Quito is Sweet-o

The flight from Atlanta was ok....meaning we didn´t crash. The plane was about 30 years old and the most technologically advanced mechanism on it was theVHS player that played our movies. Regardless, we made it to Quito and caught a cab to our hostel and had to time to enjoy a beer on the balcony.

Quito is pretty amazing. 1.2 million people tucked in between massive mountains and volcanoes. The weather is constantly changing and usually cloudy to some extent (seeing as you are at 10,000 ft and practically in the clouds). We walked around the whole city the first day. We saw a cathedral that allowed you to climb up some sketchy ladders (completely unsupervised) to the highest tower. We went to the main plaza, bustling with people and dog poop, where we made the biggest discovery of the trip: Empanadas. They are fried balls of deliciousness stuffed with a variety of goodies, including, but not limited to: cheese and sugar, chicken, beef, and bananas. Anyway, there will be more on these heavenly snacks later.

After 5 empanadas we made our way to a lift that takes you halfway up a volcano overlooking the city. From there you can hike up to the summit at 16,000 ft....Kroopf was not happy to hear it would be a 5 hour round trip through rain and lightning from there. The views were gorgeous and the hiking strenuos... I thought my heart wsa going o shoot out of my chest. It was definitely worth it though.

The next day we took a bus from Quito to ¨La Mitad del Mundo¨, or middle of the earth. The bus ride was an adventure in and of itself. The bus drivers must all be ex-nascar drivers....they fly by pedestrians, vehicles, and stop signs and will pick up random people on the side of the road, but never stop the bus completely....kind of a drive by. We saw an 80 year old man almost tumble out the side of the bus as he jumped off for his stop at a pace of about 10 mph. The monument was kind of lame, you just go to say you have been there. We met a nice German girl who was working in a Quito as a nurse and she told us about a crater nearby and supposedly it is the only crater in the world with a village inside of it. We took another bus that dropped us off in the middle of nowhere and we hiked up to the top of some mountain. The entire crater was filled with clouds and we couldn´t see much...but the clouds moved rapidly and opened up enough for sweeping views of a massive crater surrounded by lush mountains. We took the terrifying bus back and got lost in the city, eating at random food stands all the way back...not sure what it was, but it was good. That night we went out with a diverse group of people: 3 Brits, an Israeli, 3 Swedes, a Belgian, an Irish girl, a Dutch, and an Australian. It is amazing to see how few Americans there are traveling down here...we have been the minority everywhere we have been. Some of the Australians and Swedes have been traveling for over 18 months...makes me feel better about myself.

Saturday we bought tickets to the Ecuador vs Bolivia soccer game. All of us foreigners bought Ecuador jerseys, hats, flags, and face paint and were quite a spectacle. The stadium was almost at its full capacity of 45,000 and was a blast. The crazy (and permanently drunk) Swede, Marko, was leading chants of ¨Si se Puede!!!!!!!¨and trying to teach them the wave. It was definitely an experience....needless to say, the next morning and the 2 hr truck ride to the volcanoe Cotopaxi were a little rough.

Sorry that this is so long, but we have been busy...so get used to it or find a new blog to read! More coming soon.

Dan