Los Amigos de Quito and multilingual tongue twisters

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Los Amigos de Quito and multilingual tongue twisters

We came to Ecuador expecting to pop our heads in the door and leave soon afterwards, but somehow have managed to spend a month or more here!

Before leaving England we had an offer of accommodation from Nancy and Christina who live in London and who also have an apartment in the capital, Quito. And so we find ourselves on a flight, clutching a piece of paper onto which we have carefully copied their address. The taxi driver seems to know where he is heading and in no time we come to the gates of the housing estate in which Nancy and Christina have their apartment.

Security formalities dispensed with, the gates are opened, the taxi drives in and we meet our new neighbours Soledad and Eistein and their family. The neighbours have put all the important bits of furniture (bed, sofa, cooker and crockery) into Nancy´s brand new flat for us to use for our stay.

The next day we wake up to a view of 6000m tall Volano Cotopaxi shrouded at the top by clouds and a stupendous view down what is known as volcano alley. We are about 25 mins out of town by bus and so we put aside the day for exploring our new environs.

At about 2600m you can feel the altitude as you walk around and we explore the old town cautiously as scare mongering abounds when it comes to South American capital cities, you half expect to get mugged the second you get off the plane or step of the bus and Quito is no exception.

That evening, as I prepare a curry (not that we miss it much!) we are visited by Sr Morales a close family friend of Nancy´s and his lovely little dog to make sure we are settled in. Later, Einstein and Soledad come around to do the same and we have a great evening drinking wine and chatting and make a date to go out at the weekend to the Mitad Del Mundo, the centre of the earth monument which is just outside of Quito on the Equator, of course.

Whilst in Quito we treat ourselves to a trip out to Papallacta thermal springs fed directly by a volcano. Its about 3 hours away from Quito in the Paramo which is the name given to the high altiplano like grasslands in this part of the Andes. The bus takes us through Quito shopping suburbs which are indistinguishable from their US counterparts and up into the Paramo shrouded in mist.

We jump off at the turning for the springs and head up the road on foot and are grateful for a lift from the local delivery lorry as the combination of gradient and 3000m+ conspires against our lungs. We book ourselves in for a mud bath and set about enjoying the steaming hot pools.

Mud bath was great, covered in the stuff and then wrapped in cling film and aluminium foil and had a temple rub and facial massage whilst stewing. One of Si´s first health spa treats and he liked it.

The day at the Mitad del Mundo was great. The Munoz´s picked us up with their youngest son Andreas and grandson Martin in tow and drove us out to the equator stopping for hand made ice-cream and a mirador overlooking an extinct Pululahua volcano crater.

And so we came to one of our first multilingual tongue twisters… we visited the pre- Incan monument of Ruinas Archaeological Rumicuho. You may or may not know but rolling your Rrrrs when talking Spanish is a given and although Simon can roll his, I can’t. Andreas of course thinks this linguistic ineptitude is hysterical and emphasizes it all the more and so I vow to learn to do it so I can wow him before I leave. Which reminds me, Andreas is around 9 years old and at this age they make great language teachers because they speak simply, have endless enthusiasm and refuse to give up until they find a word that you do understand. We wanted to borrow him for the week!

The Mitad del Mundo was fun. I went to my first observatory and Simon was horrified to learn that I didn’t know the moon went round the sun, or was that the earth… well whatever… (it must be a mars-venus thing). We stood on the equator line and had our pictures taken and impressed the kids by showing them on a map where we had been to the Equator before in Africa and Indonesia.

On another day, Nancy´s sister Miriam and her daughter Alizon and son Gavin came to meet us and took us out for the day in Quito. They were delightful (where do they get their children from on this continent, they never whinge or complain?) We went to the geographic institute and to a museum of old Quito before having a great chicken and chips lunch.

We also visited the craft markets of Otavalo north of Quito which would have been a pleasant diversion save that “we was robbed” on the bus of our brand new camera not a month old and bought out by Pat in July. And thus we learned that even padlocking your rucksack is not enough because if they are small enough the little beggars can still get their hand between the padlocked zips.

Before leaving Quito Soledad invited us and the Morales over for dinner. We had a great night with everyone and got to sample Larco, traditional Ecuadorian soup which has advocado and cheese in it. Yes, we survived a dinner party in Spanish - hurrah.

We swapped tongue twisters with them pointing out the sign at the toll booths near their house “Pare para pegar peaje” (stop to pay the toll) as being impossible for us to say quickly and learnt how they find the words “bitch” and “beach” indistinguishable from one another and how “lying bitch” and “lying on the beach” makes them howl!

All in all we were sad to leave Quito and Ecuador. We have been told in no uncertain terms to come back again and have to admit the Ecuador makes a great 2 or 3 week holiday especially if you combine it with a trip to the Galapagos.

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Comments

[JEZ PANTON]

HAPPY LITTLE ROBBER'S !
No wonder the kids are all happy !, they have just made 200 quid selling your new camera down the markets !. Keep up the good work !