Quito and Pichincha

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Well I will do my best to describe what it was like to live like a Quiteño for one month. My first impressions of the city were slightly mixed. After the spectactular landing in the valley I was surprised how clean the city was. For some reason I thought it was going to rival Bangkok but apart from the local buses that spit out black fumes all over the city it was quite the opposite.

I had organised to stay in an apartment for my one month and on my first night I met my 20 yr old Swedish room mate, Moa. She had been there for one week already and she briefed me about the school and how dodgy the area was that our apartment was in. She got robbed in the street on the first day but lucky for her she only had a couple of dollars on her.

So for the first week I took extra precautions wherever I went and I found it no problem at all. And that is how it was for the remainder of my time in Quito. Yeh, you could be stupid and try and walk through some dodgy neighbourhoods whilst you were drunk and you might get robbed but if you excercised a bit of common sense it was ok. Unfortunately two of my German friends who were pretty safe ended up getting robbed with a shotgun in daylight just off a main road. Okay, maybe some of it was luck as well.

The school I attended, Simon Bolivar, was recommended to me by a traveller that I met when I was in Slovakia and it didn´t disappoint. The number of Swiss, German and Swedish students there was astounding. I was the only Southern Hemisphere person there for the first couple of weeks before a few Australians came in my last week. Everyone was really friendly and all the teachers were young and experienced.

Its kind of funny sometimes how things fall into place, which was what it was like after I was introduced to my spanish teacher Edith. Instantly we both clicked with eachother and I knew it was going to be a fun month. While some of my friends had timid teachers who had set rules and followed the text book religiously, Edith and I were all over the place: but it worked perfectly.

To start with, I lied to her on my first day that I knew some spanish. To be honest, I didn´t really know much at all. A few audio lessons on my Ipod and a few lessons here and there didn´t mean much and I was really starting from square 1. She worked that out after 5 minutes and made sure that I didn´t lie to her again. Seriously, she showed me the knife!!

Edith is a 35yr old Quiteño who is married to one of the other teachers at the school. There house is usually full of students who wish to do a homestay (maybe next time). And she is crazy. Seriously. But good crazy. She is passionate about everything and she helped me fall in love with Ecuadorian people quite easily.

Every day she peeled away another layer (no not clothing) and told me about her life in Quito growing up. It gave me a great insight into their beliefs, social practices and the general psyche and attitudes of their culture. Family is obviously an important part of the culture.....and so is football!! So everyday we would chat about football and how it is the greatest game on earth. She is a die hard Barcelona fan (Ecuadorian team) which made Monday mornings quite interesting after they lost (which was most Mondays). It wasn´t all a waste of time listening to her talk about how crap they were on the weekend. At least I learnt some swear words.

After the general chit chat and football talk (all in spanish anyway) we would finally get around to doing something constructive. It was quite slow to begin with but after 2 weeks I was improving rapidly. Even Edith was surprised at how well I was going after she was told that she would be teaching a 25 yr old Australian male. After my four weeks I had learnt around 5 tenses and could have a general conversation and ask specific questions. I just needed to practice now.

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Just the little things made my time there quite enjoyable. Everyday I would visit the same little corner store and get a freshly made sandwich and have a bit of a chat. After spanish lessons four of us boys would have almuerzo somewhere different most days. Sometimes we played football with the teachers which was quite interesting at this altitude. but the most enjoyable part was Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for salsa lessons.

Now I will be completely honest here, I don´t like dancing. I never have and always found it incredibly uncomfortable unless I had consumed a number of beverages. So my first few salsa classes were just that: nervewracking!! In addition most of the girls were really good at dancing so it made us 4 boys look awful. However after 2 weeks I really started to enjoy it and became better each time. In the end I participated in a dance in front of the entire school and I didn´t feel awkward at all. I now quite enjoy doing some salsa dancing but I think a few pints still help!!

One place we got to practice our dancing was at Bungalow Seis on Wednesday nights. This was really the only night of the week that we went out because we usually went away on weekends. Wednesday was ladies night where from 8-10 they would only let women in where they would have free "lethal" cocktails for two hours before letting all the guys in. The combination could not have gone together better. However, because most of my friends were hot german girls I had to help in fending off all the local men after they would politely (or sometimes inpolitely) ask for a dance. Usualmente dije "este es mi novia¨and point to all three of them. Some men just shook my hand.

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However, we didn´t go away all weekends. One weekend 3 of us climbed Pichincha which is the mountain that looms largely over Quito. Usually you would get the teleferico up to 4100m and then trek up to Pichincha which is nearly 4800m but this Saturday morning we started in Quito and climbed nearly 1900m in 5 hrs. It was tough and very steep, especially the walk starting from Quito which was basically through some really steep paddocks. We reached 4100m after nearly 2 hrs and we thought we were walking the right way by crossing the valley towards the mountain. Unfortunately we were meant to be on the ridge so we had a treacherous time battling mud and high grass. The ascent took nearly 1 hr and Davide and I both battled the altitude a little by breathing very hard. The view at the top was brief due to the clouds rolling in but it was the first of many achievements and meant we could have a go at Cotopaxi (5897m) later on in the month.

Lots of time was also spent just wandering through the old town. The buildings were so beautiful and it was a stark contrast from the new town where my apartment and school were located. The cathedral on the top of the hill provided a great view of the city. One night with the school we did a night tour of the old town which was amazing. There is something about the way they "light up" their buildings but it makes them all look spectacular. We all enjoyed some canelazo on the way around warming us up on a cold rainy night.

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Now for the most important day of the year in Quito. Ever since I arrived in Quito in early November I was informed that on the 6th December it was the founding day of Quito and that for a whole week there would be massive parties. Lucky for me that would be my last week.

So for the entire week there was live music, bull fights (didn´t see one: not really into killing bulls), salsa and capoeira dancing in the streets and people driving around the city on Chivas (a bus with a band on the roof) singing "VIVA QUITO" everyday. But Friday the 5th December was the big party and we had lots of things organised at the school.

For the 3 weeks preceding this event Edith taught me an Ecuadorian card game called Cuarenta. We practiced it a few times a week until I got the hang of it and most importantly we were ready for the championship Cuaranta game on the 5th December. The teacher had to play with their student so she was just giving me a head start. Now I know it sounds really stupid but they take this game really seriously too the point where in my apartment complex there was a gigantic trophy for the pair that won on the 5th December!!!

Edith informed me that her and a male teacher had made the finals for the last 3 years running so she put the pressure on me a bit. We cruised through the first few rounds but then we got drawn against the best player in the school and we narrowly lost in the semi finals. Bugger!! It was still fun learning how to play and on numerous occasions we would play it with an owner of a hostel or restaurant to kill some time. You just had to show them the cards and say "cuarenta" and any Ecuadorian person would give you a big smile and then say " Estoy yendo ganar!!".

Also on the 5th December four of us did a salsa dance in front of the whole school which went really well. We practiced nearly every day for a week but we couldn´t stop laughing and made a few mistakes. Overall I thought we did a good job and we had a lot of fun which was the main thing.

Alot of games were played througout the afternoon and everyone drank alot of canelazo (hot cinnamon alcoholic drink with naranjillas). In the evening we had a huge feast before probably the most embaressing moment for all the male students in the school. There is a tradition every Quito festival of a beauty contest called Miss Simon Bolivar. However, due to the Ecuadorian´s quirky sense of humour it is instead a contest where men have to dress up like women. This also seems the case for a number of other festivals: not sure why they love cross dressing??? Anyway, our teachers warned us about this for the weeks preceding and we all flatly refusedto do it. However, when push came to shove and they brought in all their clothes we had 5 pàrticipants. I won´t go into too much detail because it was rather embaressing but I am now have a beauty pageant crown to my name!!!

After a crazy bull with fireworks was run around the school (not very safe at all!) we all jumped aboard a Chiva bus with a band of the roof and drove around the streets for the next two hours blowing on our whistles, singing and just having a great time. "Viva Quito" was muttered every minute and after a big night out on the town sore heads were had for the rest of the weekend. It was a great way to finish my month in Quito and something that I will never forget.

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Photos

The contestants for Miss Simon Bolivar
We had no choice in dressing like this, seriously...