking around on a mild sunny day.
Oy, so I was going to update 2 days ago and was so pooped after the Mt. Biking trip that I never got around to it. Plus the music at the internet cafe I was at sucked and the mouse was mechanical and sticking.
Thursday Morning it was Up And Atom at 7am to get to the Biking Dutchman at 8am. Anthony and Jarrad had gone to Otavalo on Wednesday and bough 2 large bags of ponchos and blankets that they wanted to mail bu couldn’t get it off at the local post office so they were stuck with an extra 2 bags to take on the road.
Fernando, our guide for the trip, showed up right at 8 as did a couple from Amsterdam. On the way we passed through Salcedo, some kind of ice cream capital for that area. Every little store in the town has a big white cooler of these truncated code icecreams on a stick that are super tasty. Like whole milk and all that with layers of different flavors. mhhh. I’ll try to find some here in Quito. Our biking trip was to first go to Cotopaxi and hit Chimborazo the next day. A nice Landcruiser ride and we were at 4000+ meters below the refruge on Cotopaxi - strapped on some kneepads and elbow pads and we were off. Straight up downhill cruise. For 3 hours probably. My only complaints were not having bar-ends as I wanted to change my grip after half an hour of riding down washboard roads and the other complaint was not having toeclips which I got so used to on my bike. I was getting better at bunny hopping without them after a while but I was still intimidated out of taking a bunch of really big drops.
That night we stayed in Posada Urbina, an old train station converted into a hostel. Beautiful, and it was refreshing to be out in the countryside. It was cloudy when we arrived but the morning granted us an amazing crisp view of Chimborazo in all its glory. After a tasty breakfast we loaded into the SUV and took some backroad cutoffs. That was the most impressive part of the trip sofar. Almost more of a highlight than the biking and views was peeking into the life of the campesinos (countryfolk) as they were driving their assorted herds of sheep, burros, cows, and dogs along the road. The burros were sooooooo soooooo cute with the long hair that had to be cut out from in front of their eyes. Reminds me of Kandu, the Lhasa Apso I grew up with.
We drove near the refuge on Chimborazo and hiked the remaining bit to get to the refuge, nestled in at 5000 meters. Feeling the altitude on the hike. I can’t imagine what it’s like to summit that mountain. Maybe I’ll get around to climbing Cotpaxi, we’ll see.
The ride down from Chimborazo was really incredible. The first bit was a nicely banked dirt road and then we got onto a paved road cut out of some of the volcano exposing beautiful stratifications of volcanic sediment. Probably a Geologist’s dream, something I don’t know a whole lot about.
On the way back to Quito we dropped off Jarrad and Athony in Ambato and their extra bags to catch a bus to Baños. I hope they fare well. Alone again I rode back to Quito with Fernando talking about bicycle advocacy the whole way. When he was in college he was one of the early members of Ciclovias para Quito, which has now progressed to getting a main drag in Quito cleared of cars for one Sunday every month to promote alternative forms of transportation. In a sec I’ll email him and put him in touch with Bikes not Bombs, it might be good for the organizations to know about each other.
Back in Quito I checked into the Posada del Maple and got a private room because I was super-pooped and wanted to spread out my gear and just escape for a bit. I spent the day walking around Parque la Carolina, a great urban park with lots of futbol, Ecuavolly (a volleyball variant played with a soccer ball) and Pelota Nacional, a game unlike any I’ve ever seen. Big wooden clubs/raquets with conical rubber bumpers on them and a long narrow field they volley a rubber ball back and forth. It’s hard to explain even in person. Maybe I’ll get some pictures up one of these days.
Warubi is what was written on the back of the sign of the public workout spectacle that was going on when I arrived in the park. It was sort of a live Jane Fonda workout. Like those things you find on the low-rent cable channels. What was cool about it was that It was in a park and there actually a few hundred people participating in situps and armtwists and whatever exercises the group did to the Bangels and Billy Joel.
I spent some time kicking the hacky sack and doing yoga and some plyometrics to try to get used to the altitude. Sprints and high jumps kicked my ass.
All day I had out my dictionar and was translating things that I saw in the park. It was like spelling class in grade school, Unit 12: Around the Park. I forget a lot of the words but I’ll definitely recognize them when I see them again or hear them. It’s a start.
I had my first Ecuadorean meal at Camino Del Sol just beside the park. Fritadas with all kinds of things I don’t recognize and a huge helping of Avocado and Banana, peanuts, mote (almost like edamame) - Damn good, too much for me to eat. I can’t wait to try Chugchucarras and Llapingachos and Cuy… And yes, the juices are heavenly.
On the way back I was cheking out some internet cafe’s just to find ones with good mice and USB in the front of the computer and good music and got invited to drink beers and shoot the shit with one of the owners and his friends/employees for an hour or 2. My first real attempt at Spanish conversation.
At the hostel I ran into a new crew of kids and it was time to go out and celebrate a birthday. I was so full from lunch I only ate Tiramisu for dinner. While at the restaurant two different musicians came in on their circuit and set up camp at the door and played for a while. I’m pretty intrigued to see a harp as one of the local instruments.
We ended up at Blooms again, this time it was only $2 to get in and the Saturday night DJ was decidedly better than the one on Tuesday. Figures.
I’ve been having a hard time sleeping well. It must be the new environment, so many new stimuli, new sounds… so much to process every night before going to sleep. Should be interesting when I go on the Malaria pills.
Today they don’t have cars in the Old Town so I think I’ll walk around there for a bit. Tomorrow I’ll look into finding a Spanish school.
