Ecuador

Well, I'm back. And "Trip of a Lifetime" describes my trip perfectly. I have so much to tell, I'm going to break it up into parts, so enjoy. Hopefully, I can do the trip justice.

I was quite a bit nervous/anxious/excited when I arrived in Quito on the 5th. After all the waiting, the training, and the expenses, I wanted this trip to go off without a hitch. It took 21 hours to get to Quito from Anchorage. Fortunately, Scott and Karen were at the Folklore Hotel when I pulled up. Friendly faces. We giggled like schoolchildren for a bit, then headed down to Red Hot Chili Peppers for dinner. Hailed as the best fajita spot in all of Ecuador, it was on our list of places to eat. Not at all disappointing, I must say. Great food, great drinks, and they even pulled up Kalifornication on the stereo while we were there. They probably play the Chili Peppers at least once an hour there, but we thought it was funny anyways. $50 for three people to stuff themselves and down a pitcher of Pina Colada isn't a bad deal, regardless of how their fajitas were rated.

The "Founders Day" celebrations were ongoing throughout the first weekend we were there. Quito's birthday was that Saturday, so big crowds pretty much everywhere, bands on flatbeds or in buses driving around just playing music, and fireworks on Saturday night.

The travel caught up to me on Saturday, so dragging myself out of bed was somewhat of a chore. We didn't do too much that day. Scott needed eyeglasses, so we went on a hunt. We didn't get very far out the door when the Andean sky opened up and let loose a downpour that I can only describe as Biblical. Now, I'm not from the south, and have never even been there, so rain like this is an unfamiliar sight to me. I don't know if anything in the US could match this, but what I do know is that for about an hour, the streets of Quito were turned into rivers and Scott, Karen, and I were stuck hanging out under sidestreet awnings just to stay somewhat dry. Great stuff! When the rain lightened up a bit, we walked down to the SuperMaxi (grocery store) with no luck on the eyeglasses. We grabbed a cab that took us to the Mall El Jardin, a modern mall with all the amenities of a North American mall except English. Again, no luck, so we went back to the Folklore without new glasses for Scott, but still having had a fun day. Marty and Erin arrived later that night, and we watched the fireworks display while a little schnauzer yapped from the top of a house across the street. This isn't exactly a great picture of him, but you get the idea.

The next day, Scott was laid up all day from still unknown reasons. I think it was the beans he had at KFC on Saturday, but it could've been the water at the Folklore I used to rinse out his wine glass. In any case, he was out for the day tour, so Marty, Erin, Karen, and I went about the town with our guide Umberto, who spoke very little English. There's a hill called El Panecillo in the middle of Quito with a 45 meter tall statue of a woman at its peak. We all thought this was the Virgin Mary, but a bronze placard on the statue says "this is the woman from Revelations 12."

From El Panecillo, we went to Mitad Del Mundo, or the Center of the Earth, the Equator. There's a monument marking the equator surrounded by tourist shops and such, but as it turns out, when GPS was invented, they realized they were just a few yards off, so this monument is actually NOT on the equator. We went over to the actual Equator, where Marty went through an interactive tour that shows a few wierd phenomenon only found on the Equator. The rest of us didn't think it'd be all that interesting, so we skipped. Much to my regret. But I went back later, so I'll explain all that cool science stuff later on.

We finished the day up with a trip to an Inca ruins site, then to the Pululahua crater.

Driving around Quito was a pretty sobering experience in some ways. The stink of diesel fumes combined with the garbage we saw pretty much everywhere was enough for a bit of nausia every now and then, and the street vendors at every stoplight were a not-so-subtle reminder of how poor most people in Ecuador are relative to those of us in the West. On our way to Pululahua, we drove past a cafe that had rotisserie guinea pig out front. Guinea Pig. There were more than enough moments to remind me of how blessed my life really is.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about our time in Guayaquil.