So I begin writing about my last trip to Ecuador just before I get on the plain for this trip to the same place. My first impressions of Quito was, "Damn, looks like any city in Mexico" Turns out all Major Latin American cities pretty much all look the same. Everything looks like it was built in a hurry, streets and sidewalks have this half assed look to them, but its odd. I think this is pretty much due to maybe limited resources. The money is in the hands of a few people pretty much in every L.A. country. My first few days tho were unfortunately spent in the offices. The people were pretty nice, no complaints there. Very accomodating, very humble, latin american folks, we're a pretty agreeable bunch. Quito is in the middle of the Andes, surrounded by volcanos. A long skinny valley, mountains all around jut up about 2000 feet up from the valley floor. There is a volcanoe about 2 kilometers away from the hotel I stayed in, the same one i'll be checking into tonight. I wish there was more to say about the city, but there isnt much. They dont have a huge population and the people for the most part are mixed. There are lots of Indiginous people tho. Dark skinned, short, fuzzy mustaches, like peach fuzz fuzzy not "bigoton". I dont really see the poverty in the streets tho the way you see in American cities and I have no idea about their homeless population. I did see a few stray dogs. Seems Mexico isn't the only place where stray dogs go to die.
From the top of the Telefonica buildings I got an amazing view of the land. We could see all the way to Cotopaxi which was massive and covered in snow. To the west on the other side of the mountains is the Pacific ocean which i'm actually dying to see. there is apparently some excellent surfing out there. To the East over the mountains is the Amazon. Heading in that direction I may be able to find a place that serves cuy. Cuy is a dish which consists of fried guinea pig. I'm dying to tast it. What really turns me around is that i'm completely disoriented down there, east feels like west north feels like south. I have a really good sense of direction and everywhere i've gone i've gone i've been able to get around right from the get go. But here, It took me a while to get used to where shit was and even till the end tho it always seemed like the sun was setting on the wrong side.
The country uses the American dollar as its currency. Maybe they dont like printing their own money, maybe they figured out their economy sucks? who knows, but it makes things easier for me. The only shitty part is they still have a lot of their old coins floating around, so you end up with some quarters along with a handfull of worthless Sucres.
My hotel was nice, the company I travelled with got a good rate, a classy place with a decent bar and nice staff. There is a notorious brothel accross the street with a huge red neon sign that reads "KAT". A perfect place to kick it if you want your name to appear in the paper the following day. I was there during the World Cup finals, on television were constant reruns of games past. Argentina v. England (Mexico City) was the one I get a kick out of the most.
Doing business there is a trip. A nice change from the non stop of the US I think. The problem is I come direct no time to really relax and adjust so my mind is fucking racing and i'm going non stop. I sometimes wonder if we come off as pirates, fucking raiders who show up and pressure and hussle some fools non stop.
There's apparently some cool shit to see up in the northern part of the city, the mitad del mundo where the got a line marking the center of the fucking world. All we got to check out was the centro historico. Really the only spots outside of the country side and small villages that have some uniqueness. Lots of buildings painted white, very colonial crammed up in a wierd hilly section of the valley. Two and three story colonials with balconies that are about 2 feet wide and 4 feet long with iron bars. There was a big market, kind of like an indoor swapmeet, like a less run down version of the Mercadito in East LA with more knock off shoes. Nikes with fucked up swooshes, Peebock shoes and shit. Pure genius, I loved the jeans "estilo colombiana". Tight ass jeans made for the ladies to show off the butt. People everywhere, shopping and some street performers but really only in this one section didnt see it too much else. The kids all had black t-shirts that said "tengo la camisa negra". I want one. Headed over to a massive Cathedral, Gothic architecture and it took them a 100 or so years to complete. very cool. We saw it earlier in the day on the way to the centro historico but didnt get a chance to take some pictures till we headed back to the hotel at the end of the day. It was a trip, fucking Mana was on the radio in cab, i'm singing "Oye mi amor" to myself and I shout out to the driver to pull over so I grab some pics.
I couldnt believe the amount of work we did over the entire time we were there. it was relentless. just about every second except for dinners and that one afternoon were spent working on the project in some way or another.It got really bad mentally for me cuz at night i would just dream about phones and testing, and servers. truely sick shit.
We went to their "nightlife" area in a section of the town named Mariscal. The walk from the hotel was good, the area was close and lined with (for some reason or another) Shawerma stands. I was hoping to try something different than Locro (which i do love) but no love. We ate at Sutra a sort of Meditaranean place that had live music and pretty good atmosphere. And here I proceeded to get properly drunk. After a few days running non stop and not getting any kind of real sleep I needed to slow my roll down. E suggested pizco, which is pretty much like grappa and equally fucking strong. drinking it is smooth but its like fucking fire when you breathe out. We went to a couple bars and settled on one that looked like cave. A true fucking fire hazard waiting to happen, now that i think about it, i dont think it was more than a goddamn lava tube. there was another spot where it seemed "the beautiful people" went, but I was more willing to roll Naco-fabulous than fresita, which meant we all headed back to the cave. Again, I was hoping for Shawerma but on the way back to the hotel there were no takers, the neighborhood was sketchy so we hopped a cab. their nightlife area is bascially an intersections with a few bars/clubs. small, but plenty of people to make it interesting. I saw lots of Americans around tho. kids learning spanish and such. saying "GRASSS-eeeee-aaasssss" and shit.
One thing I love about being in Spanish speaking countries is that it all comes roaring back. After a day i'm back where i should be, comfy and speaking to the everyone. I get a comfort in L.A. countries (especially Mexico, for obvious reasons) that I dont have at home. More like I belong, like the people are mine and a sense of culture. Perhaps its because all of us are pretty much the same, have similar histories. We've all been conqoured and the cultures have blended.
Being Mexican in the US kind of warps us tho. We and I guess all Americans in the west for the most part just kind of associate all South America with bieng like Mexico, and all tho on the surface the large cities look the same It is all incredibly different. The food is different (Ecuadorian food seems to lack flavor), the people and culture are different (altho still warm and inviting), their views and political leanings are different. Its a bit presumptious of us to just kind of say or think, "its like Mexico". Now that I think of it, I think that attitude is ignorant as well.... maybe a bit offensive.
The days after that were incredibly uneventful, a futile trip to the mall to look for something 'Ecuadorian' and a semi offensive t-shirt, work, no sleep, the day before i left i was fucking delirious, speaking nonsense, goddamn gibberish really. I ate tons of fucking cheese and ended up sick as a fat kid after a birthday party. I woke up at like 3 am to catch a 5am flight which was bullshit. I made sure to not make that mistake again. the quito airport was a fucking mess. The country charges you to get out, 35$ american and they only accept cash! And the worst fucking toilets in the entire country. While taking one of my many shits at the airport, someone was nice enough to turn the light off on me. There i was in Quito, taking a shit... in the dark. I had to use a tiny flashlight to make sure I got all the shit from off my ass. horrible.
Trip home was horrible, ass was burning, children were screaming, stomach was rolling... happy birthday.
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