Updated 6 hours later.
Ecuador has sucked my soul these last two days. Aside from the minor irritations I encountered in Quito, I was having a pretty decent time exploring and getting to know the city. Then I left. Then it started raining. Then I got stuck indoors in a hostel full of other travelers, which might not be such a terrible thing under normal circumstances, but I am just not used to the gringo trail right now. If I have to listen to anyone else go on and on about how dangerous South America is, overhear anymore debates about why the people in "these countries" are so terrible and don't value life like us westerners do I am going to fucking scream.
So, this is the situation I find myself in right now so if any of you out there reading this feel the slightest compulsion to help me out please, please, please pray to the weather gods to make it stop raining so I can do the one thing I wanted to do here, go mountain biking.
The updated part:
The rain didn't stop, until just now. So thanks for the prayers to the weather gods people, but they were to late (or I just wasn't patient enough). I followed my own advice and said "F this' I'm going for a ride." I cocooned myself in all my rain gear rented a bike and set off on what was the most beautiful if not coldest and wettest 30 km ride of my life. The conditions were less than ideal for downhill riding, the result of which being that I am relatively certain I now have a minor concussion. I just can't stop thinking about the number purple and the letter 7...
All in all a great ride, and I am glad that I just sucked it up and did it, but now I am left wondering what to do with the rest of my week. I had been planning on staying here for a while, chilling out, reading books, hiking and biking, but due to the weather and the fact that the only bookshop/cafe decided to close its doors last night for a two week annual vacation means that I have no idea what I should be doing with myself. Anyone?!?!? Suggestions for what to do in Ecuador for 6 days without busting my ass traveling around?
Sunrise on Rainier
2 comments:
Bro, you found trails to ride, not fast, but explore. Your lucky to explore new terrain to get under the wheels. Sun shining or not, your lucky to be out and about right now, (need I remind you of my situation?). Its been so nice here and not being able to enjoy the weather like I normally do is a killer! STOP BITCHING. LOL
august, divya sent me a link to your site. first off, que envidia. tienes la vida ideal. second off, i can tell you from experience that quito can be more than hostels and green paint. if i had to guess, you're staying near plaza foch. when i was introduced to the area, it was pointed out to me as 'gringolandia.' and, as you can very well guess, quito, and ecuador as a whole, is full of travels who usually stay in a city/area/country for about a week max, start their trip with about ten hours of practice in spanish and bemoan that they're having a tough time. it's not like colombia. few travels start or go to colombia because, while ecuador has high rates of petty crime (really do keep your shit close to you), it doesn't have the presence and threat of las farc. i lived with an ecuadorian (actually, half-colombian) family near estadio olimpico, and i spoke spanish about 80% of my time there (about half a year). but anything in a guide book and anywhere near plaza foch is going to be (a) overpriced (b) full of confused tourists and jaded quitenos. your best bet for seeing cool parts of the city is to get out of plaza foch and ask the locals. ecuador doesn't have those ricas arepas colombianas, pero it does have delicious helado a la paila and unas empanadas de viento (ya tengo ganas). and if you want a local tour guide who might have some time to show you around, you can email my host brother Rodolfo at predator_ec@hotmail.com (tell him you know winna and want to see non-tourist quito). good luck, and i hope you end up leaving quito on a good note...
winna bridgewater
winnab@gmail.com
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