Ecuador

Today was my first whole day in Quito-it´s been relatively uneventful.  Mostly, I bought things.  Sunglasses, a spanish lesson, 5 liters of bottled water, a cheap cell phone, scissors, 4 mandarinas, a new shirt with long sleeves. 

It´s a little strange not having to count every dollar, like when I was in Peace Corps.  Tomorrow, like magic, my PTO will be deposited. 

In a lot of ways, this country is far more convenient than the states.  Everywhere street vendors, phone cabinas, cheap internet, snacks of varying quality.  I asked the man behind the desk at the hostel where I could buy scissors to cut cloth.  The store was a block away.   Or maybe I¨m just idealizing things here.  Afterall-I have lots of luxury here. 

In Seattle, I sort of felt like going home, like I had learned all this fascinating information in Vancouver that I wanted to put into practice right away.  But as soon as I got on the plane, I completely changed my mind.  Partly because the experience of a flight that is 75% ecuadorians has more in common with a bus ride than you would think.  There were two incidents, just in the seats around me, of people deciding to sit where they wanted, not where they were assigned.  Which resulted in some polite drama that turned into less polite drama, with lots of people not directly involved interceding.  And in the middle of the scuffle, two passengers who knew each other but apparently hadn´t seen each other in a long time spotted each other and there was a lot of cheeking kissing and exclaiming.  All in all, a pretty great start. 

I started talking to my quite gregarious seatmate-we were lucky enough to have an extra seat between us.  She is 62, and works with an indigenous women´s group that makes artesania-they do some natural dying with cochineal and some other substances.  She invited me to come and visit, and I hope I can squeeze that in.  The only thing is that the group is near Ambato, which means I would have to take a trip down a stretch of highway I´d decided never to traverse again.  But if there´s a reason.

My seatmate got up to go to the lavatory, and then I heard my name-it was E, a guy I was in Peace Corps with, who happened to be on the plane with me.  Such a great coincidence, and once we landed, I got to see the people who were picking him up who were from the Peace Corps office.  So it was something like coming home.  You know, in a way.

I´m staying at a hostel which is somewhat outside of the tourist district.  It´s nice, and the bed is comfortable-which is good, because I´m tired from all my travels.  My strategy for today, and probably tomorrow, is to venture out for a couple of hours, and then come back and rest.  I´m a little dehydrated-I was cautious about water last night, and after a couple of long flights, and some time on the beach in Miami, I definitely felt out of sorts this morning.  But as I said-it´s wonderful to be here.  Quito is a long, narrow city hugged by mountains.  It has terrible traffic, and the street signs are all black because of the exhaust from the buses, and it´s constantly under construction-there are lots of holes in the sidewalk, so you really have to be careful.  This is not a country plagued by lawsuits. 

After Quito I will go to Mindo.  And then the coast, and then Cuenca, and then my old PC site.  I look forward to eating pan de yuca from the bus vendors.

This morning was sunny, then this afternoon it rained hard and even hailed for a bit-this is because it´s winter here. 

Well.  back to the hostel.  Tomorrow I´m going to the Parque carolina to see about running.  We´ll see how that works out.  I´ve researched it, and apparently single women don´t have a problem if they are running on the track there. 

If for some reason you want to call me my number is 069609867.  But it´s up to you to figure out how to use it.  I think I can accept calls without charge, but I can´t call out unless I want to pay a lot of platita.