The Departed

Well, my trip to Ecuador was most certainly and interesting one with a full night (14 hrs ish) of flying and transfers. Apparently from JFK in New York the language barrier was established as everyone spoke Spanish with very little English. The 6.5 hr flight from NYC to Bogota, Colombia was a treat since I sat between on giant man who nearly elbowed me in the face several times and a lovely little Peruvian man who delighted in fukll on staring at me for about 5 hours of the flight... needless to say, I didnt sleep until I was in the airport in Bogota where I caught about 45 minutes of spooning my backpack on a chair... it was wonderful.
Once I arrived in Quito, Ecudaor,my buddy Shane met me and we hailed a cab to the hostel... just a little note here, my giant back pack is not overly comfortable to carry and the reception area at the hostel is on the 5th floor... our room was on the 4th thankfully. So we signed in, I changed in to more weather and walking appropriate wear and we decided to try to get to the TeleferiQo which is the gondola that takes you up the mountain (Quito is at 3300m and the TeleferiQo takes you to 4100m). This is actually impossible to walk there since it is a 20 min cab ride... but we did walk the streets of the city for about 4 hours, catching some food here and there as we went.

Quito is stunning, set in almost a valley except it really is too high to be called that I think and there are little mountains popping up in the city. The locals are, for the most part, extremely friendly and were nice enough to warn us away from the high crime areas during our wanders... they didnt, however, feel the need to warn us about the attack dog at the church but fortunately the lady who sold Shane a sewing kit to repair his pants was very friendly and helpful...

Im afraid that my time is limited so I will have to elaborate and continue my stories soon as I bid you all adieu... or rather hasta luego ... thank goodness Shane is more familiar with Spanish!