The Dirt Cricket Abides

Feeling a bit chirpy because the fever “seemed” to have broken I pack up my bag in good spirits and head down to the highway with Thierry. This is a new adventure, we have to flag down a bus from the side of the Pan American Highway and hope we get it right. Once all that nonsense was taken care of we were off to what has proved to be my least favorite spot thus far.

A new trend of bus travel has shown itself on this leg of our journey. Let’s call it the sardine quotient. Essentially the driver will never stop picking people up from the side of the road until we are packed in like sardines. Besides the obvious discomfort, I was now witnessing a 3-hour trip take 6 hours. Eventually we arrive and I ask a taxi ABOUT how much should it cost to get to our hostel of choice…”three dollars”…I reply “no way is it more than two”…”Bueno”. We arrive and the meter clearly states $1.50. I hand over my $2 and dutifully wait for change, only to get into a Fred style patented spitting match over my $0.50. He relented when he realized this gringo ain’t gonna take shit from nobody, even if he cannot understand them. Nice, strike 1 for Quito…first person I encounter wants to rook me.

As I check out the hostel, the swarm of international travelers and the generally cool atmosphere instantly turn me on. Feeling content to meet folks and unwind from a day of travel I decide to hang out and relax. The day winds down, the night comes, and now I am feeling the damn fever creep into my bones. No denying what’s going on, but there were a couple cool folks and a cute girl and I had a few drinks…fast forward I am down with a full blown flu. It sucks! Here I am in a generally loud hostel with the flu and basically unable to do anything. The elevation of Quito—approximately 2,900 meters—and the illness have me crippled. I at one point try to walk out of the hostel and can make it no further than one block before I am left gasping for air. Yep, I’m stuck in this loud ass party hostel until I recuperate.

Nothing to write other than after 6 days of feeling really sorry for myself and infecting everyone else in the hostel I was finally on the upswing. Good thing because I was very tired of the view (see above).

Some commentary on Quito: of all the people I met, spending any significant amount of time in Quito, they were mugged. Some of the muggings were as violent as being choked from behind in BROAD DAYLGHT, to guns, or knives and the typical demand for all your money. You also must be kidding yourself if you think any cop in Quito gives one flying shit about a foreigner. It was so discouraging that everyone was always on edge when outside. Every day another person would share their story of a mugging or attempted mugging…really Quito is such a god awful dangerous place it is a disgrace. Realizing at this point that I hate this filthy, dangerous, diesel fume choked city I am hightailing it OFF the gringo trail and heading right to the coast as soon as I am well. The weather is miserable and it rains non-stop, I mean I am just baffled why there are so many tourists here. Then it hits me, The Lonely Planet guidebook highlights Quito as a great jumping off point for your South American adventure. There you go, the single most popular guidebook says so, so it becomes etched in stone along with the other commandments that were handed to Moses. Really the city of Quito needs to be careful and clean up its act. It will not be long until the tourists realize how nasty a pace it is…and if you are curious, STAY AWAY there are dozens upon dozens of cooler places in South America.

I did manage to climb to very highest point of this gothic cathedral (look on the left upper most point just below the cross, and that is where my vantage point is from)…yep it is lawless down here and I was ale to sit outside and hang my leg over the edge. It was scary as hell being that high up and looking over to certain death.

Tomorrow at the advice of a friend I met in Bogotá I am off to the coast to study Spanish and hopefully not wear a shirt for one week!

Chirp Wheez Chirp…getting better

This entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 9:17 pm and is filed under Ecuador, South America, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.