Ecuador at Last

Today was the day of travel.  It started at 4:45 in the morning, in the basement room at the Chil Hotel.  After carrying many heavy bags, we were seated with puffy eyes in a big plane and were ready to see a different country.   We had five hours of somnolent travel and finally stepped out of the plane.  All around us was Quito, the capital of Ecuador.  The weather was overcast, cloudy, and cool.  The air smelled of cigarettes and diesel.  Soon we were in a large taxi heading towards our pre-arranged hostel.  I did not see much of Ecuador on the car ride and had trouble forming my first impressions.



After settling into a bright and cozy hostel, we decided to explore the town.  We stopped at a local cafe and ordered tortillas and humitas and ecuadorian hot cocoa.  The tortillas were totally different than mexican-american tortillas.  They were thick patties of dough filled with cheese and fried fresh on a giant pan in the middle of the cafe.  The humitas were wrapped in corn husk and were a lot like tamales.  The coca was amazing.  After this much needed snack, we went back to the hostel and hung out for a while.






After resting at the hostel, we headed out for a quick and uneventful dinner.  I seemed to find Quito a little dark, unhappy, and stressed.  Many of the people passing us on the street scowled and looked away when I smiled at them.  Cars barely let pedestrians pass and honked when they went by.  I was probably just tired and grumpy and caught Quito on a bad day.  I am very tired now and breakfast is at ten tomorrow!  I will write more about Quito tomorrow.  


Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!