Quito, Ecuador

Ok.. I´m TIRED and COLD!! whining whining whining.. Let´s go back to where I left off.. I´ll say again, Panama City was sooooooooooo cool! I don´t think I mentioned but I met a Brazilian guy in Bocas that travelled with Ryan, Teo and I to Panama City. Ryan you should all know but Teo is a guy from California that was part of the 100 person crowd in Bocas and so was Michel (the Brazilian from Sao Paulo). Anyway, Michel and I hung out the whole time in Panama City and I truly had an amazing time. He made me laugh all the time and we even did some illegal things!! I went to an apartment building and posed as a photographer with him so that we could get permits to go to the penthouse and take panoramic views of the city. IT WORKED! I got some strange secretary to convince architects to let to ragged smelly tourists (photographers) go up to an unfinished buildings´ penthouse.. Well, after that we walked some more and more and more. Michel and I must have walked about 10 kilometers that day, I´m not kidding. I took some incredible night shots of the city and snuck into the Intercontinental Hotel so that I could take some more great shots.. I ended up being kicked out of the hotel but that´s what it takes to be able to get a good picture.. Well, that evening, after we were done walking, I spotted a Cuban place called ¨La Bodeguita¨and decided to sit my ass down and rest from the whole day of sightseeing and sneeking into places. The manager gave us (again for being tourists) mojito´s on the house and I had the best meal I have had in months. I ate some tostones (fried green plantains so they are not sweet yet) filled with shrimp and an amazing red sauce. I had a Churrasco with moros (rice and black beens cooked and mixed together) and the meat, churrasco, was so intensely delicious I wanted to poke both my eyes out and yell Hiawatha!! This was seriously a rush of something through my body I couldn´t explain.. Food is defenitely as good or better than sex. Anyhow, after eating I had to pick up my dirty clothes at the hostel laundry, fold everything, check out, and get ready for the next morning. I went to sleep fairly early (midnight) but not before I ran into Helen and Emily from Bocas! They had just arrived in Panama City and ended up in the same hostel.. It was great seeing them and we reminisced about the good times on the island. I had a cheap .30 cent beer (that´s what they cost in the supermarkets in Panama) and then went to bed. It was sad saying goodbye to Ryan, Michel, Helen, Emily and Teo but a new adventure was about to begin.
The next day, a crazy day, was nothing but hectic to the senses. I woke up in Panama City, had breakfast at the supermarket (juice, a cheese sandwich and coffee) for $1.15 and then took a local bus for .25 cents to the airport. Sure it took an hour but it beat the $15 dollar taxi ride in economic terms. Once I arrived at the airport and got my bags and tickets settled, I sat and waited for my flight to Bogotá, Colombia to depart. I flew Avianca (airlines of Colombia) and I was treated like a king. The flight was an hour and ten minutes long and I felt the worst turbulence in my life as we approached the Andes mountain range but I survived. Once on the ground, I took another local bus for .45 cents to the center of town and walked around the whole day. I went to Plaza Bolivar and took photos of the beautiful churches and government palaces that are rampant in Bogotá. Then I had a great lunch and chatted about the 1985 guerrilla attack in Plaza Bolivar with a really nice and educated bum. Eventually, I made my way to the Zona Rosa and thought of my sister the whole time. I kept looking for Almirante Padilla (a club my sister and I went to in 1996 where she got wasted and threw up on a taxi) so I could take a picture of it for her. The whole area has changed. Bogotá is a city that is dull and gray but huge and extense with the exception of Zona Rosa. It is filled with Juan Valdes café´s and chic modern young Bogotans sipping as the watch the afternoon pass. Designer stores line the streets and if you sit on a bench for a bit, you´ll see people walk into Prada and out of Guess, then into Diesel and out of Energie and then into Addidas. I mean, it´s crazy when you´ve been devoid from the pleasures of money and fashion for a while. It was nice to be back in Colombia and remember the good times I had there with Nancy (my sister) over ten years ago. By the way, Nancy, I did see the Harley Davidson store!! On with my story, by the time I was done, it was about 6P.M. and I had to get back to El Dorado International Airport. My flight was at 9P.M. for Quito but it was an international flight and it was a 45 minute drive. Once at the airport, I watched CNN en español and waited for the ticket agent to call for boarding. I was incredibly exhausted by then and had had a truly long day. I got on the plane, FINALLY, and waited another hour and fifteen minutes to arrive in the capital of Ecuador. As I was landing I could not believe how beautiful it looked from the air. Quito is 2,800 meters above sea level (maybe like 9,000 feet or something) so all the clouds seem to crash against the small hills on parks or the tall buildings that line the streets on New Quito. It was like a fusion of earth and sky. I began to get excited. Once I landed and did immigration, I took a cab for the first time that day because I wanted to drop on the floor and die from exhaustion. The cab charged me $4.00 to get to the ¨L´Aubergue Inn¨ hostel which is the first time I get a private room!!! Quito is cold, believe me, but a private room with tons of warm sheets and a bed soft enough to make your body blend in with it, gave me the best night in weeks. Today, I woke up (by the way, yes I went straight to bed when I arrived) and had coffee and eggs and toast for $1.50 at the hostel and I set off for Quito Antiguo or Old Quito. Once I got there, I was really impressed. I walked for a while through the Plaza de la Independencia and later the Convento de San Francisco and Plaza de Santo Domingo. It is a truly remarkable city. The Quito Cathedral is also quite beautiful and seems as if you were entering a church in Germany or Austria. It is a city that doesn´t seem unsafe but it is also the first city I have visited where the genetic features have changed dramatically from the rest of Latin America. Mexicans and Guatemalans have specific features that come from the Mayan legacy, however, they have a large group of whites and blacks that live in distinct regions of their countries and have also been mixed in creating the mestizo culture. The rest of Central America is very much a mix of white and black with very few indian descent apparent in their physical features. Colombians are beautiful. There is something about them that is just unique. Then you come to Ecuador and it´s not that they are not an attractive people. It is just that the white and the black have all but disappeared and I would say that 95% of the society is clearly of Incan descent and you hear some sort of Quechua language all over. Going back to my original point, it´s sad that although it seems to be a relatively safe city, you find yourself looking around all the time thinking something bad is about to happen only because you don´t identify with the culture and mostly because you stick out like a sore thumb. Anyway, just a thought and a comment I thought I would share. After that, I called my mother and my father and was able to speak to both of them. It made me happy to hear them and be able to tell them about my experiences here up to that point. Once I hung up, I took a taxi up to the top of a mountain to view the city and take some pictures. I can´t even smoke here.. I am so out of breath it´s not funny. I changed the subject because up in that mountain, I wanted to jump all the way down the hill. The views were incredible and it was very peaceful. I also bought a small bag so I can carry my camera around and stop strapping it across my chest. Too many people stare and want to look at the digital screen when I´m snapping pics. It distracts me. Anyway, I returned to the hostel after that to rest for a bit since I truly am still tired. I´ve just finished writing this for you as part of my ¨rest¨ and hopefully you will enjoy as much as I have. By the way, those of you that do read, I have never thanked you. It´s a strange thing but I actually enjoy the fact that so many of you read and keep up with this blog. I have gotten emails, comments, myspace messages telling me how much you have enjoyed reading. I really appreciate it. Anyway, I´m going off for a nap. Until la próxima!