Ecuador

Just about a week and a half ago, we said goodbye to Guatemala. Although we enjoyed our time studying and practicing Spanish, meeting people and exploring the country, we were ready for Ecuador. In particular we were ready to get out of the rainy season.

We left Lago Atitlan for Guatemala City by boat-to-chicken bus-to-taxi. Then, the next day, we left Guatemala City for Quito by airport shuttle-to-airplane-to-bus. For those of you who might not be familiar with the term, a "chicken bus" is a colloquial English name for a colorful, modified and decorated US school bus that transports goods and people between communities (Wikipedia). They’re very cheap (this ride was about $4 for over 100 miles) and quite a cultural experience.

Anyway, a week and a half ago we arrived in Quito and took an instant liking to the city. The skies were blue and the air was crisp. We walked the streets and parks around “Mariscal” (cool part of town) and “Old Town” (old part of town).

The first night we stayed in a party time hostel and it happened to be “free rum and Coke” night. I stayed up late hanging out with some Brits talking about Ecuador, American/British accents, Obama, urban planning, growing up with divorced parents, growing up with parents that should have been divorced, the House of Lords and the American practice of small talk (talking with somebody for no other benefit than that of the conversation at hand).

The next night we moved to a more relaxed hostel. This hostel was much nicer and had a beautiful view of the city.

We also spent a couple days in a mountain lodge just south of Quito at Parque Nacional Cotopaxi (a park named after its tallest volcano). The land was beautiful.

We went horseback riding. Sheer's horse was a mama and her 3 month old baby followed us around (ridiculously cute).

There were wild horses in the park too.

We had one more day to enjoy in Quito after Parque Nacional Cotopaxi and on this day we were fortunate enough to take advantage of one of the city’s awesome recreational programs: every Sunday Rio Amazonas (a popular main street in Quito) is closed off to vehicles to allow for and promote bike riding. We rented bikes and soaked it all in!

At the moment, I’m writing barefoot in the sand, before crashing waves. Yesterday, after an eight hour bus ride, we descended from the highlands to meet the Pacific Ocean at Canoa.

Maybe we’ll learn how to surf today.