My life in Quito after 6 months

Quitoloa Crater

I can't believe its already been 6 months since I moved to Quito. Time has flown by. My spanish has improved but not as much as I thought it would have by now. So whats my life like here in Quito? I'll share a few things with you so perhaps you can imagine what my life is like

So here are some things that I've figured out quickly about how things are different here.

• Traffic lights are mostly followed... Liz and I call it "Frogger" since we feel that way trying to cross the street without getting run over.

• People urinate everywhere at any time. You can walk in broad daylight on the sidewalk and walk past a man who is peeing literally standing on the sidewalk peeing on a wall.

• There is no personal space here. You'll be stuffed into a 

  

  Midad del Mundo - Equator

   us and when you think its full, there is still room for more.

• When you are walking down the sidewalk, people don't get out of your way (even though I am way bigger then most of them believe it or not)

• People play music on their cell phones as loud as they can, whenever and where ever they want.

• All cars have carpet on their dashboard of their cars... not sure why and they usually decorate it with corny trinquets.
• things don't make sense a lot... as in I don't understand why they do certain things the way they do it.

• Riding in a taxi is a guessing game of how much the fare is going to be. Sometimes the taxi pulls over, you tell them where you want to go and they give you a price (and its usually a bit high so I try to negotiate), sometimes they turn on their meter (way cheaper by far) and sometimes you just get in and ask how much the fare is when you get to your location.

Halloween party with co-workers

But with all the chaos here, things run efficiently (surprisingly). You can find public transportation to get you anywhere (it might take a while and not make sense but it will get you there. You can always find little corner stores to buy what you need. You just leave your garbage on the sidewalk (in garbage bags) and it will get picked up. You don't need to recycle (they don't offer it much), there are people that will sort through your trash to grab your recycling (I'm assuming to take them somewhere to make $, they are not official workers).

So in the past 6 months..

hot springs at our hotel in Papallacta

• visited the hot springs twice (Papallacta) for the weekend
• went to Mindo and the cloud forest
• traveled for a month in Peru
• went to the Galapagos Islands
• went to the beach a few times to go surfing
• have not been pick-pocketed or robbed
• improved my Spanish a bit (I take classes 2x a week)
• went to a national soccer game
• found 6 places that serve dark microbrews
• rented a car for a weekend and got out of town 
• had my credit card information stolen from the rental car agency and had fraudulent charges 
• hiked up a 15,500 foot peak (I just don't like hiking too much)
• been sick more then I have ever been, not sure why

So what does 2013 hold for us?

• We are planning on visiting Colombia maybe in February for a week.
• A trip back to the states in July (Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota, Denver)
• trip to Argentina to visit Iguazu falls and the wineries
• perhaps climb Cotopaxi volcano (19,347 feet)
• go out salsa dancing 

 

camping near Cotopaxi national park

via ferrata

 

we rock climb at this store, its like REI

cable car across canyon in Mindo

 

racing the kiddos at the local park

outdoor rock climbing in Quito, its what we have in the city

Cotopaxi Volcano

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