BootsnAll Travel Network
Add this blog to: MyYahoo, Google, Bloglines, RSS


Archive for August, 2009

« Home

climbing a mountain

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

on friday the weather was sunny so we got up early, checked out of our other hostal and moved to this one which has a kitchen and is cheaper :) we were albe to get up to the teleferiqo by 10am which is a cable car up the side of the volcan pichincha which is right near Quito. at the top of is cruz loma which is a place for beautiful views and it said that there was a 3 hour hike from there up through the mountain. we started and it was a bit cold but we were good and took some wonderful photos and enjoyed the views of the city. then we continued going and about the 2nd hour it was so cold but we were nearing the summit and so we continued. by the end it was so difficult, freezing, climbing on hands and knees and we were not properly dressed for this (Al was in shorts and I in capris) but we kept going until we finally reached the top. we spent all of 2 minutes on the summit before we went down by sliding on our bottoms through the dirt and stones until we got to the part that was more of a hike. it was strenuous and we were very ill prepared but we had an excellent day. and it was our 2 year anniversary and that was a wonderful way to spend it together. today we took it much easier because we are both very sore from the climb yesterday. we are getting used to the new hostal and bought food and i tried my hand at cooking both sopa de papas y yuci which is a vegetable soup and also tortilla de queso which is a cheese omlette. tonight i will make us a milk, sugar and rice dessert of whose name i have forgotten. nice people here in the hostal with us although they speak english…that is the only drawback. we are here at casa bambu for the next few weeks until we came move into another hostal even cheaper near here. we are on the border between the old and new towns of quito, very near nice little tiendas (stores) in which al was very happy that we bought potatoes, yucci, lemon, bananas for a total of 55 cents. i ate seco de chivo which is goat, and also guatita which is tripe stew. i am pretty sure that tripe is cow´s stomach but it was good. tomorrow we will go to the basilica for Mass. we made contact with CENIT on thursday and we will start on monday both doing rescate de calle-street outreach in the markets of south quito until the middle of september when the full staff returns and we will specailze further from there, i will probably do medical work and al some tutoring, but we´ll wait to see for sure.

Posted in Quito | 3 Comments »

Estamos aqui seguramente – We are here safely

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Hola a todos.  Ya llegamos a Quito ayer por la noche.  Yo se que la mayoria no hablan español y entonces sere amable y escribir en ingles.

We are here safely!  After our long day of travelling, and it sure was long, we arrived in Quito at a little after 11 last night. The Bogota airport was not too bad because we never had to leave the areas that were secured.  Once we arrived in Quito we had no problems getting through customs or getting our bags.  We went to have them call a taxi and they had one there for us to take us right here to our hostal, the Secret Garden.  We are staying in the 6 bed dormitory which was a bit noisy last night, so we did not sleep too soundly, but we slept in so we felt pretty good when we woke up this morning. Then we got our things together, got some purified water and locked our valuables in a locker and headed out to the Mercado Central, where there are rows of stands of local foods being sold.  I ordered a batido of tomato de arbol which is tomato tree juice and it was excellent.  Then Al ordered corvina con arroz y sopa de camarones which is sea bass with rice and a shrimp soup.  It was a really good first meal here in Ecuador.  We walked to the Basilica where we walked around and found some peace. Then we walked south to the Centro Historico where there are many old colonial plazas and buildings with colonial architecture which I don´t know if I have fully appreciated considering I know almost nothing about architecture.  We went to plaza Santo Domingo, plaza San Francisco, Plaza Grande and then we came back to the hostal for more water and a restroom.  It was hard but we did find one eventually when we were out today, there are not too many to be found.  We paid 10 cents to use it and they gave us a little toilet paper, and none of the toilets had seats, and you dare not put the paper in the toilet before you flush, you have to put it in the basket next to the toilet.  General Ecuadorian bathroom etiquette.  We came back to the hostal to study the map and we walked almost the entire length of the new town up to a beautiful view near barrio Guapulo.  We walked down the stairs entering into the barrio before we realized there was not much to see there so we turned around.  But this time it was much harder because it was uphill in one hour.  These Andes are making us feel the altitude and we were very much out of breath but we made it back here before dark.  We were just up on the terrace where they had live Andean music and we had bowls of potato, cheese and avocado soup.  Tomorrow we plan to find the famous goat stew in the restaurant below the cathedral which is only served from 9-11 in the morning.  Then we will try to find CENIT and introduce ourselves and look at some of our housing options for while we are here in Quito.  We have been cautious with our stuff and so far have not felt any major security risks.  It kind of feels like NYC in that when you are out in public you cannot take your guard down and you have to keep your bag zipped and really close.  Al and I have been doing really well speaking almost exclusively in Spanish, in fact it is annoying me to have to think and write in English right now.

Posted in Quito | 3 Comments »

Off to the Missions

Monday, August 24th, 2009
In about 12 hours we will begin our long travel day.  We start at 8:30am in Buffalo Airport, to Charlotte, to Miami, to Bogotá, ending in Quito around 11pm.  Ecuador does not practice Day Light Savings, so they did not ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Travel | No Comments »

20 days until we leave!

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
So i have two more weeks of teaching here at Chautauqua until i go home for the long weekend and get myself ready to leave. it feels like there is so much to do and not that much to do ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Travel | No Comments »