The Never Ending Ride and Quito

After departing our hostel at 3 pm on Friday, we boarded our 26ish hour bus ride from Lima to Guayaquil. The bus was pretty nice; two floors, with fully reclining seats and a TV for movies. It also had two bathrooms downstairs, which came in very handy later during the voyage. Now, if you have ever taken a bus for a few hours, you probably know that it isn´t a bunch of fun; going overnight was a walk through the darkness of transportation world. I´m not taking about the bus company, which I would highly recommend; I´m talking about how you have to sit in your seat for hours upon hours. The ride started out fine and we watched two bootleg American films. We knew they were boot-legs because there were parts of the films that obviously weren´t edited properly, with cameramen still being seen on the scene. The night dragged on, we didn´t get too much sleep and I had an eventful meeting with the bathroom downstairs after having dinner (my body is still getting used to the food down here).
We arrived in Guayaquil around 8 at night, more than the 26 hours we were told but that is just how things work down here. We met a German woman on the bus named Nora, who already had a place to stay so we cruised along with her to check out that hostel. It was the Manso boutique hostal. A bit pricy for the two of us (35 dollars for a room for two!) but we had free breakfast and were tired enough to pay. Now, a few things about Ecuador. They use the American dollar; no, I´m serious. Our presidents are on their national currency. A twenty down here still has the face of Andrew Jackson across it. Next, people don´t wear headphones when they listen to music; they just pull out their i-phones and rock out to music loud enough for all to enjoy. It´s pretty funny! Next, everyone we have met is very nice and willing to hear our broken Spanish; sometimes, they even try their English out. Two other fun facts: showers here are electric and you can´t flush toilet paper down the toilet.
After spending the day recovering from our long bus ride in Guayaquil, we took a taxi to the transportes Ecuador bus station with hopes of taking the 9:00pm overnight bus from Guayaquil to Quito. And that is when the madenss and wonderfulness of Ecuador began. We bought out tickets for our bus and claimed a nearby corner with our backs as we needed to hunker down to 1.5 hours before we took off. While manning our items, two young kids came hopping over to us screaming and yelling with joy. They were just being kids and it was pretty funny to watch them run, fall, yell, throwing things at each other. Then, their mother came over and started conversing with us. I was able to pick up on some of what she was saying and able to get across where we were from, where we were going, why and some other basics. Then, she started talking about her youngest son´s birthday and before you know it, she invited us to the party on Sunday the 28th! Welcome to Ecuador! She was seeing that I was having difficulty understanding everything so she busted out her cell, called a woman named Kris, and gave me the phone. I was talking with an American woman named Kristin, who was working in Quito for the Peace Corps. She retold me that Lil and I were formally invited to his birthday party and that she may be there as translator. (We called Kris on Tuesday after we arrived and are going to get a beer with her on Friday and will hopefully go to the birthday party on Sunday as well). The bus was long and sweat-tastic but the joy of having other wonderful people surrounding us was overwhelming.
We were told that the bus from Guayaquil to Quito would take 8 hours, so we planned on 10, based on what we had been told, and our experience on our first bus. However, this bus was 1.5 hours early, so we ended up arriving in Quito shortly after 5 am, when it was still dark. We hung out at the bus station until the sun came up and took a taxi to the secret garden, our hostel. (Thanks for the recommendation Amanda!!!) Our hostel is great, it is 5 floors, with abundant potted plants, funny painted decorations on the walls and tons and tons of rooms. There is also an open air terrace on the top of the hostel with a bar and restauraunt that serves breakfast (desayuno) and dinner(cena). The food is delicious and not too expensive, and they have vegetarian options. We are going to stay here for approximately 2 weeks while we take spanish lessons at the spanish school that is run through the hostal. Lilli met two guys from Germany and Holland who are also beginners, so they will be taking a group class together. I am a little more intermediate level so I will be taking a higher level class. In addition to setting up our Spanish lessons, we have been meeting lots of fun people at the hostal, including a pair of women from NZ, a couple from Sweden, and a few people from Europe. We are a bit embarrassed that we only speak English because every single person we have met speaks two or more languages (one of them being english) We are excited to start lessons and hopefully be bale to communicate more effectively. Today we took a cab into the new city ( we are staying in the old city section of quito) to explore the botanical gardens. They were wonderful! Check out the pictures!

-Dave


inside our hostal


Another view



The view from the terrace


Dave hanging out at the terrace restaurant


One of the many fruit stands in Quito. You can get any tropical fruits you want! Papaya, Bananas, Mangos, Passionfruit...yum!

Below are pics from the botanical gardens!

Lima!

The buildings here are so colorful, this is Dave and I in front of one of the houses; bright red!


Sea Urchin!


sun and the sea!


Cerbiche! Yum!


Beautiful tile wall in Miraflores


First day in Lima, overlooking the sea!


Hello all!
I am writing this post from our hostel in Miraflores, which is the tourist district in Lima Peru. We arrived here on the 17th at about 2 am, and the whole process; NYC to Mexico city, Mexico City to Lima, and the airport to our hostel went without a hitch. On our 2nd flight, from Mexico City to Lima, we met a man named Sergio, who was a very fiendly missionary who decided that our 5 hour flight to Lima would be a good chance for us to learn some Spanish. Dave spent the greater portion of 3 hours speaking to him in Spanish, while I listened and tried to follow along. By the end of our flight, Sergio had flipped through an entire magazine and taught us the names of the objects on the pages in Spanish. I think I retained about 3 words.

Yesterday, Dave and I spent the majority of the day getting aqainted with Miraflores, exchanging our money, walking the boardwalk by the sea and fumbling through spanish phrases in an attempt to order food, use the bathroom, and ask for directions. Dave took 4 years of Spanish in high school, and it is coming back to him very quickly. Most people in Miraflores speak a little bit of english, but Dave knows more Spanish than they know english, so it is more effective to fumble through the wording in Spanish and use excessive gesturing than to try and speak english. Peruvians are very friendly and it seems that the harder we try to speak their language, the more apt they are to help us.

Last night we went out for drinks with a wonderful woman we met at our hostel named Karen, who is from Norway. Karen speaks fluent Spanish, so she was especially helpful in ordering drinks and helping us some more with our spanish. Today we went out for Cerbiche with Karen as well; Cerbiche is a traditional Peruvian dish which is cooked in lime and hot chili peppers. Amazing!
We ended the day with a dip in the ocean and frying ourselves in the hot sun...even though we wore sunscreen we burnt the hell out of ourselves..hmmm, I guess we need to cover up a bit more if we don´t want to get torched.

Tomorrow we will leave for Ecuador to attend our spanish school, it takes 2 buses and over 24 hours to get there, but I hear they have food and drinks on the bus, so we should be happy campers. More to come soon!

Bon Voyage!

After setting sail from Portland to Boston, we realized we wanted to create another post to our blog. With that said, we already have been over here for almost two weeks and this is the first one we were able to write! We will try to keep up on our travels a bit more; feel free to remind us to post more often.
Once we got back to Lil's parents' place in Natick, we packed up her Mom's car (Putt Putt) and headed down to the grand city of Bristol, CT. Through the rolling hills and the lush concrete, suburban jungle, Putt Putt guided us to my folks' place on Violet Drive. We spent a few days hanging with the family, Mom commenting on the hair (the usual first comment), my brother Jeff telling me his M3 Beamer and his Applebee woes, meeting his wonderful girlfriend Ashley, playing pool with my Pops and meeting up with some great people that I had not seen in over a year and a half. One of the most memorable moments for me was hanging out with Jeff and Ash one night playing the game "Loaded Questions". We laughed, we cried, we made non-PG jokes and had a great time connecting with my brother and his wonderful partner.
Then, we packed up and blew out of that popsicle stand (my humor doesn't work on everyone but just try it). Putt Putt faithly returned us in one piece (no thanks to I95, where if you are not going 75 then you will get honked at) to Natick. Lil's folks were gracious enough to provide the entire downstairs space as our "Home away from Home". We hung out with her folks the first few nights and even managed to check out a local climbing gym, Boston Rock Gym. Lil's uncle Steven used to own the establishment back in the 90s and then sold it a few years back. I give it two thumbs way up: tons of bouldering, top-roping and plenty of lead climbing for all to enjoy. I even met a new inspiration: Jon, a 62 years-young guy who started climbing only three years prior. When I struggle on V2s from now on I will think twice about complaining that I can't do it; I will try to reflect on the fact that I have been given the physical talent to use my athleticism at such a young age.

Lil and I then parted ways for a night; I went into Boston and Lil visited a friend in Framingham. We both had a grand evening, Noam being a little prince and Caroline showing Lil a good time, and then we met up in the city on Friday to tromp around a bit more before heading down to NYC. Last night, I experienced my first Jewish service at Temple Beth David, where Howard Worona (Lil's dad) led the service through the art of song. I was very impressed by the entire experience, especially how the community gathered together and acted as one loving, caring unit.



Lil, Howard and I at the Worona's house in Natick


Playing music:)


Today, Lil's parents and mine are meeting up (wish us luck). Tomorrow, it is the rest of Lil's extended family (yep, double dose of family for us this weekend). Monday, we are heading into NYC to stay with my good friend Heather and then flying out on Tuesday. Already missing the wonderful peeps of Bend and Portland; thanks for sending us your support.

Til Suramerica,
Hasta la vista
G Hop (Robin will not allow me to include her name with this post because she does not care for my writing style)