Follow me as I navigate the world, one step at a time.

Monday, July 17, 2017

Ecuador: Secret Places

"We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous 

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It's nice to find a home away from home here in Quito at Blue Door Housing. It's quaint and comfortable, with personal touches to make you feel special. I get to explore a new land outside the walls and then come back and sit in the courtyard listening to a little Rag'n'Bone Man to relax. 

It's been a little rainy today, but that made for cool pictures of the heavy clouds rolling over the mountains this morning. Despite the drizzle we made our way to the health clinic to get the yellow fever vaccine and got it and the proof card without any problems. The shot here is free and the shot in the US was $250-$300 and hard to find due to a nationwide shortage. 

Afterward, we did more wandering. It's so thrilling to go in one open doorway and find tons of stores and people behind it that are hidden from the street. We would go in one door and out another and be in an entirely different area that had its own type of things to sell. It seems that most areas sell like products and then you turn the corner and you have another type of business. We've seen whole blocks/buildings each of seamstresses, wedding/formal wear, shoes, clothing, candy, electronics, and home goods. Spruced in between the stores are tiny cafes, bakeries, or 10'x10' stores selling drinks/snacks/ice cream. 

We stopped in at one of the lunch places. Most all have a "lunch of the day," which typically consist of soup, rice, salad-ish, and meat. These cost $2-$4, which is great because it's cheap and a ton of food. Today, we entered a place and ordered the lunch of the day, but we didn't really know what we ordered. We quickly received a large bowl of soup that was broth based and filled with seafood and vegetables. It was tasty and upper filling and for me to say that about soup is something. Because it was so large, we didn't know if that's all we were getting. It turns out we still did receive a plate with the other items. I walked out full.

We ran across a pedicure/manicure place and decided to get a pedicure for $5. It didn't seem to need to follow the same standards as the US, so we'll see... My logic is that I've been walking around in sandals the entire time so my feet have built up resistance. 😏

To wake back up from lunch and the pedicure, we stopped in at a nice coffee cafe. I got a caramel latte, complete with a heart stamp, for $2.50. This was the first time I'd found a latte so I splurged. Speaking of coffee, this morning I ordered a café con leche, which is coffee with me. The lady brought me my order and pointed to the soy sauce looking dish beside me. I nodded, but not knowing what she said. I sipped my drink and found it was warmed milk. We then tasted the soy sauce looking liquid and didn't know it was. My Brain thought soy sauce so I went with that. The people beside us were giggling and passed us their sugar, but that didn't fix the lack of coffee problem. We ask the waitress where the coffee was and this time she imitated pouring the "soy sauce" into our mug, so we did, and the drink then turned into something that nicely resembled coffee. We're still not sure what it was exactly, probably coffee concentrate, but it was a fun experience. 

Yesterday, I took the opportunity to venture out of the city again to visit Otavalo, an old indigenous community where the people still dress in traditional clothing. The 2hr bus ride cost $2.50 each way. Otavalo is known for their extensive handicraft market that takes up an entire city block. The town itself is cute and quaint. I appreciated the fact that the sellers were respectful when negotiating. You could haggle for a bit and if you didn't get the price you wanted and walked away, they didn't follow you like I've had happen in other countries. After shopping for a while, we headed out of town further to the Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological Reserve to view the spectacular volcanic crater lake. Quito and these little towns are in an area called Volcano Alley, since there are dozens in the area. We negotiated a taxi for $12 to take us there and back, which took about an hour, including travel time and observation time. 


Tonight, a girl I met in the Amazon, three girls from the US staying here at Blue Door, Samson and I are heading down to La Ronda for dinner and drinks. New friends and new experiences. 
 
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