Peri(Quito)

I was without internet for a week and before that I was busy pretty much all day and night. I’ll slowly write blog posts about what I’ve been up to, starting with this one. When I last wrote, I was full of eggs and had just arrived in Quito.

*Note* the title is a hint for what happened on our next adventure.

Ohafa and I arrived late to Quito and were too stubborn to take the over priced taxi so we figured we would try and learn the public bus system at one in the morning. Ohafa’s navigation skills got us within a few blocks of our hostel after 2 separate local buses. We walked the rest of the way to our hostel and awoke the unhappy hostel owner. When it was all said and down, we were finally settled in bed around 2:30am.

We woke up early and moved our things to the hostel we would be staying at for the next couple of days. My friends would be meeting us there that night. The hostel was still serving breakfast and so we sat and ate our first real meal in days. I’m not sure any picture could capture our joy as the plates of hot food were brought to us. (upon further review, I didn't even take a picture because I was so excited to eat) Ohafa had pancakes and I had avocado toast with eggs (couldn’t stay away from the eggs). We met a couple from Chicago during the meal. They had just flown in and would be volunteering for the next month at the hostel.

We took the day to explore and gave ourselves a self-guided walking tour of the city. We found an amazing church, one of the most beautiful insides of a church I had ever seen. 

Ohafa getting really into his photography

We also found a museum that had a box of building blocks labeled “prohibited not to play with” so, we had to play.

We had a relaxing rest of the evening which included reading on the amazing hammock that overlooked the city and eventually playing cards with people from all over the world. There were some brothers from Switzerland, an English girl, a guy from Ireland, a couple from Germany, and a guy from the Netherlands. It is one of my favorite things about traveling, meeting people from all over and just hanging out together like normal people of the same age. Sharing stories of travel and culture and taunting each other in the game.

Not that I need to say it, but the sunset views were incredible

Around 2am, Ohafa and I went to the lobby to wait for my friends to arrive. When the doorbell to the hostel rang, we excitedly ran to the door to welcome them with roses that we had bought. It wasn’t them, so that was awkward because we had no idea what to tell them when they asked what room they should stay in. Not long after, the bell rang again, and we did the same thing, ran to the door with the roses. Turns out, 2am is a common time for people to arrive because most flights arrive late. Finally, our friends arrive for real and we headed to the room because most of them had been traveling for the better part of 24 hours.

In the morning, we decided it was better my friends who had just arrived should take the morning off to adjust to the altitude, shake the jet lag, and just relax a little. Ohafa and I took a walking tour while they slept in.

The tour ended up being super interesting because it was lead by someone who was born in raised in Quito and who studied the history of the city for her undergrad. Instead of just point out interesting buildings in the area, she spent most of the time sharing her culture with us.

There are 14 distinct indigenous groups in Ecuador. Our guide talked about the trend of younger generations not wanting to live like their ancestors and learn the languages/live in the little villages or in the jungle, etc. The strong influence of indigenous culture still exists, even in huge cities like Quito.  She explained how a lot of Ecuadorians use Shamans and non-western medicine.

She explained a personal experience that she had with a shaman. The guinea pig is an important animal (they even eat it) and they use it to diagnose someone. She told us how the guinea pig detects energies and also can check for sickness when the Shaman uses it. They place the guinea pig on your body and it walks around and absorbs the illness. After, it will either pass out or die. If it dies, it means that the problem is really serious. If it dies, the shaman checks the guinea pig to see what killed it. For example, if it was a problem in the intestines, it means that the person it was diagnosing has a problem with the intestines. So, whatever killed the animal is what is wrong with the person it was diagnosing.

We got to visit the office of a shaman as well which was really cool. The shaman was busy teaching a class but our guide explained more about the practice.

The last place we visited was the place that Ohafa and I went to play games. In reality, the walking tour ended up going to all of the places that Ohafa and I had discovered on our own which was cool for 2 reasons. 1. We learned that we are really good self-guided tour guides and 2. We got to learn more about the sites that we thought we had already saw.

Back at the museum with the toys we learned more about indigenous culture and also learned that the house was an old Spanish house. The guide further explained that you could tell it was owned by a rich Spaniard who was colonizing for one obvious reason, and then she directed our attention the floor. On the floor, there were detailed tiles that Ohafa and I paid little attention to the first time.

Upon further look, we realized that the design was made out of rocks and bones, some human. The more bones used, the higher the importance of the owner, so because of all the bones, it was clear that the owner was a higher up. The used bones to ward off the indigenous people. They were used as a threat that if the indigenous people tried to enter the house, their bones could be the next to be added to the floor.

The bones line the rocks, in this picture they are animal bones but in near by tiles you could see that the pattern was made out of human bones

We left the tour early to meet back up with my friends.

*For the record and the sake of the rest of the blog posts where they are featured my friends are, as I mentioned, most of my closest friends in law school. We call ourselves the Law GFs and they are Margaret, Emily, Molly and Claire (not present is Arielle) so from now on, I will either refer to them by name or by the Law GFs. This ends today’s public service announcement*

Not an easy picture to see what we all look like but from left to right it is Claire, Arielle, Molly, Emily, Margaret and I. For those who are curious, we are dressed up as various versions of Taylor Swift for Emily's birthday.

So, we met up with the Law GFs who had experienced the joy that is the hostel breakfast. We decided to visit the “Mitad del Mundo” aka middle of the world aka the equator. We also learned that it isn’t the real equator line. It was originally thought to be but with the advance in technology, they realized the latitude of La Mitad del Mundo monument is 0°00'08”, placing it about 250 meters south of the equator. But after spending all that money on this place, nobody was going to tell tourists that or move the monument. There is another site labeled “the real middle of the world” but it there is a lot less to do and see there so we settled for the tourist trap and fake middle of the world. 

We decided to go there by local bus and save money and return in cab to save time. We didn’t realize at the time what an ordeal the local bus system would be or how memorable cab ride home would be.

Before boarding our first bus, we stopped at a bread shop that Ohafa and I had found and frequented in our short time in Quito called Tortas Colombianas. There are bread shops on nearly every street corner in most South American cities, but we picked out this specific one to stay connected to Colombia 😉

After that, we got (bad) instructions about what bus to take and where to go to the Mitad del Mundo. In the end, a journey that should have been an 1 hour and 45 minutes and two buses turned into a 3 hour journey on 3 different busses.

I had already been here but I was pleasantly surprised that they had significantly built up the tourism a the site, adding various museums and other little attractions to make it a new experience for me as well.  

Samuel, answering the question you asked me the first time I traveled to South America.

We did plenty of exploring and took our fair share of pictures at the fake middle of the world. After, we indulged in some amazing Ecuadorian chocolate desserts and had a mini adventure finding a good empanada place.

A Molly classic "take my photo" moment

I'm not sure if I already mentioned this but a lot of South American countries raise guinea pigs to be eaten. They are also really revered by Shamans, for this reason they are a common symbol around.

When it came time to leave, we went to find 2 taxis, since we are a group of 6, traveling is a bit tough. It usually resulted in Ohafa and I splitting up because we were the most proficient Spanish speakers. This time, when we stopped the first taxi, he said he would take us all. His car was not large by any means but, the offer was too good for students on a budget to refuse. We all piled in, 2 in the passenger seat and 4 in the back.

 After about 30 minutes of mildly uncomfortable travel, the taxi driver stopped and said that one person had to get out because of the police. Confused, I started to explain that we wouldn’t just leave one person on the side of the road, meanwhile Molly, accepting her fate, just got out of the car. After some explaining, I realized what the taxi driver was saying was that only one person could be in the front seat or the police would pull him over. Somehow, I drew the lucky straw and I comfortably got the front seat to myself while everyone else jigsawed their way into fitting 5 people in the 3-person back seat. By some miracle, we made it back to the hostel safe and sound.

The next day we got up super early to head to mountain bike down Cotopaxi, the Volcano near Quito. The guide picked us up at the hostel, we brought all of our stuff with so we could head to our next destination directly after the tour.

We thought the tour was just going to be our group but the morning of we learned that one more, Harrison would be joining us. It must have been intimidating for Harrison, to be going on an all-day tour with a bunch of loud American Girls, and Ohafa. He took it all in stride though and was an amazing addition to the experience.

It is a 3 hour ride to Cotopaxi. We stopped halfway for breakfast at a local restaurant and continued on. 

Making sure Margaret had enough sunscreen was truly a group effort

When we reached the parking lot for the volcano, we started our step hike up. The first time I trekked Cotopaxi, I was unable to make it to the lodge area but this time, I made it up there with relative ease. It is the second time this trip where I did a repeat activity and I was able to explore more because I am in better physical shape (and had more time to adjust to altitude), which has been a fun experience.

Claire and Margaret, who had been feeling the affects of the high altitude most, decided not to push on to the lodge. They were feeling dizzy and light headed and we all agreed it was best not to push it since we had many more activities to come.

The rest of us made it to the lodge. It was a huge accomplishment for all of us for different reasons – for me, I conquered the hike I couldn’t before – for Ohafa, he got to see snow again for the first time 3 years – For Emily, it was the highest altitude she had ever been and the first mountain (volcano), – and for Molly, well, I don’t think it was anything extra special for her but she was happy to be there!

We walked/ran down back to the car to get suited up for the bike ride down the rest of the volcano. 

Molly started getting really sick (maybe that’s what Molly’s notable thing was about the hike, it made her sick), anyways, she sat out the bike ride out and Claire stayed in the van with her.

Next, we started racing down the side of the volcano. It didn’t take long for us to lose a volcano warrior. Margaret to a big spill early on. Claire, the literal mom of the group, frantically told the van driver to stop so Claire to attend to her. Margaret came away with a nasty road rash on her leg and some bruises – the first of many battle wounds Margaret would acquire throughout the trip.

Not long after, Ohafa took a spill of his own. He did a stylistic front flip over the handle bars. I heard about it second hand because I was in front. Harrison came riding by saying that Ohafa was down and I asked if he was okay. Harrison replied that he wasn’t sure because it was a big fall. I responded, WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW?! But, he was fine, just a few scratches.

Emily had a close call with death as she road waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to close to the edge of the road. All and all we made it to the bottom mostly all intact.

Wild horses 

We loaded up the bikes and headed back to the breakfast spot for lunch.

Mandatory llama selfie for Maria and her potential future students. Also a shout out to Andrew because I gave obvious winks (I just learned what a journalism wink is on the plane ride to Brazil while watching  True Story) to my other siblings.

After lunch, the tour guide and Harrison left us at the lunch spot to catch the bus to Banos, our next destination. Returning to Quito would be waste because it was in the opposite direction. Taking the bus from lunch saved us time and money. Some may remember in my previous visit to Ecuador I was dropped off on the side of the road after my Cotopaxi trip. It didn’t work out so well for me, but I learned how to hitch hike and made some new friends. 

Well, anyways, this time I was really careful to get detailed directions about where and how to catch the bus to Banos. The tour guide even showed me pictures of the buses we were looking for. This time, when we were left after lunch, we caught the bus within 15 minutes and were on our way to Banos with no problems. The bus ride was uneventful except for it marked the second time we saw The Fast and Furious 8, but certainly not the last time.

It reminded me just how naïve I was when I first traveled and how much of a miracle it was that I made it out alive. *Don’t worry family, I’ve gotten better and I’m way (kind of) more careful, I swear*

Overall, the Law GFs survived their first over packed day of ambitious adventure.