last day in Ecuador.
Yesterday August ran into some North Americans in an internet cafe, who apparently told him the breadth of thefts and muggings thier group has gone through here. Ive never really been afraid in South America, not of the people anyway, but this town, Quito, is chock full of tourists, and the constant warnings about being careful and not going to certain places definitely makes for a more threatening environment. Additionally, everyone else got on a plane this morning at 430, leaving me here with nothing to do until my plane tonight at seven. I was gonna go a- walkabout for a couple of hours, but its kind of a miserable day, i dont have a camera, and the whole place seems to be sort of... down. Additionally, i get to have a pretty wierd night tonight, i have to find a way to get from Miami international Airport to Ft. Lauderdale Airport sometime between 1:00 and 6:00 in the morning. Whoo. Anyways, i might just go back to the hotel, pack, and watch a movie for a while.
Whats been wierd about this trip is that weve spent most of it having achieved our goal for coming down here. we climbed the mountian a week ago and since then its just been.... well, not basking in the glow exactly, but maybe a little lost. We caught the weather almost perfectly, but it still might have made things go a little easier to climb the mountian later, and the one thing that really hurt us was not acclimatizing.
We went up and saw the monument to the eqautor yesterday, with a cool taxi driver who took us to a bunch of places. the funny thing is, the monument is several hundred feet away from the actual eqautor, which is a bit of a disconnect. its kind of a cool picture to stand with one foot on either side of the eqautor, and frankly if i hadnt have known that it was not the real line, id have been fine, totally trusting. last night we went to what i feel was the best restaurant so far, drank wine, and the rest got packed up. Mudge has been down with some stomach thing for a day or so, which sucks. Something pretty bad too, worse than anything ive had down here. So thats gonna be a fun plane ride. My regular life is starting to seep into things, starting to think about school and finding a job and soccer again. (It´s really herd for tourists to play sports, so this continent is frustrating because they play soccer everywhere... without you...) Turns out ive got a bunch of stuff to do.
So, the challenge of the mountain was not really skills, although if were gonna keep doing this stuff im gonna have to keep certain habits up, but the altitude, which took all my strength. the beach was less than youd want from a resort, and more than you get in the third world, the city is actually kind of dull, unless you like expensive bars and the threat of mugging, bluefooted boobies have a superiority complex, whales dont like boats very much, people with cameras should always carry them, and i need to learn spanish.
Whats been wierd about this trip is that weve spent most of it having achieved our goal for coming down here. we climbed the mountian a week ago and since then its just been.... well, not basking in the glow exactly, but maybe a little lost. We caught the weather almost perfectly, but it still might have made things go a little easier to climb the mountian later, and the one thing that really hurt us was not acclimatizing.
We went up and saw the monument to the eqautor yesterday, with a cool taxi driver who took us to a bunch of places. the funny thing is, the monument is several hundred feet away from the actual eqautor, which is a bit of a disconnect. its kind of a cool picture to stand with one foot on either side of the eqautor, and frankly if i hadnt have known that it was not the real line, id have been fine, totally trusting. last night we went to what i feel was the best restaurant so far, drank wine, and the rest got packed up. Mudge has been down with some stomach thing for a day or so, which sucks. Something pretty bad too, worse than anything ive had down here. So thats gonna be a fun plane ride. My regular life is starting to seep into things, starting to think about school and finding a job and soccer again. (It´s really herd for tourists to play sports, so this continent is frustrating because they play soccer everywhere... without you...) Turns out ive got a bunch of stuff to do.
So, the challenge of the mountain was not really skills, although if were gonna keep doing this stuff im gonna have to keep certain habits up, but the altitude, which took all my strength. the beach was less than youd want from a resort, and more than you get in the third world, the city is actually kind of dull, unless you like expensive bars and the threat of mugging, bluefooted boobies have a superiority complex, whales dont like boats very much, people with cameras should always carry them, and i need to learn spanish.