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Announcements
Posted by: perry on 04/24/2009 05:34 PM
Updated by: perry on 11/26/2009 03:14 AM
Expires: 01/01/2014 12:00 AM
Quito: Hi Ariel
After my parents left Ecuador it was just a short few days before Ariel would arrive before going to the US for a few short weeks. So we decided to stick around and see our long lost travel partner. Ariel left us (or maybe we left her) in Guatemala. Well, she wanted to stay for a few reasons and we left for no good reason (I remember the blur of two bicycles and their cyclists making it from Guatemala City to Panama City in less than a week just to find out there was no way in hell we could make it to Colombia in time for Austin to meet Arian). So we had some catching up to do, some jokes to tell, and some adventures to go on. Read more...
So for the few days between when my parents left and Ariel arrived, I went back to Spanish class. Well, sort of. Not every day and not with as much enthusiasm as the week before. But still I picked up some more grammar and a bit of vocabulary too. All with one exception, on Thursday I ran into a friend from Guatemala City. Mario had been in Quito for something like 3 months and just now, a couple days before he was leaving to go back to Guatemala, I ran into him on the street. Then when I came back to Marcela's apartment in the evening I found a really pissed off Austin who wanted to take a baseball bat to everything and smash a lot of shit up. He'd just been robbed. He said he took his backpack off his bike, put it on the ground, turned around to lock up his bike, and then his backpack was gone. His passport, money, Mexican money (why did he bring Mexican money with him in Quito?), the speakers and charger for his still not finished bike radio, books, his diary, juggling balls, some finally signed and official documents he made (which took him two days), and a few other things, all gone along with his backpack (which has special hooks to hang on his bike rack).
Well, it wasn't much later that Marcela came and picked me up to go with her to the airport to pick up her sister, Gabi. She was just moving back to Ecuador from Argentina. I also got to meet two of Marcela's friends at the airport who came along to see Gabi arrive. We all went back to the apartment and Austin had a meal made for us. He vented his frustrations by chopping all the vegetables in the house into a fine puré with a small dull knife (I think he actually was smashing them with his fist but he never said that). After our dinner we all headed out to go to a club and go dancing. I tried calling Mario, but the number he wrote down was missing a number. So I tried going to his apartment and I left him a note. I caught back up with the group and we had a fun and drunk night dancing together!
The next morning Gabi left to go to her parent's house in Guayaquil. It's too bad she left so soon, she's cool. But we were heading to Guayaquil so we'll probably see her there. But we did hear from Mario. He got the note. So we made plans to meet him for lunch, the same place I went to eat pretty much every day, for Indian food. Oh yeah!!! It was fun but I had to run out from the restaurant to make it to my last day of class on time, which was a bore, I could hardly stay away after partying the night before. In the evening Ariel came. She was quite exhausted from her travels in the last two days by bus from Colombia to Quito. So, when Austin took off to go party with Mario, we stayed home and talked and caught up on all sorts of things. We actually ended up talking until 2:30am even though we were tired.
When we woke up on Saturday we found out the Austin had been robbed again during the night. Some guy came and grabbed his camera out of his hand while he was taking a picture of himself with Mario. Well, I guess Mario tackled the guy (hehe) and the police came and everything. But the police refused to press charges, which really pissed Austin off, and I understand. Two times in two days. Ouch!
We all jumped into Marcela's car and headed East! We went for the first time into the jungle. First we stopped in at Cascada Magica (Magic Waterfall) on Rio Malo (Bad River) and stood in awe and the huge amounts of water that came gushing over the top of the cliff above. Marcela told me that the last time she was there, it had just rained and there was a lot more water. But it was impressive anyhow. Then we went a bit further and camped the night along side of a hostel near volcano El Reventador.
The next morning we had an overpriced breakfast at the hostel and headed to the trail head to El Reventador. After about 3 hours of hiking in sometimes knee deep mud up and down the thickly jungle covered mountains we found ourselves at the base of the volcano. We were all quite tired and just as we showed up the clouds rolled in. There was another group which was near the base of the volcano and we went over to them to talk and relax a bit before going back. It was a really amazing view, and the volcano recently erupted so there was lots of slag on the ground. When the other group decided to go back, we went with them. I stuck near the front of the group and made it back to the trail head in about 1 hour, took a bath in the river, and waited another hour for Ariel, Marcela, and Austin to arrive. From there we went on a pointless search of the nearest village for something to eat. There was nothing, not even bread. What kind of village doesn't even have bread in their shops? Crazy!!!!!! But I did get myself a beer. So we split from this pointless little village and headed back towards Quito and stopped in a slightly bigger village which actually had a Chinese restaurant. And the food was great and I had more beer. The Chinese woman who runs the place was really awesome and she even busted out her camera to take a picture of us to put in her photo album. She also asked us to come back the next day, but there was no way we could.
After stuffing ourselves, we headed to Papallacta and the hot water baths. We got there with a few short minutes to spare before they wouldn't let anyone else in. And just as we were going to pay our entrance, Marcela announced she wasn't going to go in. We objected to going in without her, but she insisted and she wanted to sit in her car and study her Chinese (she's learning Chinese, cool, eh?). Well, we got in at 9pm and the pools closed at 11pm. But at 10:30 they came and told us to get out. Those assholes. It's overpriced to begin with and then they wouldn't let us stay until the posted closing time. ASSHOLES! But anyhow, we all jumped into Marcela's car, turned up the volume, and rocked out to her music all they way back to Quito. It was a really amazing day, another one of the amazing days that I can credit totally to Marcela. She's really helped us get to know Ecuador better than we could have if we were only cycling.
Well, since Austin had a lot of stuff to do on Monday with getting yet another new passport (the second replacement in under a year) and because he wanted to get back to work on his bike radio project, I took off with Ariel to go check out Mitad Del Mundo and the Inti Ñan museum. Somehow we figured out how to get there by city bus and I just kinda hung around while Ariel went on the museum tour. I didn't feel like going on the tour for a third time, not yet anyhow. Afterwards we went up to the crater that people live in but we couldn't see anything but cloud. On the way back walking down the road we managed to hitchhike back to Quito with a couple of students. From there we went for Indian food yet again. Oh, and Marcela lost her car keys causing all of us to go searching deep into all the crazy places of the apartment where keys are completely unlikely to go (such as the freezer (a few times it was checked) and in the water tank of the toilet). It's too bad too because we were planning a really great April fools joke for her, but we needed her to have her car. Ariel's flight was on the 2nd, but she would wake up a bit early on the 1st and cry to Marcela that she was going to be late for the plane. That would have gotten Marcela good, but without the car it would only have been a joke until she called a cab. Oh well.
On Tuesday Austin still had some stuff to do so Ariel and I wandered around the city, checking out book stores and whatever else. Then in the evening we all met up again at the apartment and had dinner. After that we started watching Benjamin Button and none of us wanted to finish watching the movie. It sucked! What is this crap that Hollywood is trying to pull over everyone's eyes by giving it 3 Oscars. FUCK HOLLYWOOD! Bollywood is a lot more entertaining!
Well, it was now April Fools Day. We didn't have a good joke to pull on Marcela. We didn't know what to do. So we all just went out for lunch at a waffle house. Then after there was a big soccer match. Pretty much the whole city was skipping work and filling the bars. So we did the same. Well, at least Marcela and I went out to the bars. Austin and Ariel went home. So at the bar I finally got to meet a few of Marcela's friends that we've heard so much about. I met Chile, Julio, and Stephan. Well, it turns out that I actually met Stephan one day on the bus because I overheard him speaking German and couldn't resist the chance to practice. Julio I'd heard about constantly and was happy to finally get to meet him. After the game was over (which was never broadcast live on TV, which pissed of the entire city of Quito and maybe the whole country too), we all went out for..... INDIAN FOOD!!!!! Yeah! On the way back to the apartment I stopped and picked up a few things for Austin's April Fool's joke. For the last month we've been getting Kinder Eggs with the surprise inside. They are sooooooo cool, those eggs. So, I got an egg (a real one) and wrapped it in a kinder egg foil. I also got a real kinder egg for myself. Then that evening I gave him his joke gift. He liked it. hahahaha.
The next day Ariel left really early in the morning. I was also planning on leaving Quito the same day, but Julio invited me to his birthday party and decided to stay for a couple more days. Austin didn't have any plans on leaving and I was really getting anxious to go to the coast. So I just spent the whole day in the apartment reading. The next day was supposed to be the party, so I spent the day the same way, reading. Then in the evening we found out that the party was cancelled. So that was it. It was my last night in Quito. Austin, Marcela, and I went to a shitty Thai restaurant for dinner and that's about it. Austin decided to go party and I went to sleep early so I could get an early start in the morning getting out of Quito.
So my time in Quito finally came to a close. I had a good time there and I'm really glad that I got to go to a few Spanish classes and got to understand the language quite a bit better. There's still so much for me to learn, but I feel actually quite proud now of my Spanish, especially when perfect strangers comment to me on how well my Spanish is. I guess a lot of North Americans come here on vacation and have trouble pronouncing grassy-ass. hehehe.
It was also really great to catch up with Ariel again. A lot of the old jokes we used to have when we were traveling together came back. And we had some really good times to reflect up and stories from our own individual travels to talk about too.
Again I have to reiterate how much appreciation I have for Marcela. She has really made Ecuador an amazing experience for me and for my parents, Austin, and Ariel too. THANK YOU MARCELA!!!
Peace,
Perry
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