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!