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Published: June 19th 2007
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Well, we started out with a few bumps in the road, but all is well now. There was a huge storm and we got stuck in Houston and had to stay a night there. We arrived in Quito 24 hours late and eventually ended up in a cute hostel called Crossroads. Since we were arriving at midnight we booked a hostel (the Iguana Lodge) for our first night ahead of time and arranged for them to pick us up at the airport. I even emailed back and forth with the guy about storing Dan´s bike while we traveled around. A guy with my name on a sign was waiting for us and drove us to the area where the hostel was supposed to be. He stopped the van, got out, and looked around all confused. He didn´t speak any English and the whole thing seemed really sketchy to us. Luckily, we had another room booked at Crossroads and we told him to take us there.
Our first day in Quito was very eventful! Quito is the capital of Ecuador and is a huge city in the middle of the Andes mountains. We ate breakfast at a yummy organic restaurant
called Kallari. We had fresh fruit and banana pancakes. We were looking out the window enjoying the sunny view when we noticed a 4 year old boy going to the bathroom in the street. He did his thing and then walked back to his mom like it was no big deal. We´ve seen several grown men doing the same thing, so we think we know where the lil´guy got it from. The kids are so adorable here.
After breakfast we went on a cable car ride that took us up to the top of one of the mountains. Western influence seems to have gotten the best of Quito. At the bottom where you get on the cable car is a mini-amusement park with amusement park music blaring loudly. It just didn´t seem to fit the natural surroundings of the mountains. Nonetheless, it was cool to get to the top (about 12,000 ft above sea level) and see the view.
After that we went to old town Quito and checked out a huge old church. We climbed tons of steps and then several rickety ladders to the top. It was a breath-taking view. After that we went to lunch
the Crossroads Hostel
on our balcony at the hostel in Quito at a place that is famous for their huge fruit bowls. This is where we realized that not being able to fluently speak Spanish is really going to inhibit us. There was no English menu and no one spoke English. Of all the countries I´ve been to I had never run into this problem before. I guess it´s easy to take advantage of the fact that so many places cater to English speaking tourists. It´s tough because when I use the Spanish that I do know, they assume I speak Spanish and begin replying very quickly and we have to continually have them repeat or we have to say "No comprendo". The positive is that it´s helping us to improve our Spanish very quickly!
Anyway, Dan had read about a huge outdoor skatepark in Quito and we went there in the afternoon. It was in the middle of a park and it was huge! It wound through a large portion of the park. Dan rode for a while and met some local bikeriders while I played photographer. It was a lot of fun.
The following day we started our journey to a town called Banos. We read that
the bus terminal can be chaotic, but didn´t expect it to be so difficult to find the right bus. Everyone kept pointing us in different directions. Two guys told us to stay where we were and wait...we were able to understand that much. Then they kept pointing to our bags and crossing their arms. We had no idea what they were talking about and some guy who spoke English walked by and told us that they were telling us to watch our bags and hold them close to us or we will get robbed. Great. That made us feel very secure! We eventually got on a bus and we were the only tourists in sight. We wouldn´t have thought twice about our bags being stored under the bus, but those guys freaked us out so we were worried the whole way. We ended up in a different town on the way to Banos and had to board another bus. We took our backpacks on with us that time. We hardly fit down the isle and Dan said I smacked a lady in the face and didn´t even notice. Oops. Again, we were the only tourists around. Crossing our fingers, we
eventually made it to Banos.
Banos is truly a mountain town. It´s a tiny city submerged in the mountains just below Cotopaxi Volcano, which is still active and errupted in 2005. We´re not worried, though. It is so beautiful here! It was raining a little when we arrived, so there were clouds hovering half way down the mountains which gave the whole town a mystical look. Our hostel, Carolina Hostal, has a gorgeous view of the waterfall that runs down one of the mountains and is only $5 a night with our own bathroom, our bed, and bunkbeds in it.
Since it was raining, we decided to get massages. We each got an hour long massage for $20. Not quite the Thailand prices, but still very cheap!
Hope all is well!! xoxo
Peace,
Nikki
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Katie
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Wow..
everything looks amazing!! Good to hear your "bumps in the road" were little ones. Continue to keep us posted on your whereabouts! Love ya