Oh The Places You'll Go...

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

-Dr. Seuss

 

Great places indeed! In the five weeks that I have spent living on the main land in Quito, Ecuador I have visited and seen so many beautiful sights that you can truly see no where else in the world. Each day I continue to be enamored by everything Ecuador has to offer - and I haven't even made it to the Galapagos yet!

 

In/Near Quito:

Cotopaxi - This beautiful volcano was a struggle to climb on my third day here, but totally worth it. The elevation is insane, but the park is beautiful. Check out my post about it "Up In the Clouds".

 



 

Mariscal - Also known as "Gringo Landia", or International Land, this is the main touristy area of Quito, lined with restaurants, bars & nightclubs. It definitely made for some fun nights out and was a lot safer than the University made us think during orientation.
 

Artisan Market - An overwhelming amount of the same crafts overflowing from aisles, but a great place to get truly Ecuadorian souvenirs and keepsakes. Its fairly easy to get to and made for two fun afternoons in the city.
 

Mitad Del Mundo - Translated as "The Center of the World", it is one of the equator tourist attractions. I went once with my host family and a second time with a group of friends. It was definitely neat to be able to say that I stood in two hemispheres at once!

La Rhonda - We went to this touristy place one Friday night for dinner. The cab ride took about an hour because of traffic, but only cost $15 (gotta love these prices!). We ate at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that was packed with people. The menu had 5 entre choices. I got a huge plate of chicken with rice and a salad and a huge beer for $5.50. I'm very glad we made it down here and would definitely return to putts the shops and restaurants if we had more time here.

Teleferico - This touristy attraction is a cable car ride that you take to multiple trails. Very rigorous hiking at a very high altitude, but amazing views of all of Quito.

 

Hop on A Bus:

Mindo - We took a $2.50, 2 hr long bus ride to this cute little town in the cloud forest. It is full of wildlife and activities. We spent 5 hours hiking through 5 different beautiful waterfalls, enjoyed a traditional Ecuadorian dinner for $5.50 and went horseback riding. There are so many things we could have done here, but we limited ourselves to two activities, leaving out tubing, the butterfly museum, chocolate & coffee museum and canyoning.



 

Esmeraldas - This was our first class trip. It was about a 7 hr bus ride on some very windy roads, but we were surrounded by beautiful landscapes the entire ride. It was a very isolated beach, where we stayed at an eco-lodge with compost toilets and open-air rooms. Very interesting experience and very pretty place.

Puerto Lopez, Machalila - Our second class trip was to this more populated, touristy town with a beach, beach bars and numerous restaurants, only problem was it was a 10 hr bus ride. Another Ecuadorian class joined us on this trip, accompanied by one of the student's dogs; they were an interesting group of people to say the least. Our hostel wasn't the nicest, but the owner treated us as her own kids. We did our first dives here, and I dove at Isla de la Plata, where we got a sneak peak of what the underwater life is going to be like at the Galapagos! It got me so excited!

 

Same, Esmeraldas - This trip was for a class, but for the second module. Here we stayed at a very nice resort with individual cabins that could sleep up to 8 people. The ocean kept us awake at night, pounding against the cliff below us, but life could definitely be worse. We spent three days whale watching (humpbacks), and saw way more whales than we expected. It was really awesome and made me fall in love with humpbacks - they are truly amazing animals.



Tomorrow morning I'm catching a flight to San Cristobal, Galapagos for the next three months. I am so excited, but could definitely see myself returning to Quito to hit up some places I didn't get to visit in my month here. I'll be hanging out with sea lions, blue footed boobies and marine iguanas for the next three months - is this really school? I can't wait, but I am sad to leave my host family here. Until next time, Chao! <3



Hora Ecuadoriana

Throughout my many orientations here we were warned time and time again about "Hora Ecuadoriana", or Ecuadorian Time. Basically, everything is super slow and they are not specific about time at all. If you are invited to a party for 5pm, its expected that you won't arrive until 6:30 or 7 (kind of like the Rue side of my family, just a little more extreme). This concept was hard for me to grasp, being that I am a very punctual person and usual early to most meetings/events/classes etc.

This past Monday we had our orientation for the Galapagos. We did not have class that day since we just returned from a trip on Sunday. Orientation was scheduled for 8am; those of us weren't too pleased having to be here so early especially with readjusting to the altitude yet again. I gave myself plenty of time, calling the taxi at 7:30am. Usually the taxis come within 5 minutes. On Monday, when I actually had somewhere to be at a specific time, the taxi came at 7:45. I had him take me directly to the school, rather than catching my bus, assuming that it would be faster. And of course, traffic was horrible. Being punctual me, I was getting anxious about getting to the university on time and having to be that one awkward student who shows up late.

I eventually got to the school at exactly 8:00am and hustled to the assigned room. I found all 35 other students in my program standing outside the room. Ends up the room was booked. We stood outside it for 20 minutes, until the director decided to find another room. All those rooms were booked too, so we eventually took over a space on the lawn and started our "orientation" at 8:35am. They quickly threw pointless information at us for 25 minutes so the students with class at 9am would be on time.

Throughout this whole mess of an "orientation" the director and other Ecuadorians were very calm and collected, not at all stressing out over the missed time like a typical American would have been. Even though I have been here a month, I am still getting used to the laid-back mentality here. We have been warned that the islands are even more laid back...not sure if that's possible. But I will be finding that our for myself in another week's time. Until then, Chao!