http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Ecuador , Quito en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:04:52 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:04:52 BST Okay so i just want to make this clear the reason that Ryan and I have been on the internet so much lately is cuz we have free WIFI in our room and there is only 4 channels on the tv in english. I know listen to me complaining. Well today was an interesting day we finally made it to the immigration office today side note yesterday we went to the canadian embassy registered there and got a few na http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-303828.html Quito is a city of 2 million people. Admittedly it is in a developing country. However typically you don't realize it and there is plenty of whatever one might need. The fruit shelves are abundant with the most incredible exotic fruit you may ever have dreamt about. The supermarkets have literally everything you can buy back home. And there is beautiful artesania medicinal plants stolen camer http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-303745.html I had persuaded Edith a local friend to come along on this trek. Obviously Edith did not know that the four hours which I had been told by various guides would turn into eight hours. Well it wasn't really my fault. First one had to add one hour to get up from the Virgen to the Antennas and then we got lost twice because of the unclear signposting and the fog. And we were probably slower tha http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-302971.html As Edith preferred to relax more in Papallacta and could not be pursuaded to another hike I went to the Guacamayos trek by myself. It starts about 7 km south of Cosanga. Just about 2 hours from Papallacta the landscape here is completey different lush tropical forest versus the harsh paramo of the day before. Well as different as it was it was just as beautiful. And quite as remote. I saw a n http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-302970.html It is amazing how one can take for granted simple luxuries in life. Like for instance when you have an address for a government building you assume that that is where it is. Not so in latin america. We got up early today in order to go to the canadian consulate as well as the ecuadorian department of immigration to register our visa so that we could leave quito and start looking for land. When we http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-302901.html Hola Well as you may or may not know Ryan and I made it here safely as well as our luggage. Which we really werent expecting so that was a pleasant surprise. We are staying at a really nice hostal a bit out of the way of the main plazas but it just forces us to get out and walk. Today we walked around and just tried to get back into the groove. I have a bit of elevation sickness so we had to tak http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-302541.html Just a small hill um some 4100 metersNot to be disheatened by my lovely cold etc I headed up the teleferiQo. Dispite reading in my guide book that it was better to pay the extra cash for the express lane my host mum instisted that it was the same. So I buy a normal ticket and yes you use the same thing however I had to wait for an hour not really that impressed waiting in a que expecially giv http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-298171.html had my first spanish lesson this morning we mainly talked about the weather and now its raining typical even then its not really wet rain more like that fine stuff that doesnt soak you through fletch got invited to a party during my lesson my teachers family has to raise money for her brothers operation it is so common to do this out here that there is a hall dedicated to charity fundrais http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-298085.html After two full days in Ecuador Jen and I have only begun to scratch the surface of this odd but fascinating country. Weve been to the middle of the world and back. After visiting the disappointing and blatantly false Equator Line at the official monument about an hour from Quito we walked about 200 meters east to find the site of the actualy equator line. There inside of the funky and incredi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-297765.html well i have been at the center of the world now for about 24 hours. quito means center of the world by the way i havent had any symptoms of altitude sickness yet which is nice it is like spring here all the time apparently proving correct so far. i am just spending today trying to get into a language school there are so many here its difficult to choose. i had a great breakfast at my hostal an http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-297546.html Firstly sorry that I have not written any blogs lately... however this is for a very good reason I have finally manage to catch a cold which was always on the cards especially since every day I work with children who come to school sick.... So I hope that you will excuse my tardiness...Well lets get down to it an tell you all what I have been upto since my last entry.Hmm my next outing sa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-297183.html We have absolutely arrived. Flying is so surreal. One minute youre sweating in Miami Beachs neon colored humidity and the next youre flying over the panama canal. It was almost anticlimatic how easy getting to our hostel was from the airport. Upon exiting the plane we encountered what can only we described as a booming cacophonous banging of drums and bass as we descended the escalator. Not http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-296819.html June 4 2008 Atlanta GA Dekalb County Courthouse Courtroom 7B 900am Calendar CallThe judge sat in his seat looking down analyzing schedules and scribbling notes. Attorneys on all sides were requesting dates for their cases in a somewhat systematic orderly manner. Dekalb County prosecuter Jill Polster stood up and reemphasized to the Judge that the State needed to get their case on http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-296809.html Hey everyoneIve got about 2 weeks of recapping to do so this might not be as detailed as I want it to be. So the night before we left for the lake we met up with the rest of our tour group for the first time and had dinner and introductions and such. All together including Klver the guide we were a group of 12 and it turned out to be a superb bunc of people. First there was Hilary and Stev http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-296657.html My first attempt to traverse from Guagua to Rucu Pichincha a few months ago had been interupted by a thunderstorm which made it too dangerous to climb over the one steep rocky part in the traverse which was then covered with hail and very wet and slippery. This time though it was easy and I did the whole traverse from peak to peak within 3.5 hours.My landlord Patricio had kindly driven me up to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-296522.html Der zweite Tag unserer Reise fuehrte uns gestern zur Mitad del Mundo dem Mittelpunkt der Welt. Naja zumindest lautet so der Name der Touristenattraktion im Norden Quitos. Hier verlaeuft der Aequator zu dessen Ehren die Spanier und Franzosen ein Denkmal errichteten. Es macht schon Spass zwischen beiden Erdhalbkugeln hin und her zu huepfen und dabei die stechende Aequatorsonne zu geniessen. Ein http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-295450.html Hallo zusammenDas Wichtigste vorneweg Wir sind ab heute telefonisch erreichbar 0059399951746nach 30 bzw. 35 Stunden Anreise sind wir wohlbehalten gestern in Quito angekommen. Unser erster Eindruck Die Strapazen haben sich mehr als gelohnt. Auch die Hoehe Quito liegt auf 2800m ue. NN laesst sich gut aushalten zwar fallen die ersten Treppenstufen schwerer als gewohnt aber sonst sind wir vo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-294652.html Sitting here back at Bahia Caraquez. It's been a week since we came back from our moutain excursion inland. It didn't start out as I had planned geeze....really....We had gotten our bags packed and brought along a big plastic garbage bag to put them in for extra protection. They were going to be put under the bus with our smaller bags in our laps.As we got to the dingy dock Robin simply http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-294006.html I realized that some of my past posts have been a bit jumbled Im going to make an effort to make this one understandable for people who may not know my writing style. Please regard each paragraph as a separate space in time...I got some press and have a couple of interviews coming up as well. I will do an interview with a Quito Ecuador program about healthy traveling and the Bellingham Herr http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Mitad-del-Mundo/blog-292476.html Quito is the capital of Ecuador and is high up in the Andes mountain range at 2800m. The altitude took my breath away when I arrived on 19th June feeling a bit dizzy for a few seconds when leaving the plane and for around three days the symptoms were shortness of breath when walking around or up stairs feeling tired and a slight headache. The medical experts say to literally do nothing for a da http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-292033.html i know we said we wouldnt post again until sunday but well have plenty to talk about then so we figured wed go ahead and update a bit more about our time in quito this past day. we havent even left the hostel.. we got back close to dark which is about 6pm at the equator so we just settled in and went to dinner. last night was ecuadorian night so they made ecuadorian food which i must ad http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-291969.html Life is ridiculous struggle for an extremely large part of the earths population. Not a struggle against boredom or to find ones purpose but to survive put food on the table keep their kids healthy since they cant afford health care. I see it in Santa Marta of course but theres something about seeing it elsewhere that really drives it home. Started the trip with a long day at the pool th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-291953.html I will add more to this later the connections in this country are few and far between and always slowBecause of flight delays in Bogota I didnt reach Quito until much later than planned at around 930 PM. Due to a huge mob scene at the airport of people waiting for loved ones I had to pay twice as much as I had hoped for a taxi. The driver took me to several hotels in the Old Town an http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-291641.html It was 5am. I had already been hiking for an hour through the heavy darkness of the forest my glasses fogged with the thick humidity my boots almost lost to sucking mud on several occasions and then my headlamp decided to die. We still had an hour ahead up and down steep muddy ravines over fallen trees. I would only have the weak light of my guide Edison's flashlight to navigate. I woul http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-291290.html In our quest to view humpback whales off the coast of Ecuador we changed our flights to alight in Guayaquil. Thence we took to the buses to arrive in Puerto Lopez further north along the coast. The bus journeys were hairraising conducted at breakneck speed at every stop vendors leaping on and off to sell their wares kebabs patties juices water coconut and bizarely live crabs. All b http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-291255.html Seven Days in Ecuador Part TwoTue 1305 150508I spend my first full day in Quito wandering around getting my bearings. Quito is the capital of Ecuador with a population of roughly 1.5 million. The historic centre is a World Heritage site full of churches monasteries plazas and museums. It's a pretty stunning place just as you think you've seen it all you spot something else around http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-290399.html Seven Days in Ecuador Part OneSun 1105 Thur 150508I leave New Zealand after five weeks of frustration financial ruin and wasted opportunity. I look at my flight schedule. Shit. I know I'm in for an ordeal. My journey to Cuba to attend the wedding of one of my oldest friends will be long and hard. First I have to get to Ecuador where I'm due to stay for a week. A long time ago when http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-289925.html Despite a rainy start to the day the sun soon emerged its remarkably intense light warming the cool morning. So I had yet another clear day to explore continuing my tour of churches and museums piecing together the layered history of the city and attempting to understand the intense religosity that infuses all aspects of life here. Stumbled on a rally for the worship of the sun god Inti an http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-289712.html