Day 2:
Today I woke up around 8am and was fairly sore. I went downstairs to eat breakfast (desayuno) with my host family. I had a plate of fruit waiting for me that contained a strawberry, kiwi (not like the U.S. version – it was clear and was full of black seeds), and mango. I also had some scrambled eggs full of stuff that I wasn’t fond of like onions, jalapeños, and whatever else. I ate a small amount of it and finished up with fruit paired with some kind of strawberry cream.
After breakfast, I went up to my room to get ready for my first Spanish lessons from my private tutor, Christina. The Spanish lessons are a budget breaker but I feel will make my trip much more enjoyable given I can speak and understand the language. So far, I feel very lost. Christina is $4 per hour and she works with me for around 5 hours per day. I plan to work with her everyday that I am in Quito, Ecuador.
Christina arrived around 8:40 am and we began our lessons immediately. First, she talked to Lupe (Host Mother) and asked me a few questions in Spanish to gauge my ability and then replied, “Okay we start from beginning.” Great.
We sat down and she handed me two pieces of paper full of words and their meanings. She highlighted the most important verbs and nouns to remember and we jumped right into conversation. She would point to a verb and I had to check the vocabulary list and figure out a way to create a sentence or question from that. We spent a few hours doing this and I was getting a bit frustrated at my inability to speak good Spanish. It has been 10 years since I last spoke Spanish and I was at an intermediate level of speaking then. As the lessons went on, a few more words came back to me and I started to remember more and more, but it wasn’t very much. I could understand more than I could speak. I am a visual learner and was a star student in American Sign Language, but I just can’t remember these Spanish words! It is in one ear and out the other. I can understand the words in Spanish and tell you what they mean, but if you ask me how to say a word in Spanish, I’m completely clueless.
I decided to end the Spanish lessons at noon because I was hungry, frustrated, and had a bit of work to finish up for a client. I went upstairs and couldn’t get the WiFi to work (it hardly does anyways) so I decided to sit in Alex’s room and plug directly into the modem and YAY! I had internet! I did some research on a few South American excursions, answered e-mails, wrote a blog entry, and finally started my work.
After I had enough of that I decided to go on a walk before it got dark outside. I just took off walking and at first started writing down street names so that I could backtrack and find my way back home, but eventually got side tracked… and wandered around. I passed quite a few pharmacy shops, street vendors selling food, and electronic stores with old technology at prices equal to the US. I walked for quite a while and ended up at the airport and then decided to make the long journey uphill to head back to the house. I ended up on a really neat street where there were lots of people and many things going on. Kids playing in the street, grandma’s taking care of the little children, kids coming out of their school, people getting on the buses, etcs. After a while of walking uphill, I turned around and I could not believe how beautiful the view was. I could see the entire city! I kept walking uphill even though I had been advised not to do much for a few days to get adjusted to the altitude. It was very tiring, but once I got to the very top there was this avenue and I turned around to see all these dark clouds hanging over the city and then on what I believe to be the historical center was a break in the dark cloud that allowed the sun to pass through and light up just that area. I would have done anything to have my telephoto lens at that moment, but all I had was my point and shoot. Since I was unfamiliar with the city I did not want to bring my big camera and put a target on my back for theft, which is very common especially on the buses. I have been advised to wear my backpack on the front rather than on my back… which sucks.
After carrying my heavy guidebook all day I made an executive decision to not carry it around anymore. Instead I have opted to rip out the pages that I need for the day and only carry those… then later I can use them for scrapbooking my travel memories. It is a hard thing to do… rip up a brand new book, but it has to be done. I am putting it off until I must do so!
Once I got to the top of the hill I realized that I had no idea where the host families house was in relation to where I was standing. However, I am very good at directions and figured out which way I should continue walking. I headed back down the hill and was on a very busy street near the bus station. I saw a vendor that had a pig head in her stall and I started to take photos of it and make small conversation with a man. The lady came out and started yelling at me, “no photographica, no photographica!” and the man started arguing with her for me about how it was not a big deal and to share the culture with others. I stood there for a minute while they argued and when it was over, I thanked the man and continued on my way.
I walked and walked and then I looked at the address in my book and saw the street that my host family lived on! I was so excited I found my way back home with my instinct. I asked a lady how to read the numbers on the street to figure out if I should go left or right… I thought right, but wanted to double check and she pointed me to the right… and off I went. After a few minutes of walking I started to see familiar things and made my way to the house.
I hung out at the house for a bit and everybody was getting ready. Amanda, the student, that is also staying here was going to a party that her school puts on to tell the host family’s thanks for hosting. I decided to go to Fabian’s book and photo exhibit. Fabian is a man that I connected with on couchsurfing.com. Couchsurfing is where you can stay with local people that have extra rooms and want to share their space with you for free.
I went outside to cross the street and head to a phone booth. I called Curtis and talked for a few minutes and then jumped back outside to catch a cab. The cab was $3.00. I pointed to the address I had written in my book and he brought me right there. I practiced my Spanish with him and was able to make simple conversation and understand about 25% of what he was saying to me.
I arrived at the exhibit to meet Fabian and his friend he also met on Couchsurfing, Nathalie who has been in South America for 7 months so far backpacking around. She doesn’t make any plans and just goes wherever the wind blows her. I also met her Columbian friend who was a Graphic Designer just like me. Nathalie was on her way to Columbia in a few days. I talked to them for a while because everyone else was talking in Spanish and I was too shy to approach anyone. It was a very classy event and I felt way underdressed. I looked at Fabian’s book that is full of photographs he has taken in his travels around Ecuador. After looking at it I decided that I would visit Cotopaxi if I could. It is a volcano with a lake inside the crater that is absolutely stunning.
After the event, I went for a small walk to find something to eat. I ended up eating at some fast-food chicken place called Pollo Campero. I had a hard time making my order, but was successful at the end. It is very difficult to be in a place where you don’t understand anything that is going on! Once I got my food, I ate about 1/3 of it because it was so disgusting. I then walked outside to see a freaking Applebee’s across the street. I was pissed because Applebee’s sounded so good after that nasty meal I just ate for $3.80. In Ecuador they take and use the American Dollar and because of that Ecuador is not very cheap to travel in.
I hailed a taxi and pointed to the address in my book and he brought me to the house. Again, I made good conversation and at the end he was telling me how much he liked me and he waited as I tried the keys in the gate to make sure I got in safely.
I also learned today that you cannot flush toilet paper in any toilet in Ecuador. The piping system is too small and clogs it easily. This has been a difficult habit to break.
Chow. Hasta manaña.
