Day 2

August 5 2014

I wake up in a hotel room in Ecuador with two other girls who I have just met yesterday.  It is still early in the morning, they are both asleep.  The room has concrete-like walls and is painted in a dusty red colour.  The stained glass windows face the hallways outside which has a sunroof and that is the only light that is brightening the room with a blue-grey colour.

I lay in bed till Ivana gets up around 7:30 and then get ready for the day.  The three of us then went on to discover the rest of the hotel.  We climb about 7 flights of stairs and ended up on the roof which had a gorgeous view of Quito.

After taking some pictures we climbed down and get breakfast.

The breakfast tables and kitchen is in a cellar and there is wine in the corner stacked to the dome shaped roof.  All the walls and the ceiling is brick and the ceiling is only a foot or two above my head.

After breakfast we all make a circle in the lobby and play a game called squirt.  How you play the game is that some lucky soul gets the stand in the middle and point a make believe water gun at somebody and say "squirt" then that person has the kneel down really fast and the two people beside them have to also make water guns out of there hands point them at one another and yell the other's name.  Whoever says the other's name last has to go into the circle and so on so forth.

Its at this game that we meet Rodrigo who is our guide for the trip.

At about 8:30 AM we head out to the streets of Quito to go on our walking tour.

Quito is cradled by 4 mountains.  At the centre of the city the streets are fairly flat but once you start walking outwards the streets go upwards.  All the buildings are 3 stories high.  On the ground level there are stores that sell everything from vegetables to fabrics.  But once you look up there lies the history of Quito.  Because the next two stories are a tell tale of Spanish designs. From the white details around every window to the pastel colours every bit is breath taking every bit is exquisite.

But there is something about this city, something about cities that rest at the base of mountains that is humbling.  You see no skyscrapers in Quito, no fancy cars, or glass buildings.  The people actually look at one another.  They talk to one another.  Nobody is trying to be better than their neighbour.  The city is humble but proud.  It stands sturdy and grounded, like a mirror to the mountains.  It isn't trying to impress anyone, it isn't trying to be something, it just is.  It just sits there for you to absorb it, like the mountain before me.  It is dazzling in its humble beauty.

We walk to a square where we meet up with our guide.   At first I didn't know what was going on because she introduced herself as if we weren't waiting for her.  Like we were just a group and she wanted to talk to us.  But then there was this guy beside her translating everything she said and that was kind of weird.  After a while I figured that she must be our guide because we started to follow her out of the square.

We then followed her to a museum where she showed us a fig tree that her grandmother planted for her.  During the tour she told us about medicinal plants, and how important ancestry is to Ecuadorians.

One thing that she said really stuck to me.  She said that in Ecuador they see the future as the past and the past as the future because there are always questions and things unknown about the past where as when we look to the future we can create scenarios and lives that we want to happen, and to say it simply we know what we want to see in the future, but there are questions about the past that only the future can answer.

We then went the the courtyard and tried a traditional treat made out of corn and sugar that they call
caca de perro, or in english dog poo.  It doesn't look too much like the dog poo that I have seen, but in honesty I have never seen Ecuadorian dog poo so I'm not one to talk.

We then say our goodbyes to our guide and head off following Rodrigo to a church.  Which is easier said then done.  The walk to the church is all, 100% uphill, and as we walk the sidewalk is getting smaller and smaller and smaller and oh my word there is no sidewalk left! We are literally walking on the road and there are small cars that drive without fear of hitting people beside us.  This is like those claustrophobic nightmares where the walls keep getting closer and closer until you are left on the road in Ecuador with drivers that I am almost certain don't believe in the "the driver is always at fault when a pedestrian is hit" rule.

After a 5-15 minute walk (it's all blurred together) we reach the church.  By this point I am out of breath and feel very unfit because of the elevation.  Then I take a second  to look around and I am caught breathless again.  The church is an old gothic church with gargoyles and elaborate detailing in stone and huge doors and two steeples and the whole dang thing.  Except for this really cool twist.  All the gargoyles are not the typical gargoyles that you see on classic gothic churches.  Instead the gargoyles are native Ecuadorian animals which run the length of the church.  So. Freaking. Cool.

After touring the outside of the church for about 10 minutes we cross the street and have lunch in the park.  We eat sandwiches that the hotel made and packaged for us that morning.  (side note: thank you to the kitchen staff for making the sandwiches even though you probably won't see this they were very good and I was absolutely starving)

After lunch we all got on the same coach bus that picked us up at the airport and headed to a second museum.  The second museum was located on the equator and had some really cool experiments that you could try.  One of them (one that my dad actually can not believe) has to do with water.

 They set a tub of water with a drain on the equator and let it drain out which was fascinating because there was no tiny cyclone in the water when it drained.  It just drained straight down, because the equator was pulling the centre of gravity straight down.  Then the tub was placed to the right and the left and the cyclone would spin clockwise and counterclockwise on either side of the equator.  Another thing we tried was balancing an egg on the head of a nail which was supposed to be easy but was actually really really hard but a few people were able to do it.

 We then went back to the hotel, had about 20 minutes at the hotel.  During which we had short interviews with our two facilitators about any health concerns or allergies and handed over our medications, and then we were off again for supper.  We walked as a group to a restaurant that was by the square that we had been at earlier that day.

We then had supper that was accompanied by some very bright conversations including if we crumpled toilet paper or folded it and a lot of other this or that questions all of which I am going to save for the glorious day that I am interviewing someone and need to lighten up the conversation.

After supper we walked back to the hotel had showers got ready for bed, and then went to the lobby to join a small group who were talking about who actually won the war.  Apparently Canada actually won the war.  (don't ask me what war I have no sweet clue).

Around 9 or 10 Ivana, Kinsey and I went back to our rooms had a bright conversation and went to bed anticipating an early morning...

-Z