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...