Hola
So yesterday me and my friend Danny from the hostel (that helped me with my phone and the ATM on my first day here), went and did some cultural things. We had breakfast at the market over the road - tortillas de verde con cafe. These were kind of potato cakes, with onion and corn I think, and a fried egg on top, and a coffee with about half a ton of sugar in it. This sugar-energy proved useful for walking up lots of hills later on (why would you build a hilly town at altitude, when walking on non hills is so difficult?). The market here is so clean and tidy, I was surprised. Danny said it's a condition of the vendors hiring their stalls that they have to keep them clean. I didn't see or hear any flies, and we were fairly close to the meat counter. Compared to the huge market in Cochabamba, Bolivia, this was a nice surprise.
We then walked to la Basilica, which was up a fair few hills. It's enormous (I'm going to put some pictures up soon, but for now - imagine a really large grey imposing Church at the top of a hill, with a small well kept steep park outside it, and a blue sky behind it, with a few clouds, and you've pretty much seen it). We went up the tower bit, and saw some beautiful stained glass windows on the first floor, and talked about why people build such huge churches. Danny said that the indigenous people aren't allowed (or maybe weren't allowed?) in the church, but they were the ones that built it, for the Spanish conquistadors. How full of contradictions and injustice religion can be. I'm not religious (hope this doesn't come as a surprise to any of you), but I find it quite interesting that such time and effort and planning goes in to creating these massive buildings, all constructed because of a belief system.
We carried on to the 2nd floor and looked out of some more windows at the view. At the 3rd floor the stairs became a very very steep ladder going up to the outside bit. I have to admit my arms were a little bit shaky as I went up it, and memories came flooding back of when I got stuck at the top of a climbing frame in the park when I was about 5 (?) and grandpa had to come and rescue me. (The climbing frame was about 2 feet high). I was really hoping that this wouldn't happen and I'd be able to climb back down without crying / calling my family. At the top of the outside bit, where I was feeling pretty impressed with myself, and the view, there were 2 more ladders, just as steep going up to the very top of the tower. I decided this would tip me over the edge, and went back down again. Danny had stayed at the bottom of the steep ladders, so I teased him for a bit about this. It's nice having him as a guide to show me around Quito, so I shouldn't be nasty to him. It's also nice having someone to practise Spanish with all the time too, but oh my gosh it can be frustrating - when your only adjectives are 'interesting', 'good' and 'bad', and it takes half an hour to construct a sentence with more than one verb tense in, it's definitely an exercise in realising your limitations. And I understand about 30% of what he says, as he won't talk slowly to me (which is good), so a lot of the time I say 'ok' in response to most things, or 'puedes repetir por favor'. Ha ha.
So that was the basilica. The whole reason we'd gone to that area was to see the contemporary art museum, but I forgot this so we started going back down the steep hill to get some food. Then I remembered, at the bottom of the hill, about the art museum, so we climbed the hill again. I think climbing a short hill at altitude is the equivalent of doing a triathlon at sea level, so we were pretty exhausted by this point. The museum was nice - fairly empty and spacious. My favourite section was a load of huge portraits of workers at the rubbish dump in Rio, Brazil. The pictures are made from the rubbish from the dump, and there was a film about this whole process. What a life - there is even a resident cook in the rubbish dump who uses food thrown away from restaurants etc to cook for the workers, in the middle of the rubbish dump. We discussed whether it would be an ok job, and how much money they earnt, and how insane that all these different lives are going on all the time, and we are oblivious (I definitely didn't use the word 'oblivious' as it's not one of my three Spanish adjectives).
We then went for a papa john's pizza. This wasn't a hugely cultural activity so there's nothing to say about it, apart from it was really really tasty. Then I went for a siesta due to altitude induced exhaustion.
Here are my thoughts about Quito so far: it's really big. I wasn't expecting it to be so big. For a capital city in South America it seems clean and not too hectic. There are lots of big Plazas. So far, it is fine, it's neither amazing nor awful - if I had to live here, I could do, as it has what you need and has enough open spaces to not feel too hemmed in by city life. I probably wouldn't choose to live here though, given all the other places in the world. I have no idea of where the hostel is in relation to where anything else. Someone here just pointed out the Basilica up on the hill out of the window, and the art museum behind it. I would have never realised that they were there. But I don't have my glasses on and I haven't had to think about getting around as I've either been on a walking tour, or with Danny who knows his way around.
I think I've been slightly jet-lagged, and have woken up early again this morning. I'm still quite averse to planning anything and thinking about moving on etc, so I'm going to sit and read my book this morning I think. I have had to filter out all the traveller type chat going on around me about all the things there are to do, and who's done what and when and in how many days etc. My one task for the day (I'm not letting myself have more than 1 task per day), is to go and see a Spanish School that's been recommended, that's near the hostel. It fits my criteria therefore, which is I don't want to have to walk too far. And tonight there is talk of going to a Salsa club, so I'm going to force myself to do this, in case it turns out to be interesting/fun. Tomorrow I'm going to the jungle - la selva - with Danny for a few days. He used to live there, so this sounds like a good opportunity and I would never have bothered doing it otherwise. Reading back this last paragraph I sound like I've come all the way to Ecuador and I'm not interested in doing anything, and that I'm really lazy and boring. Ha ha, is this just what happens when you get a little bit older than you were before? Just to clarify, I'm having a really really great time and I'm very glad to be here. The only thing I would change so far is I wish I had the bottom bunk in the dorm room.
Adios for now, it's breakfast time. xx
So yesterday me and my friend Danny from the hostel (that helped me with my phone and the ATM on my first day here), went and did some cultural things. We had breakfast at the market over the road - tortillas de verde con cafe. These were kind of potato cakes, with onion and corn I think, and a fried egg on top, and a coffee with about half a ton of sugar in it. This sugar-energy proved useful for walking up lots of hills later on (why would you build a hilly town at altitude, when walking on non hills is so difficult?). The market here is so clean and tidy, I was surprised. Danny said it's a condition of the vendors hiring their stalls that they have to keep them clean. I didn't see or hear any flies, and we were fairly close to the meat counter. Compared to the huge market in Cochabamba, Bolivia, this was a nice surprise.
We then walked to la Basilica, which was up a fair few hills. It's enormous (I'm going to put some pictures up soon, but for now - imagine a really large grey imposing Church at the top of a hill, with a small well kept steep park outside it, and a blue sky behind it, with a few clouds, and you've pretty much seen it). We went up the tower bit, and saw some beautiful stained glass windows on the first floor, and talked about why people build such huge churches. Danny said that the indigenous people aren't allowed (or maybe weren't allowed?) in the church, but they were the ones that built it, for the Spanish conquistadors. How full of contradictions and injustice religion can be. I'm not religious (hope this doesn't come as a surprise to any of you), but I find it quite interesting that such time and effort and planning goes in to creating these massive buildings, all constructed because of a belief system.
We carried on to the 2nd floor and looked out of some more windows at the view. At the 3rd floor the stairs became a very very steep ladder going up to the outside bit. I have to admit my arms were a little bit shaky as I went up it, and memories came flooding back of when I got stuck at the top of a climbing frame in the park when I was about 5 (?) and grandpa had to come and rescue me. (The climbing frame was about 2 feet high). I was really hoping that this wouldn't happen and I'd be able to climb back down without crying / calling my family. At the top of the outside bit, where I was feeling pretty impressed with myself, and the view, there were 2 more ladders, just as steep going up to the very top of the tower. I decided this would tip me over the edge, and went back down again. Danny had stayed at the bottom of the steep ladders, so I teased him for a bit about this. It's nice having him as a guide to show me around Quito, so I shouldn't be nasty to him. It's also nice having someone to practise Spanish with all the time too, but oh my gosh it can be frustrating - when your only adjectives are 'interesting', 'good' and 'bad', and it takes half an hour to construct a sentence with more than one verb tense in, it's definitely an exercise in realising your limitations. And I understand about 30% of what he says, as he won't talk slowly to me (which is good), so a lot of the time I say 'ok' in response to most things, or 'puedes repetir por favor'. Ha ha.
So that was the basilica. The whole reason we'd gone to that area was to see the contemporary art museum, but I forgot this so we started going back down the steep hill to get some food. Then I remembered, at the bottom of the hill, about the art museum, so we climbed the hill again. I think climbing a short hill at altitude is the equivalent of doing a triathlon at sea level, so we were pretty exhausted by this point. The museum was nice - fairly empty and spacious. My favourite section was a load of huge portraits of workers at the rubbish dump in Rio, Brazil. The pictures are made from the rubbish from the dump, and there was a film about this whole process. What a life - there is even a resident cook in the rubbish dump who uses food thrown away from restaurants etc to cook for the workers, in the middle of the rubbish dump. We discussed whether it would be an ok job, and how much money they earnt, and how insane that all these different lives are going on all the time, and we are oblivious (I definitely didn't use the word 'oblivious' as it's not one of my three Spanish adjectives).
We then went for a papa john's pizza. This wasn't a hugely cultural activity so there's nothing to say about it, apart from it was really really tasty. Then I went for a siesta due to altitude induced exhaustion.
Here are my thoughts about Quito so far: it's really big. I wasn't expecting it to be so big. For a capital city in South America it seems clean and not too hectic. There are lots of big Plazas. So far, it is fine, it's neither amazing nor awful - if I had to live here, I could do, as it has what you need and has enough open spaces to not feel too hemmed in by city life. I probably wouldn't choose to live here though, given all the other places in the world. I have no idea of where the hostel is in relation to where anything else. Someone here just pointed out the Basilica up on the hill out of the window, and the art museum behind it. I would have never realised that they were there. But I don't have my glasses on and I haven't had to think about getting around as I've either been on a walking tour, or with Danny who knows his way around.
I think I've been slightly jet-lagged, and have woken up early again this morning. I'm still quite averse to planning anything and thinking about moving on etc, so I'm going to sit and read my book this morning I think. I have had to filter out all the traveller type chat going on around me about all the things there are to do, and who's done what and when and in how many days etc. My one task for the day (I'm not letting myself have more than 1 task per day), is to go and see a Spanish School that's been recommended, that's near the hostel. It fits my criteria therefore, which is I don't want to have to walk too far. And tonight there is talk of going to a Salsa club, so I'm going to force myself to do this, in case it turns out to be interesting/fun. Tomorrow I'm going to the jungle - la selva - with Danny for a few days. He used to live there, so this sounds like a good opportunity and I would never have bothered doing it otherwise. Reading back this last paragraph I sound like I've come all the way to Ecuador and I'm not interested in doing anything, and that I'm really lazy and boring. Ha ha, is this just what happens when you get a little bit older than you were before? Just to clarify, I'm having a really really great time and I'm very glad to be here. The only thing I would change so far is I wish I had the bottom bunk in the dorm room.
Adios for now, it's breakfast time. xx
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