Quito - Day Two

Woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck and could sleep for a week. Managed to get up at about 9:30 though and headed up to Parque Itchimbia (about a ten minute walk from the hostel up many sets of stairs!). The view over Quito was fantastic from up here and I started feeling like I was beginning to orient myself with the city.

I headed down the hill to the old town and had a wee walk around some of the famous sites such as the Grande Plaza. I managed to find some fresh fruit including a piece of fruit I had never seen before but decided to try. It was bright orange and had a very hard skin - the shape of a tamarillo but quite a bit bigger. When I got back to the hostel and cut it open I realised what it was - passionfruit or maracuja (in Brazil not too sure what the name is in Spanish). I had heard that the passionfruits (questionable grammar right there) were huge here compared to back home and was pleased to find that I had stumbled across one.

So anyway, enjoyed a very tasty breakfast of fresh fruit, granola (hard to find muesli here) and yoghurt and the organic coffee that the hostel provides.

Belly full it was time to explore. It had started raining by this point so for the first time I extracted my new rainjacket from its little sleeping bag type home and put it on (Dad you will be pleased no doubt!). I figured it wouldn't be too wet and I would survive with my jacket and taking cover in historic buildings as I went about my sightseeing. I was wrong. Half an hour in I was saturated and freezing and getting bizarre looks from the guards at the old beautiful churches I was trying to visit.

I managed to have a look in Quito's cathedral though which is located in the Grande Plaza along with the presidential palace, the Archbishop's cathedral and the local municipal building. It housed a lot of religious artefacts however I didn't quite get the real significance as the guide only spoke Spanish! (I have inquired at various Spanish schools as I have realised that if I am going to be here for a few months I definitely need to work on my limited espanol! It is HIGHLY frustrating not being able to converse with locals and I really feel like it is limiting my experience here. I also really want to do some volunteering while I am here and this is difficult with a minimal amount of Spanish).

Next stop was La Compania - a church built in the 16th and 17th century by Jesuits and described in my rough guide as 'bordering on opulence gone mad' for the amount of gold covering its interior. A beautiful church however and a good place to escape the rain.

I decided to finish my sightseeing and head back to the hostel with a quick trip to Central Mercado - a massive market house in a hall really close to the hostel. This market has fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, flowers and nearly every kind of fresh produce you can think of! It also has food stalls which are incredibly cheap. I bought a plate of rice and a kind of chicken stew with a slice of avocado and an egg for $1.50! It was great. I'm about to head there soon actually for round two - sea bass or corvina as it is known here. Lunch seems to be the major meal here with most restaurants shutting around 7pm. Bizarre I know.

So anyway got back to the hostel drenched but sated. I put some dry clothes on whilst talking to my roommate Attila. Very interesting guy from the states, he is traveling with his friend John who is actually volunteering at the hostel. We will hopefully become hiking buddies as Attila is keen to do some hiking through the Quilotoa loop and Cotopaxi (which is a volcano). Exciting stuff!

Clothes dried I made myself a hot chocolate and continued to chat to the other people here and read up on where I want to go to next.

John, the guy who works here, decided it was his mission to get me drunk that night. I was scared. I have avoided raucous nights out here as I don't really enjoy being hungover and I like to get up early and see the sites rather than lying in bed clutching my head. Anyhow, he managed to succeed somewhat - concocting all of these interesting (yet foul-tasting) drinks for me to sample. We headed out to what was meant to be a reggae bar in Mariscal which is what the locals call 'Gringoland' because it is where all the hostels, bars and restaurants are. Hence why I stayed in the Old Town as Gringoland did not exactly sound appealing to me. But anyway it was really an RnB bar. I have long since given up that I will actually hear music in clubs and bars here that I like. It all seems to be the same - bad pop from the US, reggae (I can't tell you how many times I have heard Jack Johnson on this continent) and Latin American dance/hip hop style stuff. There is this one song that goes 'one, two, three, four. Unos, dos, tres, quatro.' It is rather hilarious. Have heard it wherever I go!

So had a little dance but decided I felt sick and got a cab home by myself. Probably not the best thing to do as the cab driver kept slowing down and trying to make me sit in the front next to him. In Melbourne this has happened to me and I was rather horrified but here I guess its just part and parcel of the experience. He then tried to shortchange me about $20 which is quite a lot considering the currency here is US. I told him where to go in my limited Spanish!

That is one thing that is constantly disappointing here - the myriad of people trying to take advantage of stupid Westerners that cannot speak Spanish. It is also another reason why I really want to learn the language!

Another observation I have made since arriving here is how conspicuous I am here. After a week in Brazil my level of tan was getting rather ridiculous so in Brazil I did not really create any attention as I very easily fitted in to the plethora of bronzed Brazilians. However, here it is not so. Yesterday on my power walk in the morning it was actually quite unnerving the amount of tooting and yelling out I received and it started to make me quite angry. It was ridiculous as well considering I was wearing running shoes and leggings and looked very bleary-eyed! Especially when I was walking up a hill and a taxi was creeping along at the same pace next to me with two Ecuadorian men continually 'psst'ing at me! It is a real shame and I must admit I do miss the Brazilian friendliness and nonchalance. They really don't seem to notice Gringos as much there and if they do try and sell you something I found that when you refuse they straight away leave you alone.

So yes, a few challenges lie in wait for me in Ecuador but hopefully with a few Spanish lessons I will be able to tell the seedy men where to go (I have decided the best approach to the sleazy man problem is to look as weird as possible. My clothes choice has become weirder and weirder since I got to Quito - today I went sight seeing in a flanelette shirt, leggings, running shoes and my raybans.) The problem for me is that I love my independence and I want to be able to walk the streets on my own. I am not stupid of course and would never do this at night and avoid the obviously dangerous areas but I guess its a shame to become paranoid when there is so much to see and experience here.

Speaking of which, tomorrow I have decided to go to the aforementioned organic farm to chill out for a few days and hike around the extinct volcano. From there I will probably go to the cloud forests of Mindo (which sound amazing) and possibly the 'best market in Ecuador' in Otava. I will keep you all (if there are any of you) posted!