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Published: February 5th 2006
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Old Quito
This is a view of the Old Town here in Quito, it is a maze of thin cobblestone streets, and colonial architecture So here I am in a webcafe in Quito fighting off a hangover of Hemingwayesque porportions, and trying to figure out where to start............ 5 minutes later and the lightbulb is still very much off, so I guess I´ll just be abrupt.
Just over two weeks ago I departed from Toronto at two in the afternoon, by midnight I was in a whole new world. Despite my attempts to study Spanish at home, my attempt to spark a conversation with the cabbie from the airport was poor at best, although when I brought up
futbol, the true universal language, the conversation took a turn for the better. Next thing I was in the hostal watching a poor Eric Roberts movie (I couldn´t believe it either) dubbed over in Spanish and then I was asleep.
The next day I woke up to bright sunlight coming through my window. I grabbed a coffee and went up to the hostals rooftop terrace to find out I was in a beautiful city nestled in a mountain valley 2800m up into the Andes. I spent that day walking around town aimlessly, it was uneventful to say the least, but that night was when
Again A View Of The City
Quito is very thin, but very long, it is about 25 kilometres from North to South the fun started. As my Lonely Planet insisted that if you walk around at night here you will be lucky to make it out alive (not true) I decided to stay in that night.
It was Friday and the family that runs the hostal were all having dinner in the hostal bar and invited me to join them. I politely refused, but they insisted and nexy thing you know we were having beers and talking a blend of English and Spanish. The parents didn´t speak English, but their children did so there was much translation, though as the beers kept coming, then the whisky, things got much easier. We were all having a grand old time until one of the other guests arrived. He was from Guayaquil, the second city of Ecuador, and the people from Quito and the people from Guayaquil don´t really like each other, actually it is more like a bitter hate. Not quite like Isreal and Palestine, but in truth not that far off. Anyways bitter words were being exchanged within minutes and the situation was quickly escalating. Finally the son, Xavier, told the unwanted guest that it was time to go, and he could
Me and Braden
looking preeeety tough!! wait outside while they got the bags from his room. When Xavier returned with the bags more words were exchanged and then the inevitable fight broke out. Xavier was easily getting the better of it, and I had to get between them to stop the bleeding, literally. But then something very funny happened, three bewildered Americans fresh of the plane arrived just as the fight was ending. They were understandably shaken, but me and the mother insisted they had nothing to worry about and ushered them into the hostal making sure they didn´t trip over the body sprawled out in the small hallway!! At the time it wasn´t so funny but looking back I could only imagine what was going through their heads. After this the daughter, Rosana, explained to me that all Latin Americans hate each other to varying degrees, for a variety of reasons that I am still trying to work out. Me and the mother who doesn´t speak English ended up closing things up at about four or five that morning, an eventful begining to my trip to say the least.
The next week I started settling into Quito, began Spanish lessons, and started making friends
with the people in my neighbourhood. The best of these friends is the man who runs the corner store across from my hostal, Milton. Here in Quito the corner stores function as a store, bar, restaurant, and local hangout. Everynight a coal barbeque is brought out front and Milton begins cooking
pichos, this is beef, chicken, potatoes, onion, and peppers on a skewer. These go for about eighty cents a peice, and a large Pilsner, the local brew for sixty five cents for a 800ml bottle...... My idea of heaven. On my third or fourth night me and Milton closed up his shop and stayed inside drinking Pilsners and talking women, football, polotics. He´s top class and we have become really good friends, so I spend most nights there talking to the people from the neighbourhood, eating
pinchos and having the odd Pilsner. It is a good place to practise my Spanish and meet the real Ecuadorian people. I have been lucky to meet some very good people and haven´t felt lonely or isolated once since I´ve been gone.
As for my studies, I have been taking Spanish classes one on one for four hours a day. I am
actually doing quite well and have learned enough that I can get around, have simple conversations, and most importantly, chat up the local girls. I think I will take two weeks more lessons and by then should be speaking quite well.
I went to a football game between two local teams, LIGA, and Deportivo Quito. We were supporting LIGA, who won 3-2 in a pretty eventful game. It was a good time, despite the fact that I picked up a pretty solid sunburn. Many of the players for LIGA are on the Ecuadorian national team, which is featuring in the World Cup this summer, so the calibre of play was quite high.
This past Monday my friend from Grano, Braden arrived in town. It was something of a coincidence that he was planning a trip here the same time I was, but it has been a fun week. We have walked around the Old Town, Braden in particular catching the gawking eyes of all of the school girls passing by, luckily for the girls he doesn´t know a word of Spanish or else they would all be in serious danger!
We also visited the monument that marks
the line of the Ecuator, built by the French, it is about forty minutes outside of Quito. It is a cheasy photo op, as you can see by the picture proudly displayed here. One of those things you swear you won´t do, but I doubt they would let you leave the country without going so it had to be done.
The next day we took a mountain biking tour of Cotopaxi National Park, which centers around the volcano of the same name. The ride starts about halfway up the volcano, at an altitude of almost 5000m. After being told repeatedly to use my brakes plety and take much caution on this most difficult of downhill sections I was off down the volcano. Of course I didn´t pay any attention to the warnings and was soon doing around 60k down the bumpy dirt road. I almost bailed a few times but always stayed level and covered 8k of downhill in what seemed like five but was in reality about 10 minutes. With my chest puffed out I got down to the bottom of the volcano the first of the eight in my group, were the land leveled out at 3600m.
Getting Ready For The Descent
This is about halfway up the volcano, where we started the bike trek. Really kisked some ass on the downhill, if I may say so myself. Although I wasn´t able to keep pace on the uphill sections it was still a very memorable day. The scenery was beutiful and we passed wild horses, cattle, and llamas in the valley. It was a very memorable experiance and a good test of my physical condition, which was surprisingly stable.
That night me and Braden went out in the touristy part of town, chasing girls around. We ended up in a packed disco where I discovered that I can talk to the gals pretty well in Spanish, and that I can´t dance Salsa worth a damn (Cat, I´m really wishing I had taken some lessons with you right now!) Unfortunately I seemed to lose their interest once we hit the dancefloor, and I have now vowed to stay out of Salsa clubs untill I can sort out my two left feet. Yesterday I enlisted the help of one of the girls in my neighbourhood so hopefully after a few lessons I´ll be a real Patrick Swayze out there!
I´m sure that I´m leaving something out, and that if you have made it this far you are praying that I don´t remember, so I will mercifully put this
Cotopaxi
That´s the volcano, covered in clouds. Made it from half way up there to where I took this pic in ten minutes or less. journal to a close. I´d love to hear from those of you who I haven´t heard from already, and of course any gossip or funny stories would be much apprechiated. This entry is kind of long because I was having technical difficulties and didn´t want to write anything untill I could post pictures as well, so I promise that I will be more brief in the future.
Hasta Luego Amigos! All the best.
Morgan.
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roxboxx
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waxy tips
hey, looks like youre getting a bit of a shadown there ... i say keep the mustache at least, hombre, looks grand !