Day 18
Okay, so to bring you up to speed, since Thursday. Not much actually happened on Thursday, besides 2 new people in my apartment, Susanna and Leo, an older couple from Seattle, they´re cool, and make the apartment seem a little less quiet. Friday, a bunch of us went to see a concert that had come recommended, with directions, from Luis. After walking for about half an hour in the rain, we found it. The concert, as it developed, was VERY Christian, and as interesting as the folk music and colourful costumes were, we left when we all got hungry, and a man that gave the appearance of being a Bible Belt Evangelist started raving on the stage. Gave in and we got pizza, mine had a face, photo on gallery. On Saturday, nothing much, except managing to leave my money at home when I went grocery shopping. Sunday, I went up to the Old Town, and after getting reasonably lost, found my way to the Plaza de la Independencia, where a stand-up comedian was having an impromptu show, and largely making fun of the foreigners in the crowd, not me though. On the way back home, I ran into 4 shoeshine boys, Jesus, Carlos, Juan and Caliche, 13, 13, 11, and 10 respectively, who ultimately wanted me to buy them dinner, and me not planning on much spending, hadn´t brought any kind of money with me. Yesterday, on a hope, I started volunteering at a daycare a little ways from my house, helping a teacher take care of 3 year olds. This, was pretty cool, and went today too, but have had to dump it because I haven´t got the energy to concentrate in my spanish classes, and as most of you know, it takes a lot of energy to take care of little kids. There was one, Emilio, who reminds me of my little brother, anti-authoritarian, and always getting in trouble because he has decided he´s not going to participate in what´s going on. Other than that, I managed to bake bread at my apartment last night, difficult, having no bread board or with one exception, any baking pans at all.
This brings us to today... they are electing representatives to the new National Assembly, whose job it will be to change the Ecuadorian Constitution, parties are very low key this week as a result, with a distinct lack of alcohol.
25.9.07
20.9.07
Threatened with a knife on a bus, got lost five times now, still don´t speak any German
Day 13
So let´s back things up a little, Quito is modern enough that it has it´s own chain of supermarkets, where everything is considerably cheaper than buying from street vendors, so, aside from fruit, water and other drinks, I´m buying my food from the supermarket, which is about 6 blocks from my apartment. Another notable feature of Quito is the ubiquitous presence of English/Irish pubs, notably the one I went to, Irish, called Finn McCool´s, where the various english-speaking nationalities congregate every Tuesday night for a pub quiz. This illuminated as well that I am easily one of the youngest travelers here, the average age seem to be about 20-23. I know I´m here to experience Latin America, but it´s easier on the nerves taking a break once a week.
I´ve gotten lost several times now, the first time was day 5, I ended up several blocks southwest of where I wanted to be. Twice I´ve gotten north and south mixed up and ended up going in the exact wrong direction, and twice I´ve gotten on the wrong bus.
There is a fairly wide selection of nationality in the city. There are of course the Ecuadorians, notably Luis, whose sole occupation in life seems to be to find a pretty foreign girl to have a beer with every night Emma and Carly, who I currently wander around with a lot, are both British (Cornwall and Coventry, respectively), there are a DISGUSTING number of German and Austrian travelers here too, Lisa, Andrew, Catherine and Maxi, and conversations at the moment tend to be a hybrid of English, Spanish, and German, or EspanDeutschlish, which is as awkward as it sounds.
On Saturday, Day 8, I went up to Otavalo, a small town a couple hours north of Quito, thats claim to fame is one of the largest markets on the continent. For those that have seen the daily market in Quito, that is tiny, compared to the market in Otavalo on a Saturday, it occupies the equivalant of about 8 city blocks, and is largely made of arts and crafts, with a lot of food vendors mixed in. I bought a few things, which you MUST haggle for, as the opening price is quite a bit higher than the standard of the market in Quito and elsewhere, I figured it to be about 30%.
Monday, I had my first teacher change, the new one´s name is Pablo, and the first homework I got was to create a composition of my understanding of the Latin American economy, which was dope. Tuesday, I tried to go cash some of my traveler´s cheques. As it developed, the national banks in Ecuador don´t change them anymore, and you have to find a currency-exchange bureau, un casa de cambio, which took me an hour and half to find one that would change them. For future reference, travel with debit only, it saves grief. At this point, I tried to take the bus home, but somehow ended up on a bus to one of the working-class neighbourhoods in the northwest of Quito. Right at the end of the road, the people there live in nothing more than 4 concrete walls with some aluminum thrown over top for a roof. Anyway, about halfway back to the Mariscal on this bus, 3 kids, got on the bus, and one of them sat down beside me, another in front, and the 3rd across the aisle of the bus. I later found their names to be David, Javiar, and I didn´t find out the 3rd´s name He flashed, what I later understood was a steak knife, up his sleeve. This actually scared me for about 30 seconds, before a few things came to light. First, we´re on a city bus, second, David was 8 years old. He obviously thought he should be threatening, except that he didn´t understand the harsh reality of mugging and theft, he is still only a kid, and hadn´t really learned to be heartless. They had taken interest in my watch, but instead, I spent half my trip talking to them. Apparently, they are amongst a number of street children, they told me they weren´t the only ones who have their parents ditch them and move to other places, leaving them to take care of themselves. I got off the bus back in the Mariscal, saying goodbye to my amigos, and spent the evening listening a pop band in the main plaza, with a female lead singer, that was evidently trying to sound pop, but here spanish accent made it sound like, a puppy being trodden on. Yesterday, I discovered a fair trade shop, in the Museo Etnographia, which seems to feature expensive art work, but no almost nothing else, and I was looking for FT coffee and bananas. There was a party/cook out at Emma and Carly´s flat, which is in the old town, in one of the more dodgy neighbourhoods, La Marin, and has a fantastic view of the main cathedral, a stark contrast to my rather upscale flat in the Metro area.
This brings us up to today, I have learned the imperfect tense, "I used to not know it," and I´m dog tired, but supposedly, there are supposed to be more people moving into my apartment today, which should liven things up at my otherwise quiet living conditions.
So far, so good...
So let´s back things up a little, Quito is modern enough that it has it´s own chain of supermarkets, where everything is considerably cheaper than buying from street vendors, so, aside from fruit, water and other drinks, I´m buying my food from the supermarket, which is about 6 blocks from my apartment. Another notable feature of Quito is the ubiquitous presence of English/Irish pubs, notably the one I went to, Irish, called Finn McCool´s, where the various english-speaking nationalities congregate every Tuesday night for a pub quiz. This illuminated as well that I am easily one of the youngest travelers here, the average age seem to be about 20-23. I know I´m here to experience Latin America, but it´s easier on the nerves taking a break once a week.
I´ve gotten lost several times now, the first time was day 5, I ended up several blocks southwest of where I wanted to be. Twice I´ve gotten north and south mixed up and ended up going in the exact wrong direction, and twice I´ve gotten on the wrong bus.
There is a fairly wide selection of nationality in the city. There are of course the Ecuadorians, notably Luis, whose sole occupation in life seems to be to find a pretty foreign girl to have a beer with every night Emma and Carly, who I currently wander around with a lot, are both British (Cornwall and Coventry, respectively), there are a DISGUSTING number of German and Austrian travelers here too, Lisa, Andrew, Catherine and Maxi, and conversations at the moment tend to be a hybrid of English, Spanish, and German, or EspanDeutschlish, which is as awkward as it sounds.
On Saturday, Day 8, I went up to Otavalo, a small town a couple hours north of Quito, thats claim to fame is one of the largest markets on the continent. For those that have seen the daily market in Quito, that is tiny, compared to the market in Otavalo on a Saturday, it occupies the equivalant of about 8 city blocks, and is largely made of arts and crafts, with a lot of food vendors mixed in. I bought a few things, which you MUST haggle for, as the opening price is quite a bit higher than the standard of the market in Quito and elsewhere, I figured it to be about 30%.
Monday, I had my first teacher change, the new one´s name is Pablo, and the first homework I got was to create a composition of my understanding of the Latin American economy, which was dope. Tuesday, I tried to go cash some of my traveler´s cheques. As it developed, the national banks in Ecuador don´t change them anymore, and you have to find a currency-exchange bureau, un casa de cambio, which took me an hour and half to find one that would change them. For future reference, travel with debit only, it saves grief. At this point, I tried to take the bus home, but somehow ended up on a bus to one of the working-class neighbourhoods in the northwest of Quito. Right at the end of the road, the people there live in nothing more than 4 concrete walls with some aluminum thrown over top for a roof. Anyway, about halfway back to the Mariscal on this bus, 3 kids, got on the bus, and one of them sat down beside me, another in front, and the 3rd across the aisle of the bus. I later found their names to be David, Javiar, and I didn´t find out the 3rd´s name He flashed, what I later understood was a steak knife, up his sleeve. This actually scared me for about 30 seconds, before a few things came to light. First, we´re on a city bus, second, David was 8 years old. He obviously thought he should be threatening, except that he didn´t understand the harsh reality of mugging and theft, he is still only a kid, and hadn´t really learned to be heartless. They had taken interest in my watch, but instead, I spent half my trip talking to them. Apparently, they are amongst a number of street children, they told me they weren´t the only ones who have their parents ditch them and move to other places, leaving them to take care of themselves. I got off the bus back in the Mariscal, saying goodbye to my amigos, and spent the evening listening a pop band in the main plaza, with a female lead singer, that was evidently trying to sound pop, but here spanish accent made it sound like, a puppy being trodden on. Yesterday, I discovered a fair trade shop, in the Museo Etnographia, which seems to feature expensive art work, but no almost nothing else, and I was looking for FT coffee and bananas. There was a party/cook out at Emma and Carly´s flat, which is in the old town, in one of the more dodgy neighbourhoods, La Marin, and has a fantastic view of the main cathedral, a stark contrast to my rather upscale flat in the Metro area.
This brings us up to today, I have learned the imperfect tense, "I used to not know it," and I´m dog tired, but supposedly, there are supposed to be more people moving into my apartment today, which should liven things up at my otherwise quiet living conditions.
So far, so good...
16.9.07
You know you´re in Quito when...
1) The guy selling chocolate bars on the bus tells you a long story about how he has 6 kids and his mother is dying, which is why you should give in to your sugar craving
2) Beer is cheaper than water
3) The airplanes, because the airport is in the middle of the city, are always deafening you as they take off and land
To save time, and effort, photos for now can be found at my gallery:
http://andres-paz.deviantart.com/gallery/
2) Beer is cheaper than water
3) The airplanes, because the airport is in the middle of the city, are always deafening you as they take off and land
To save time, and effort, photos for now can be found at my gallery:
http://andres-paz.deviantart.com/gallery/
11.9.07
So far, mastered the art of sleeping on the floor of the airport, repaired my Spanish grammar, was half a block away a shooting
So to go over the first four days of my trip,
I got down to Seattle on the bus, and wound up trying to find a comfortable way of lying on my pack so my spine didn´t hurt too much from the tile floor of Seattle Airport. I ended up passing the time with Jerry, this guy from Georgia, who was going to Alaska to get his dog. That time was mostly spent discussing what is fucked up in America. After 8 hours on the floor, got on the plane to Houston, and from there to Quito. What got me was, when I got my pack off the carousel at Quito, the US folks had hand-searched my pack, and all my things were still there, but there was a pair of rubber boots and a bottle full of travel meds that weren´t mine...
YIKES!
So after the security guy checked them and they turned out to be safe, I feel sorry for some poor bloke who´s down here sin boots, bottle and medications. The pickup service found me, and whisked me off to the hostel, where I spent that night having trouble sleeping, mostly because my internal clock is whacked, not helped by the night club across the street blaring Bob Marley, and the some people in the next room making love.
Now about Quito, really, with the exception of the faster traffic, badly maintained infrastructure, and the ecletic architecture, it´s just like any big city, and I´m finding that I blend in a lot more than I thought I would. The doorman took me up to Equinox school, where I´m taking Spanish, and met my teacher, Juan, who spent the morning helpìng me fix my appalling grammar. My lessons end at 4 pm each day, and on the first day, I met Pia, the manager of the school, who is of all things, Danish, and the school´s director, rather aptly named, Cesar, and went to the school´s apartment to see if it would be suitable. The place is fabulous, I´ll post pictures when I figure out this computer business here. The price is a little high, at $250 US per month. I went back to the hostel to get the rest of my things, took a cab back, but the 'taxista' had problems finding it because it´s at the convergence of 3 roads.
Today has also been most interesting. Up this morning to find the woman upstairs, Rosa, who I share a kitchen with, made breakfast for me. I walked to the school this time, less nerve wracking than the bus, but the air is thick with car exhaust. I found the Canadian Embassy on my way there, easy to find, thankfully. Things got rather more interesting at lunchtime, I´d just left the school looking for somewhere to eat, when I heard the blast from the next street over. I came around, and found a guy on the sidewalk clutching a bullet wound in his left leg, it seems he was the victim of a drive-by shooting, but no one seems to have been a witness. Anyway, before I even realized it, the police showed up and quieted things down, there were around 20-30 people there by this time. In all this, I met an Irishman, Lee, who happened to having lunch just down the street from the shooting. I´m supposed to meet him this evening. The afternoon was spent talking with Juan in Spanish about human rights, politics, and war, which was awesome. Which brings us up to now
Not a bad start to a trip...
I got down to Seattle on the bus, and wound up trying to find a comfortable way of lying on my pack so my spine didn´t hurt too much from the tile floor of Seattle Airport. I ended up passing the time with Jerry, this guy from Georgia, who was going to Alaska to get his dog. That time was mostly spent discussing what is fucked up in America. After 8 hours on the floor, got on the plane to Houston, and from there to Quito. What got me was, when I got my pack off the carousel at Quito, the US folks had hand-searched my pack, and all my things were still there, but there was a pair of rubber boots and a bottle full of travel meds that weren´t mine...
YIKES!
So after the security guy checked them and they turned out to be safe, I feel sorry for some poor bloke who´s down here sin boots, bottle and medications. The pickup service found me, and whisked me off to the hostel, where I spent that night having trouble sleeping, mostly because my internal clock is whacked, not helped by the night club across the street blaring Bob Marley, and the some people in the next room making love.
Now about Quito, really, with the exception of the faster traffic, badly maintained infrastructure, and the ecletic architecture, it´s just like any big city, and I´m finding that I blend in a lot more than I thought I would. The doorman took me up to Equinox school, where I´m taking Spanish, and met my teacher, Juan, who spent the morning helpìng me fix my appalling grammar. My lessons end at 4 pm each day, and on the first day, I met Pia, the manager of the school, who is of all things, Danish, and the school´s director, rather aptly named, Cesar, and went to the school´s apartment to see if it would be suitable. The place is fabulous, I´ll post pictures when I figure out this computer business here. The price is a little high, at $250 US per month. I went back to the hostel to get the rest of my things, took a cab back, but the 'taxista' had problems finding it because it´s at the convergence of 3 roads.
Today has also been most interesting. Up this morning to find the woman upstairs, Rosa, who I share a kitchen with, made breakfast for me. I walked to the school this time, less nerve wracking than the bus, but the air is thick with car exhaust. I found the Canadian Embassy on my way there, easy to find, thankfully. Things got rather more interesting at lunchtime, I´d just left the school looking for somewhere to eat, when I heard the blast from the next street over. I came around, and found a guy on the sidewalk clutching a bullet wound in his left leg, it seems he was the victim of a drive-by shooting, but no one seems to have been a witness. Anyway, before I even realized it, the police showed up and quieted things down, there were around 20-30 people there by this time. In all this, I met an Irishman, Lee, who happened to having lunch just down the street from the shooting. I´m supposed to meet him this evening. The afternoon was spent talking with Juan in Spanish about human rights, politics, and war, which was awesome. Which brings us up to now
Not a bad start to a trip...
1.9.07
Testing, testing, is this turned on?
I leave: Sept. 8th
Countdown: 7 Days
I will be back on Mar. 9th
Any thoughts?
Countdown: 7 Days
I will be back on Mar. 9th
Any thoughts?
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