Blogs from Quito, North, Ecuador, South America - page 15

¨Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.¨ - Preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) - ¨If you´d have been born in a family of the market, would you be doing what you´re doing now?¨ Eightteen European and Northern American heads shake firmly. ¨Why not?¨ Well, probably we wouldn´t even understand the concept ¨foreign country¨. And even if we would, we probably couldn´t be less interested because you don´t need ¨foreign country¨ to survive. And that is the most important daily activity here: to survive. And there we are: eightteen gringos and gringas from the Rich World, each of us with a (pre-)academic education, with enough money to fly to ... read more

is this starbucks i see before me? no. it's sweet & coffee. an exact duplicate, south american style, of the north american mega franchise. and they have free wifi, too! well, this is day two of my stay in quito and i have some 'splainin' to do since i have been quite here for a few days. the airport in quito is brand new. planes only started landing here in february of this year. not a speck of dirt to be seen. very modern, very sleek, very impressive. the one con: it's an hour outside of the city so although the cabs are not expensive (my cab fare was a flat $25 and you're NOT expected to tip either) it is a long ride. immigration was a breeze but there are swarms of people going through ... read more

After the jungle we were longing for civilization, and luckily for us our next stop was Quito, the capital of Ecuador. It was a 5 h bus ride from Tena to Quito, the funny part is that the bus ride cost us only half of what we paid for the taxis from Misahualli to Tena and from Quito bus station to our Airbnb apartment. Quito is on high altitude, almost 3000 meters, so it was considerably cooler than in the jungle, especially in the apartment as there is no heating and no sun shining in through the windows. In Quito we mainly spent out time in the old and the new town. The old town is one of the most beautiful colonial districts in all of Ecuador. It is quite touristic, with a lot of small ... read more

My alarm wakes me up at half past three, one hour and a half after I went to bed. As usual my planning has been a disaster. The travelgear I ordered on the internet wouldn't have arrived before today if I wouldn't have picked it up myself yesterday, my bank cards seemed to have arrived just in time but they still had to be activated by taking out money at an ATM in Holland (only then I realized that I didn't put any money on my new account yet, just too late to transfer money to it before the banks closed), I had to get some dollars and my malaria pills... at eleven at night I started to pack my bag and three hours later I was almost ready to go. After a shower there's an ... read more

Warum wir hier drei Nachte sind, hat einen ganz einfachen Grund. Am Samstag hatten Kevin und Julia 12. Hochzeitstag, sie hatten sich in Quito kennengelernt und wollten dort feiern. Am Montag hat Kevin Geburtstag (49), den will er in Quito feiern und nicht in irgendeinem Nest unterwegs. Also fast drei Tage in Quito. Ist schon ok, die Altstadt ist Weltkulturerbe und ich war heute drin. Es sind fast keine Touristen da, aber es waren unheimlich viele Einheimische da, die einfach am Sonntag durch die Altstadt gewuselt sind, in einer der zahlreichen Messen waren (7.00, 8.00, 9.00, 10.00, 11.00, 12.00, 17.00 und 18.00 in nur EINER Kirche, und es gibt Unmengen!!!), ein Eis gegessen haben und sich die Geschaefte angeschaut haben, manche waren offen. Die Kirchen sind zum Teil unglaublich geschmueckt, in der Jesuitenkirche sollen 6 bis ... read more