Blogs from Quito, North, Ecuador, South America - page 7

So as of today I only have 2 days left in Ecuador, which is a very weird feeling. In some ways I am ready to leave and in other ways I do not want to leave at all. This past weekend my friends and I went to Guayaquil and the beach for a last trip. The beach was amazing it was a great way to say good bye to many of my friends. It was very hard to say good bye because we have all been going through the same things and have grown very close. We are all from different parts of the country which makes saying good bye even harder. The beach howver was amazing, filled with fun times and not thinking about the end. Now I am back in Quito spending a last ... read more

Had a horrible day travelling via American Airlines from LA to Miami then Miami to Quito. Arrived late and very tired. Hotel is very pretty it's exactly as I imagined a traditional casa to be. We were hungry but told its not safe to venture out so I ate a toffee apple that I brought on the pier in Montery! Very nutritious. Today we wandered around the centre historic and took a 3 hour open top bus ride around old Quito. The churches and museums are very pretty. It reminds me a little of Havana in Cuba. The food is a bit odd here I had a corn on the cob today which tasted more like chick peas and rather than having it with butter I got a lump of cheese with it?!! We had our ... read more

The Ecuador adventure starts! After getting our stamps into the country we caught a 6hr bus to the capital Quito. When we arrived in the station it was a bit creepy, none of the lights were on and there weren’t many people around...we did wonder whether it actually was the station. We found out that the area we wanted to go was still quite a way away and we would need to get another bus or a taxi. I must admit I didn’t mind getting a taxi as we all had our bags with us but Lorina and Maria seemed more keen on the cheaper bus route. We saw a guy jumping into a taxi and asked where he was heading to, he was a Norwegian guy that was heading to the same area as us ... read more

First full day in Ecuador started off with breakfast in the courtyard of Casa Helbling. $2.80 gets you great bread, tea or coffee, jam (guava and blackbery) butter, and fresh squeezed fruit juice... Eggs and cheese are about two or three extra. Nice place to eat breakfast, surrounded by lots of potted flowering plants, and a giant tree in the middle, sticking up through a hole in the roof, with some birds hopping around on the roof. It's a nice place to stay, in general. Helpful staff, very clean, with a small library of books, lounge, kitchen, laundry, safe, and rooftop terrace. While we were there they were in the midst of repainting everything, so looked good! Only complaint was the gas tank running out during our stay... Cold showers! Most of the first day was ... read more

Whew! That was a long trip getting to Ecuador. Left my house in Victoria, Canada at about 5:45 pm. After three flights, two buses, a ferry, and a taxi. ride, it was roughly 8:45 or nearabouts when I finally checked into our hostel, Casa Helbling, in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Sister and mum rode with me on the bus out to the ferry, to see me off. When we got on the bus, Mum proudly announced to the bus driver 'She's going to Ecuador!" The driver asked incredulosly, to which she replied "Because she can!". A girl overhead this and came up to me on the ferry to chat about it. Turned out she was on her way to Indonesia so I gave her some tips on Bali. Went when I was ten, so couldn't ... read more

Kenny doesn’t realize just how small he his. Kenny starts fights he can’t finish. Kenny has Napoleonic/small dog syndrome. Dachshunds were bred to fight animals bigger and meaner than themselves. OR maybe Kenny just doesn’t like other dogs all up in his biz-ness and when they get inside his American sized comfort zone he snaps at them. Our 13th day in Quito, only our second Saturday, Kenny snapped at an Akita and the 150+ lb Akita snapped back. She attacked his head, separating the muscle and skin from the skull and his right chest area, puncturing his lung, tearing his muscle and dislocating a rib. Kenny was in surgery for about an hour repairing the torn muscle and punctured lung and the surgery required about a 4” incision. I’m writing this entry 26 days after the ... read more