2006/08/31

Piqeros de patas azules AKA Los boobies

















Final day in quito was a mad rush to finish the project get results and finally get some rest from the previous days of endless work. In my opinion given the resources we had and the limited amount of time we were able to accomplish a lot. By the afternoon we had spoken to the main guy whose only concern was actual dollar amounts which I was in no way prepared or qualified to discuss, then we met with the main technical guy who seemed very happy with our results. We all said our goodbyes after that and I was actually a bit sad to be leaving. One of the fellas there at the office (well actually all of them) took english classes in the mornings and he was bummed saying that his English was poor and he wanted to practice. So we would have all of our conversations in English. A really nice dude. He was asking me about the US and the women. I told him there, in California he could find any flavor, any color, any race didnt matter, it was all available. His eyes were wide open. I told him he'd like Las Vegas, we talked about the madness there, the clubs, the parties, the restaurants the gambling. Dude was focused on bitches, he asked me in some broken english, "at these clubs, in las vegas, the women, after, you can go to sleep with them?" I busted up, and told him, it all depended on the girl. To me it was funny as hell.

After the meeting we raced out of there and headed straight for lunch. I was so hungry, we worked through lunch and finally ate about 4pm. After lunch, a nice swim at the hotel, and some rock climbing in the pool. Which after about 10 minutes I was "reprimanded" by hotel staff that it was not allowed. Even after pleaing with the homey and tellin him i was a professional... no love. I sat in a Turkish bath for a bit and my fucking hell, it was great, I sweated and it felt amazingly good. Finally it was time for a well deserved massage. 35 bucks and it was awesome! My body felt like dough and I couldnt be happier. Well deserved in my opinion.

We wanted to check out the Plaza Grande at night, we'd both been there before but we'd been told at night it was nice since they light up the buildings and the monuments. We got there and there were plenty of people. An odd mix of hustling taxis, loads of police, begging indiginous and tourists. We strolled around took pictures but everything was closed. My homey had a shadow in the form of a little Indio boy with the dirtiest fucking face you've ever seen. Persistent mother fucker, would not stop asking for money for at least three straight minutes. "Solo una moneda, ...por favor!" over and over. He came up to me and I told him "hell no!" and we pretty much took off. There wasnt as many people in the plaza which kind of bummed me out (probably cuz it was Wednedsay) so we decided to book it.

We figured we'd need to find a cab, the first guy we went to had no idea where the restaurant we were looking for was, he'd try and fool us by using the info we'd already given him. After a while it turned into a straight hustle. So we bounced and right as we crossed the street the party van showed up. Tourist piled into the top with the "crazy" as well as "shitty" band playing. The atmosphere on the bus seemed cool tho. I dunno, i think they're a perfect target to rob personally.

The taxi we ended up finding to take us to the Panecillo was bad ass. the nicest dude around, the guy was from an area south of Quito close to Banos, and he'd lived all over the country, by the beach, two years in the Galapagos, a great life, altho he lacked money which forced him to shuttle business types around the city as his age advanced, it was great that he wasnt bitter.

The Panecillo is this area at the top of a hill/mountain pretty much in the middle of the valley that makes up Quito. To the north is new section of Quito and the Mitad del Mundo and to the south lay the Centro Historico and all south America, There is also this massive Virgin Mary statue at the top, Quite impressive and built in 1975 (a good year, i should know). At the top is a sort of park and space for the indiginous to sell the artisenias. They're as good hustlers as any in Mexico. I finally found something to take back to my Lady aside from chapstick there so I considered it a successfull trip.

So the cool cabby was telling us on the way up there that the area around the mountain was dangerous and not to try to walk down, since the folks around would most likely try to jack, beat and perhaps maybe sodomize us. No lie, the place reminded me of Tijuana. There was a restaurant just below the statue that was recommended. The shining Jewell in the shit that is El Panecillo. Pim's was the spot and it was a super dope spot. Delicious food, and a cool atmosphere. The only crazy think was the fucking ceviche de camaron that was dripping in mayonaisse. I did however have the second best Locro de Papa in Quito tho.

We paid the bill and took one last look of this crazy ass Valley in the middle of the Andes.

The folks who work there at Pim's called us a taxi and they'd said it would have the number on the window. #114 was our ride. We walked out and the security there at Pim's was all to eager to toss us into some shady ass taxi sitting in front of the entrance.

"Quieres taxi?" says the shady security guy
"No, ya llamaron por uno ahorita llega"
"NO! Aqui ya esta!" he says, as he points to this busted up CHEVY Rodeo (yes, a CHEVY RODEO)
"NOOOOOO, Hombre, este no es, no te preocupes, ahorita llega"

Dude kept insisting that that was our cab and that they work with the folks at Pim's. Thats when I noticed that the driver also had his Wife and kid in the passenger seat. The kid couldnt have been any more than a year old.

So then the driver starts up, hassling us, and the Security starts to get pushy and being a bitch, he pretends to call the people in the restaurant and starts saying that they're also saying thats the taxi. Finally, I go.

"Oyeme hombre! Que no entiendes que no nos vamos a subir!"

I headed back to the restaurant to take a piss and when I came back my Homey was already in cab #114 which had just pulled up. Ridiculous.

So we went from one extreme cool cabby to an absolute shitty one! This guy drived like a blind man with parkinsons, almost nailing cars and slamming on the breaks. On top of that he smelled like a drunk bums crotch. Super unfriendly, a miserable bastard. Halfway down the Panecillo we hear a mobile phone go off, the cabby starts saying its his and he pulls over in whats got to be one of the shittiest areas in Quito. He gets out the car opens up the back door and starts digging around, I'm thinkin, this is fucked, we can look later! Then the guy is really taking his fucking time looking for the phone and thats when the fucking Rodeo passes by us and pulls over about 15 yards in front of us. My brown ass is ready to jump and run. Finally we're like, look man, they'll call back and we'll find it. He gets back in the car whips out a phone he says is a "backup" and resumes the crazed drive. We asked him to swing by the Mariscal which is where the movimiento happens (the nightlife). To our surprise it was packed. The clubs and pars were spilling out. People everywhere! A band had just finished playing, it took 10 minutes to go 2 blocks. But we were tired as hell and needed to wake up early. So we skipped the movement and headed back to the hotel. And the mobile... belonged to my boy. Sheisty cabbie for sure.

Again, people in Quito were pretty cool, like anyone else I figure. Latin American folks are pretty open and inviting. We're not super reserved or anything and we enjoy a good time so its nice to be around that environment. What was surprising is that seems like everyone is taking English classes, they love to practice it whenever they can and its great to see people want to advance and learn. I'd like to return sometime, take some time off and hang out by the beach, surf, kick it in the hot springs and just enjoy the place.

Final Notes:

Hyundai has a pimpin ride over there that is designed by Pinifarina
The Suzuki Sidekick is the Chevy Sidekick and the Isuzu Rodeo is a Chevy Rodeo
When you fly out of the country you get a real great view of the Andes, the mountains aremassive, you fly up thousands of feet and there's still mountains whose peaks are at your level.

2006/08/29

A new day... Manoseando!

Another ruthless day. In the executive lounge this morning were some heads of the company i'm doing a bit of work for. They were all Spanish and there was one Woman. That wasnt wierd, but it was a Japanese lady. I was not expecting one of the heads of the company to be a Woman, much less a Japanese one. I thoght it was cool, I'd love to be in a room here where in walks a lady and lays her game down flat on everyone. Thats quite Pimpin in my opinion.

Just about the entire day was spent in the same 3 square feet of the office today. No movement what so ever and now my back is absolutely killing me. I did get to run out for lunch with the guys in the office which was fun and I totally enjoyed. They all (well, most) of these dudes like to joke around and are pretty great conversationalists. I like talking to them about life here in Quito and just about everything else. We kicked it during lunch at the mall and we ordered the most massive plates of grilled meats you could possibly imagine. Think about this, a huge plate with Grilled, Pork, Beef, Chicken, fried bananas and french fries. All that love for about 6 dollars! excellent! It also came with rice and lentils which were super tasty. I snapped some pictures of the roundabout and some crazy ass minivan by the office building, on the way back to the office. By the time we were done tho we were exhausted and came right back to the hotel. I saw the craziest shit when we jumped out of the cab. A busted up bus with people hanging out of it like an SF trolley filled with tourists. people were singing, dancing and there was a band playing music, horns and drums mostly. Apparently this bus goes all around the city, picking up tourists and locals alike who are ready for a party. looked like an accident waiting to happen and serious fun at the same time.

Need sleep desperately!





bringing it to the world



Woke up this morning to a beautiful day. Its super dry here so your entire body is chapped but a spectacular view of the volcanoes and the city. This city is amazingly clean. You do see trash every now and then but the entire place seems to be well maintained.

Its insanely hard for me to wake up in the morning and I needed to jump in the shower to start up the waking process. But the morning didnt kick in till i had some coffee in the Executive lounge. Yup, thats right, I kicked it in the executive lounge wearing my expensive as all hell suit. I felt good, I looked good and I chilled good. Only shitty thing is I had to rock a cap so the gel in my head could make my hair stay down. My hair is growing out after shaving it for the summer and i look like a tennis ball, or a fuzzy testicle, not sure which.

I spent the entire damn day in the office. No walk to the park, nothing. Fixed most everything within the first hour of walking in and spent the rest of the day testing and freaking out when all of the sudden a couple mobiles stopped working for no reason. Very wierd. I hate mobile phones and I dig them at the same time. I really think its important people, all people have them. Not just to communicate but for places like here, people cant afford internet, but they can afford a phone. I've ranted and raved about this before but anyways, information and the transfer of information cannot be limited to those who can afford a computer, dsl line or whatever. anyways...

At the end of the day we came straight back to the hotel and went to eat at an italian place that was surprisingly good. Thats it, the whole day, no adventure no nothing, just work. Went back to the executive lounge to run more tests and the entire network was down. Easy, finished. damn, I wish there was more to write about. I may need to get into some trouble to liven things up.

2006/08/27

Locrisimo - Day one in another segmant of reports of an up and coming surf and skate superstar

Flying is a pain. I've gotten better tho. before i'd damn near cry while on one. its amazing how xanax can resolve these issues. The plane shakes and I can care less. 2 flights tho, both equally long. First SFO to Miami where the entire state is paralyzed by an oncoming hurricane then Miami to Quito, both flights take around 5 hours so its a lot to go through in one day. Of course no flight would be complete with out screaming children, of which there was no shortage of them on this flight. Also the old folks were restless, walking up and down the aisles like it was 7am at the goddamn mall.

The hotel had a shuttle already waiting which was nice. Checked in to the hotel and once again, I have a double bed. Doesnt really matter much but it does take up lots of space and I prefer the larger bed. First order of business was to eat Locro and now that all that has been taken care of, the work can begin.

More of Quito 1 - the ongoing adventures of a future surf and skate superstar

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.

2006/08/26

Quito 1














Well, my lazy ass didnt write about Quito but I'm going back and pretty excited as well. I'll write more tomorrow about my last trip. And try to keep up on this more recent trip.

2006/08/18

I'll kill you, you kook

Packed LM in the morning. Got there, gates were locked,parked in the TacoHell parking lot, suited up, jumped in, in front of the pumphouse. waves were small but only one other person out so had the peak pretty much to myself. Got tired of the small waves, and went north, not way north but just about, again, I got there at perfect time only one head on that peak and caught some really good chest high waves, fun drop ins, but wasnt able really to carve, too much crumble.

5ft@8sec330:F4ft

2006/08/15

LMLMLMLMLMLMLM

what a trip, i was out there from about 630 till 8 surfed in front of the taco bell (no one there but really small) then went north a bit of the showers,(surfed there for about 30 minutes and it got mobbed) then in front of the showers. Waves were small. decent session, I sold my longboard and it was a good move. Now i'm forced to use my shorter boards. I've been surfing my CIS lately and its been working great. Not switching around boards too much has given me a bit more consistency in my surfing and I've been improving lately. Been gettin compliments on my rides, which is pretty nice.

The waves were maybe hip high at most. the tide was low so bigger waves were dumpy. the north end looked good but I was amazed by the amount of people. I also got there as the pig was unlocking the lot. who knew.

I've been going out and catching waves pretty frequently lately and thats also helped out. Its about time i get better.

5ft@9sec330:F2ft