Village Of Many Nations Ibarra

... urgently said, “adelante, adelante, aqui, aqui” indicating that I should move ahead 4 spaces ahead, in front of a man, who seemed to support the act of cutting in front of him. I thought, how nice, that he would let me be in front…hmm maybe a little too nice. I could not organize my thoughts, as the man's urgent tone of voice distracted me. When we reached the ticket booth, the man whom I cut bought his ticket first, which was strange ...

... company´s office. We were getting conflicting instructions from several people. Eventually we did find the office (a hieous little kiosk containing a grumpy sarcastic woman) and went to buy our tickets. She told me that the bus was in fact at 8.45pm, not 45 minutes earlier as we had expected, and that it stopped at Puerto Lopez, about an hour away from Montañita, and not our destination itself. Fair enough, we thought, though as it was only just after 7pm it meant we had to sit about ...

... outside while another was dominated by a church and cobblestone plaza. The church had a man in costume outside it that apparently warned off evil spirits (or provoked them…some of the kids looked quite scared), and the story goes that the man who built the church was lazy and running out of time so he made a deal with the devil to get it done in return for his soul but hid one brick so it couldn’t be completed. We past a church with a lot of gold on the door and further ...

For our first full day in Quito, we got much accomplished. No small task was getting our bearing in a city where streets are named after dates on the calendar. I asked our waiter at breakfast how to get to Avenida de Colon and he told me to go to El Seis de Diciembre before turning right on Avenida de America. I misunderstood and told him we were only in town until the 18th of May, assumed he didn´t ...

... see who is around the hostel and what they are doing, plan a day trip around the town to see some of the sights or climb some of the hills, eat a ton, and then go out and work on my dance steps and spanish hooks. Places to Go, People to See The first few days I was here, I basically just bummed around town. The old town is filled with colonial arctecture and has some intersting churches, shops, plazas and parks. The new town has more of ...

... the name) and as an adventure sports hotspot. Thus we found ourselves signed up for something called canyoning, thanks to our friends from Oz, which turned out to be a day long expedition rapelling down waterfalls in climbing gear. Once we got over the terror, it was awesome: beautiful scenery and a feeling of accomplishment after climbing backwards through four ...

... are close at night. You get to check them out for free too since you will be accompanied by the police.] Unfortunately, I had to cut the tour short because it was already 10pm, and I didn't want to walk too late along Quito streets. I sprinted back to my hostel, and was out of breath when I got there, primarily because of the altitude. I will blog more about Quito when I visit it again after my Galapagos trip. I'm looking forward to my Galapagos trip tomorrow!

... I d*n't freeze my ass *ff. S* I have been eating at KFC lately. The f**d really sucks up h**e in the m*untains. Been juggling Danny and Diana lately. Funny, I was at the Univ**sity waiting f*r Danny t* get *ut *f sch**l, standing *utside by the curb. This dude with a little car like s*mething *ut *f "Fast and Furi*us", he c*mes tearing ar*und the c*rn**. Th**e is a gr*up *f y*ung guys standing *n the sidewalk. He guns it, and the students scatt**. One didn't ...

I was thinking that I have been raving about Ecuador for the past couple of months and I haven`t really clarified why. So here`s why, more or less....if I can get it even remotely into words: We crossed the border back into Ecuador and immediately there were smiles and holas and conversations started by interested taxi drivers. We walked the streets of Ibarra to find breakfast and are accosted in the most friendly manner by an Ecuadorian couple in their 30`s who ...

... Crossing the border back to Ecuador from Columbia brought back memories of this culture shock. Not that Columbia was that bad, not at all, but the starkness was. The last few Columbians were in dyer need of an injection of sorts...personality, politeness, puntuality..... "wheres the dude with the passport stamp?" After the Ecuadorian border guards sized us up for our real intentions for visiting Columbia, they seemed to greet us back with open arms. I felt a ...