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Published: August 17th 2006
My second week has been just as full as the first; in fact Im feeling as if I am constantly running around trying to be somewhere else at a given time. I have already found it easy to adapt to "la hora ecuatoriana" which seems to be a fluid, rather than precise, interpretation of the concept of time. Suits me though, being late is suddenly perfectly acceptable, brilliant! There´s not really much of an excuse though as getting around Quito is so easy, the buses are like taxis as they will pick you up or drop you off anywhere (as long as its on the route, of course)
Lessons are going well although my teacher is a bit of a hard taskmaster. This week I had to watch a Chilean film. It was the usual continental theme of first loves and a boy who was in love with his mother etc etc (seen one, you´ve seen 'em all) but set in the 1970s against the backdrop of the political conflict between Allende and Pinochet.....then I had to recount the whole film in the past tense for homework! No problem!? But I managed to write two pages and only had about
ten corrections so I was pretty darned impressed with myself but she just said "Muy bien, Marielle" and moved onto the next thing. I think she has high expectations...
Things are going well at the house and I have a new housemate too, Andy (I know every small detail about Guadelupe´s extended family, the neighbours, Ecuadorian soaps etc however she failed to mention to me that a new English person was coming to stay. Perhaps she thought I wouldn´t be interested...!) Anyway that provided a welcome break from forced Spanish speaking at mealtimes with the added bonus of me being able to laugh at his attempts too.
Last weekend 6 of us went to Otavalo which is about 2 hours from Quito and is famous for its indigenous arts and crafts market. It was great and all the people were so friendly, plus they didn´t hassle you at all which made it a very different experience from other markets I have been to around the world. Haggling was still obligatory though, but I am definitely getting better at that! The animal markets were also really interesting although I´m not sure I´ll be able to brave roast guinea pig
here having seen all the little cute ones squeaking in their pens.
We´d had a (painful) salsa lesson at school on Thursday so on Saturday night some people put their newly-acquired skills to the test
with bona-fide locals. Needless to say us Brits just sat sipping our cervezas and enjoying the ambience. Then on the Sunday we went for a four hour hike round Lake Cuicocha, a crater lake with stunning scenery. It was beautiful but you certainly felt the altitude (it was 3500m) - well, that was my excuse anyway. I have been even higher still this week as we went up Pinchincha, here in Quito, in the cable car. You get out at 4100m and have an amazing view of the city and all the surrounding mountains (plus they had arcade games and dodgems-what more can you ask for!)
The condensed version: Still loving it, went to a market and up some big hills
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Dad
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Top Marks!
Enjoying the content, admiring the style - keep them coming!