November
13. 2014
It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon and
I'm laying in my bed at the La Rosario Hostal in downtown Quito, Ecuador. On
Tuesday Nat and I left Pemberton in her little car about 9 o'clock in the
morning arrived in Vancouver about noon. I had hoped to get some American money
at the bank in Squamish but too late we realized that it was Remembrance Day
and the bank was closed. So after a quick stop in Squamish to deposit a
check at the instant teller, we drove right straight to VanDusen botanical gardens
on the south side of Vancouver where we spent about two hours exploring the
grounds there. When we left there we drove a few blocks east to the
Bloedel conservatory and there we paid our money and went in to the warm
tropical dome to see the plants and birds. The Bloedel conservatory is the
highest point in Vancouver and we left there just as the sun was going down and
drove to the coast airport hotel where we stayed the night. We had supper at
the white spot restaurant which is attached to the hotel. Both Nat and I went
to bed early since I had to get up and be at the airport by 6 AM. Natalia
didn't have to get out of bed though, because the hotel provided a free shuttle
service to the airport.
My
flight left Vancouver at 7:45 and got into Houston Texas at about two. I had
about three hours to waste in Houston but of course I didn't leave the airport
but I did go to the food court and had a Chinese meal for dinner about 3
o'clock in the afternoon. The flight from
Houston to Quito was all in total darkness. I tried hard to get some sleep on
the plane but it was impossible to get comfortable. I probably got maybe an
hour of sleep altogether. That United
plane got into Quito just about midnight, but it was another hour before
I made it through customs. I didn't want to arrive in downtown Quito in the
middle of the night so I had some hot chocolate at the airport and munched
peanuts for quite a while to pass the time. I figured that it was safer for me
to stay at the airport then it would be to come into Quito in the middle of the
night.
My reservation here at La Rosario Hostal was made for four nights only, that is Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So I wandered around the airport a bit munching peanuts and playing with my iPhone until the sun began to come up. Then I got a taxi to take me into Quito ($26) and he drove me right to my Hostal. Of course my room wasn't ready but I was able to leave my suitcase there at the Hostal and I spent a good part of the day just walking around a few blocks of Oldtown, Quito which surrounds my Hostal.
I bought four bright yellow mangoes from a vendor up by the Basilica for only one dollar. I carried these back to one of the parks closer to my Hostal and consumed them all right there. Later I bought two small sweet baked goods from a small shop and had those. But by 11 o'clock I was getting really hungry so I stopped in one of the small hole-in-the-wall restaurants near my Hostal and there, for the grand some of two dollars I had a plate of fried rice with chicken and shrimp. Then I got back to my room here and unpacked and had a nap. When I woke up it was about 5 PM and starting to get dark so I went out and found a small Chinese restaurant and had a big plate of noodles and beef and chicken and shrimp and a bottle of Coca-Cola.
Here are some initial observations on returning to Ecuador. The tropical odour hits you as soon as you leave the airplane. It's cool here in Quito at night but the sun is very intense in the day. This afternoon I fell asleep for a short time in one of the parks and now my face is all red. The daytime temperatures today ranged between eight and 18 but there was no rain but lots of clouds. Enough sunny breaks so that I wish I had brought my hat with me. Again I noticed that I am taller than most Ecuadorians. Most of the women do not come up to my chin. There are numerous street vendors, some selling hot soup out of a big kettle and that's all they have. The plantain roasters are common and their little carts are very small and self contained.
My reservation here at La Rosario Hostal was made for four nights only, that is Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So I wandered around the airport a bit munching peanuts and playing with my iPhone until the sun began to come up. Then I got a taxi to take me into Quito ($26) and he drove me right to my Hostal. Of course my room wasn't ready but I was able to leave my suitcase there at the Hostal and I spent a good part of the day just walking around a few blocks of Oldtown, Quito which surrounds my Hostal.
I bought four bright yellow mangoes from a vendor up by the Basilica for only one dollar. I carried these back to one of the parks closer to my Hostal and consumed them all right there. Later I bought two small sweet baked goods from a small shop and had those. But by 11 o'clock I was getting really hungry so I stopped in one of the small hole-in-the-wall restaurants near my Hostal and there, for the grand some of two dollars I had a plate of fried rice with chicken and shrimp. Then I got back to my room here and unpacked and had a nap. When I woke up it was about 5 PM and starting to get dark so I went out and found a small Chinese restaurant and had a big plate of noodles and beef and chicken and shrimp and a bottle of Coca-Cola.
Here are some initial observations on returning to Ecuador. The tropical odour hits you as soon as you leave the airplane. It's cool here in Quito at night but the sun is very intense in the day. This afternoon I fell asleep for a short time in one of the parks and now my face is all red. The daytime temperatures today ranged between eight and 18 but there was no rain but lots of clouds. Enough sunny breaks so that I wish I had brought my hat with me. Again I noticed that I am taller than most Ecuadorians. Most of the women do not come up to my chin. There are numerous street vendors, some selling hot soup out of a big kettle and that's all they have. The plantain roasters are common and their little carts are very small and self contained.
The Google maps application with GPS on
my iPhone really helps me from getting lost as I begin to wander around this
city. It is huge and has few straight streets. Also many streets are very steep
or replaced with long wide flights of concrete stairs so it is a nightmare to
drive, and the steps are steep and the air is very thin. No rain today at all.
High of 18 or so. Saw some jade plants in a tiny park that were about three
feet tall, but had trunks of over four inches thick. Motorcycle cops here in
the city of Quito drive motorcycles very much like mine.
November 14, 2014 7:55 PM. I'm
already laying in my bed relaxing. This morning I got up early and hiked up and
around the old part of the city near the big Basilica. There was a two-dollar
charge for admission to the Basilica. I did go in and look around for a few
minutes. Then I hiked north until I found a small lunch place and I had a
regular desayunos or breakfast. This consisted of a cup of hot chocolate, one
glass of fresh squeezed fruit juice, some scrambled eggs and a small
pancake-sorts of biscuit with cheese in the middle. Total price - $1.60.
I spent most of the day just walking around the big city of Quito. I visited one large fully modern shopping mall and on the third floor there was the food court with fast food outlets from all over North and South America. I had a chicken dinner from Kentucky fried chicken KFC. It wasn't the same as what I would get in Canada because my two pieces of extra crispy came with rice and lentils and three chunks of roasted plantains.
On my way back to my room at La Rosario, I cut through the Parquet El Ejido. There I saw the crowd gathering around some performers just as I had seen two years ago when I visited Quito. This time there were three performers, two guys and a girl. They had most of their faces painted white and funny costumes. Not long after I began filming them the ringleader pointed me out as being different. It's quite obvious that I'm a gringo because I am a full head taller than almost all of the other Ecuadorians. The ringleader of this little troop called me out into the middle of the circle and explain to me in his broken English what he wanted me to do. Two others were also called out of the audience. We were each told to watch our instructor and dance as he or she had danced. The music was some sort of traditional Ecuadorian fork music but it was only a few short bars played over and over again. I handed my camera to a bystander and he took video of me out in the middle of the crowd.
I spent most of the day just walking around the big city of Quito. I visited one large fully modern shopping mall and on the third floor there was the food court with fast food outlets from all over North and South America. I had a chicken dinner from Kentucky fried chicken KFC. It wasn't the same as what I would get in Canada because my two pieces of extra crispy came with rice and lentils and three chunks of roasted plantains.
On my way back to my room at La Rosario, I cut through the Parquet El Ejido. There I saw the crowd gathering around some performers just as I had seen two years ago when I visited Quito. This time there were three performers, two guys and a girl. They had most of their faces painted white and funny costumes. Not long after I began filming them the ringleader pointed me out as being different. It's quite obvious that I'm a gringo because I am a full head taller than almost all of the other Ecuadorians. The ringleader of this little troop called me out into the middle of the circle and explain to me in his broken English what he wanted me to do. Two others were also called out of the audience. We were each told to watch our instructor and dance as he or she had danced. The music was some sort of traditional Ecuadorian fork music but it was only a few short bars played over and over again. I handed my camera to a bystander and he took video of me out in the middle of the crowd.
While I was at an instant teller
machine today getting $200 cash I heard a loud thump in the street behind me.
When I turned and looked I saw that one man had opened his car door into the
traffic and been clipped immediately by another vehicle. Within minutes a
motorcycle cop was there. The traffic is really crazy in the city. This morning
I saw at least 10 large city buses all in a row and each one was jammed full of
people. These buses were just sitting waiting for the traffic to move. None of
the people jammed in the bus looked very happy.
November
15
Today I decided to hike across town
and take a ride on the gondola which is called the Teleférico. I started out
walking about 7:30 this morning and using my Google earth map with GPS I found
my way eventually to the bottom of the gondola lift. At one
point I had hiked way up high into one of the barrios and I could not find the
thoroughfare which would take me over to the gondola lift. Finally I realized
that that major thorough fare that I was looking for was a tunnel that was
going underneath me deep below the barrio.
I had climbed high into the slums for no reason and had to hike back down again
to get where I wanted to be. When I was only one kilometre from the gondola
lift, a taxi driver asked me if I wanted a lift. he offered to take me up the
hill for $1. He also told me that a small bus would soon arrive and I could go
up that way. I told him I could walk the last km., since I had already walked
over 7km that morning.
The seniors discount rate applied so I only had to pay $6.50 to get a ride to the top of the mountain. From up on top it's easy to see the blanket of polluted air that lays over top of the entire city of Quito. There were two American girls in the lift on the way up with me and I struck up a short conversation with them. One was from Boston and the other from Indiana. They were both becoming permanent residents in Ecuador. I thought that I would get some breakfast to eat up on the top of the mountain because the literature I had read about The Teleférico said that there were restaurants on top. The only thing that I found appealling was a cheese-filled empanada, so I had that and a bottle of water but on the hike down I stopped and bought a foot-long hotdog from the sidewalk vendor. She cheated me out of a dollar, but I think that she just didn't have any more change. I had given her a five and her sign said hot dog and drink for $1.50. She gave me three bucks back and then said fifty (in Spanish). I guess that she meant that she was 50 cents short of change, but I gave her another fifty cents, thinking that she would give me another dollar. That other dollar never came, but I didn't argue the point with her. I felt sorry for her since her little stand was right on a sharp hair-pin turn where no traffic could stop and I was the only pedestrian on this hill.
Later, I stopped again at a super maxi supermarket and bought a large bottle of water and some bananas. Then I came back through Parque El Ejido and saw one of the performers that was there yesterday. Not the ones I had dance with, though. I seem to stand out in the crowd of Ecuadorians not only because of my height but because of my full white beard. The crowd had a few laughs at my expense as the entertainer rattled on and tried to carry on a conversation with me.
Since arriving in Ecuador I have had a bit of a background headache. I am not sure what's causing it but I think the altitude and the thin air and air pollution here in the city have all combined and do not sit very well with me.
On the downward trip on the gondola today I shared space with two other Canadians. One was a woman from new Westminster and the other one was a man from Yellowknife. The man from Yellowknife told me that on Sunday many of the major streets have no motorized traffic at all and there will be many bicycles instead. This afternoon I got back to my room about 3 PM and it wasn't long after that that I was in bed having a nap. It was after all, a long day. I hiked at least 18 km. and most of that was on hard cement sidewalks.
The seniors discount rate applied so I only had to pay $6.50 to get a ride to the top of the mountain. From up on top it's easy to see the blanket of polluted air that lays over top of the entire city of Quito. There were two American girls in the lift on the way up with me and I struck up a short conversation with them. One was from Boston and the other from Indiana. They were both becoming permanent residents in Ecuador. I thought that I would get some breakfast to eat up on the top of the mountain because the literature I had read about The Teleférico said that there were restaurants on top. The only thing that I found appealling was a cheese-filled empanada, so I had that and a bottle of water but on the hike down I stopped and bought a foot-long hotdog from the sidewalk vendor. She cheated me out of a dollar, but I think that she just didn't have any more change. I had given her a five and her sign said hot dog and drink for $1.50. She gave me three bucks back and then said fifty (in Spanish). I guess that she meant that she was 50 cents short of change, but I gave her another fifty cents, thinking that she would give me another dollar. That other dollar never came, but I didn't argue the point with her. I felt sorry for her since her little stand was right on a sharp hair-pin turn where no traffic could stop and I was the only pedestrian on this hill.
Later, I stopped again at a super maxi supermarket and bought a large bottle of water and some bananas. Then I came back through Parque El Ejido and saw one of the performers that was there yesterday. Not the ones I had dance with, though. I seem to stand out in the crowd of Ecuadorians not only because of my height but because of my full white beard. The crowd had a few laughs at my expense as the entertainer rattled on and tried to carry on a conversation with me.
Since arriving in Ecuador I have had a bit of a background headache. I am not sure what's causing it but I think the altitude and the thin air and air pollution here in the city have all combined and do not sit very well with me.
On the downward trip on the gondola today I shared space with two other Canadians. One was a woman from new Westminster and the other one was a man from Yellowknife. The man from Yellowknife told me that on Sunday many of the major streets have no motorized traffic at all and there will be many bicycles instead. This afternoon I got back to my room about 3 PM and it wasn't long after that that I was in bed having a nap. It was after all, a long day. I hiked at least 18 km. and most of that was on hard cement sidewalks.
I took my warm jacket and toque with me in my backpack, thinking that it would be quite chilly up on the mountain. I could have left them home. Up on the mountaintop the temperature was about 12° and when I got back down in the city it was about 20. The Teleferico and the amusement park at the base of the mountain were built 2005, but they seem to be poorly maintained and nothing seems to be running at capacity. Some of the facilities that had been constructed looked as if they had not been used in years. There were horses to ride up on the top of the mountain but I didn't even ask what the fees were. At the bottom of the mountain there is a small amusement park called VolcaniQo. It was quiet when I went up the hill, but very busy when I came back down. Just simple amusement rides like you would find in any traveling carnival in North America.
