Blogs from Quito, North, Ecuador, South America - page 158

We have found a place to live! If all goes well tomorrow, we'll move into our lovely three-bedroom place, complete with kitchen, living room, dining room and view. The location is not ideal -- it will be a bit of a walk to get to La Mariscal -- but we're happy with it nonetheless. There's talk that we might get a cell phone, too, (mis amigos are a bit addicted to phones and internet), so I'll let you know if that does occur. The plan right now is to live in this apartment for at least a month and then decide whether we want to stay in Quito or go explore other parts of the country. My vote is to leave -- nothing against Quito, of course! -- but we'll cross that bridge when we come ... read more

hola amigos, familia y viajeros First let me say that i have a NEW "host" for my photos/fotos. click the below link to see all my photos from this trip my photos are now on smugmug.com CLICK HERE I am currently in Waukegan, Illinois and will be leaving on the second to last leg of my trip tomorrow when I will take a greyhound bus to Duluth, Mn. This will probably be the most uncomfortable leg of my entire trip. If you don't know, the bus system in the US sucks to say the least. The trip is a 7.5 hour ride by car, but by bus it will take me about 16 hours or so. From Duluth I will probably have to hitchhike to Ely, MN (which is a two hour car ride from ... read more

Hola! Yep. Brenna, Ami and I are here in Quito, safe and sound. We arrived late Monday, and Ami's cousin's inlaws picked us up at the airport and took us to our hostal, Posada del Maple. It's been such an exhausting few days that I don't even know where to begin, but unfortunately (not for you, I suppose!) I have to be brief, as I am currently hogging the only computer at our hostal. Our hostal is located in La Mariscal, the tourist district of Quito. Yesterday we wandered around, found lunch and then came back here with the intention of just stopping by and putting on sunscreen. In actuality we all crashed on our beds, and woke up with enough time to eat a snack, find an internet/phone cafe, call our folks and then meet ... read more

As we are preparing to say farewell to Ecuador, we didn´t want to end this portion of our blog without sharing some of the wacky Lost in Translation experiences we´ve had here. We now chalk it all up to cultural differences or sometimes just shake our heads.....but nothing surprises us anymore here. Ecuadorian marketing 101: Sex sells. A lot. It´s everywhere in ads here, from Doritos to garbage bags (not kidding) to pirated CD covers...everywhere you turn there´s a half-naked (or completely naked) woman staring back at you trying to sell a product or service....strange considering what a Catholic country this is. No product is immune. Even one of the restaurants in Riobamba was called, we kid you not, "Orgasmo Total". We asked one of the Ecuadorians what "orgasmo" signified in spanish, and his answer wasn´t ... read more

After a 2 day tour of Madrid, where we did very little other than drink sangria and snack on tapas, we arrived in the capital of Ecuador, Quito. The most striking feature of Quito has to be its setting, with every view framed by the imposing slopes of the Andes. Feeling fairly spaced out, we ventured out on a walk of the city and began to find our orientation. Quito has 2 main parts, known as the Old Town and the New Town. The Old Town is far more attractive, with old colonial buildings and public squares in which to watch the world go by. However, it is also located adjacent to the poorer housing and on most of the street corners there are beggars. This is not an area you would want to stroll around ... read more