After three flights and a day in Lima, I finally found myself in Quito, Ecuador. At 2,800 meters it´s the world´s second highest capital city, which I tend to forget until I start climbing some of the city´s steeper streets. They say you really notice the altitude once you get to 3,500 meters, but aside from a gondola ride to a viewpoint of Quito at 4,000 meters, I won´t have to worry about it for a few more weeks until I make the trek up to Machu Picchu.
Although Quito´s centre is fairly well maintained, better than Lima´s at least, the fact that I´m in a third world country is all too apparent. All you have to do is look to the south part of the city and tiny run down shacks speckle the hillsides. People try to make money doing just about anything. For example, I was on the bus today when at one stop four guys with a boom box get on and make an announcement that they are going to perform for the passengers. So they turn on some background beats and proceed to bust a rhyme and rap for the passengers for a few stops. It sounded like some pretty good Latino rap. Then they walked up and down the bus collecting donations and trying to sell their demo CD. As soon as they got off the bus another guy hopped on and tried to sell oranges and other assorted fruit to the passengers. There were also ice cream vendors, chocolate vendors, and even one guy trying to sell individual caramels for a few pennies.
Then there´s the taxis... everywhere you go taxis are honking at you to get your attention and hopefully your business. When you do need a taxi, before you even get in you have to negotiate the fare as cabs don´t have meters here. As a matter of fact, I´d say that about 90% of goods and services can be haggled over here. I was pretty impressed with myself when fresh off the plane in Lima I talked my cab fare down by 10 soles (turns out the price I ended up paying was the correct price). Once you get into a taxi, you better hold on. Traffic laws aren´t really laws in South America, they´re more like guidelines. So it´s very common for vehicles to drive at breakneck speeds weaving through traffic and frequently driving three abreast on two lane roads. Horns are used extensively as drivers signal other drivers to inform them of their sudden appearance next to them in merging lanes or when two or even three lanes are used for turning (when there´s only one marked turning lane).
Then there´s the robberies and theft. In the three days I´ve been in Quito two of my hostel buddies got robbed... one got pick-pocketed as he was getting on a bus and the other had his laptop stolen out of his bag when he dozed off on a bus. Two other guys I met got robbed at knife point for all their cash and cards the first day they got into Quito. And yesterday my buddy Alex and I narrowly avoided a mugging setup in broad daylight in the old town. Gotta stay sharp around here!!
Then there´s getting change. Ecuador hasn´t had its own currency since 2001, now they use US dollars. The only problem is that most daily items cost less than one dollar and rarely more than two dollars. A full plate of good food at a restaurant costs $1.50 and a bus ride all the way across the city costs 25 cents. So, if you try to pay for something using a $20 bill, chances are no one will have change for you. I used a $10 bill to pay for entrance into the Pululahua volcano geobotanical reserve and the ticket seller had to go and talk with all of the souvenir vendors to get me $6 change back. So hostellers will frequently go out and take turns paying for stuff for the group in order to break down their larger bills into coins for later personal use. I hate change...
All of this may sound a little negative, but don´t get me wrong, going through all of this is interesting and at times really entertaining. The people I´ve been meeting at the hostels I´ve been staying at have all been really cool and interesting. So far I´ve met other Canadians, Americans, Germans, Swedes, Australians, New Zealanders, Brits, and, of course, some Ecuadorians. On my first night in Quito it was my birthday, so a bunch of travellers and the owner of the hostel, Santiago, took me out on the town. When trying to get into a discoteque, I only had a $20 and no one, not the ticket guy or even people in line, had change... so I had to go back to the hostel. When those who had gone in ahead of me came back, the hostel owner included, he felt so bad that he gave me an open tab for the next night at the hostel bar... I love this place!
Anyhow, time to figure out where to go next... central Ecuador or the coast...
Come on Jon, you love change!!
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