Oh, Quito. Oh, Ecuador. Sometimes I am in love with you, and sometimes I just want you to go the hell away. This past week, I loved you. Today, on this semi-dreary Monday afternoon, I am not loving you as much. I keep messing up stupid stuff with my Spanish, and today was especially bad.
However, no matter. I will talk about last week and this past weekend. They were both fun and funny. First: last week. I have a great, completely and typically Winna, story. I went to the grocery story last Thursday with Ana, Rudolf and Jose Luis. We were going to recharge our phones because it was triple Thursday, and the recharge was a super good deal. I am set up for life.
Anyway, I was screwing around with Rudolf, waiting for Ana to finish depositing a check. Because in this monstrosity we call a grocery story, there is a mini-bank, pharmacy, bookstore, clothing store and lots of groceries. So we waited at the front, and I was on the end of a row of about 42 checkout aisles. We were joking around, and I started swinging between two aisles. I had my hands planted on the edges of two of the checkout counters, and I was swinging forward and backward with my feet off the ground. I started going faster, talking while I was swinging, and I knew the moment that I went too far. I went forward and felt my hand slip. I went back, and my whole body flew backwards. Bam. Right on the floor, landing directly on top of my head. Rudolf was next to me, and after yelping in fright that I had died, he helped pull me up. Ana looked back from the aisle – along with everyone at the bank desk – to find out what had happened. Jose Luis was reading a magazine, and when he found out what happened, he was pissed he didn’t see it. Oh. My. God. So embarrassing. For some reason, at 6 p.m. all of the aisles weren’t full… but I’m pretty sure the first 21 aisles noticed my fall. Anyway, I was laughing a lot, despite immense pain in my head, and we started the shopping trip. Lord, Mary and Joseph. Later during the trip, Rudolf said I should have popped back up and said, “It’s okay! I found it!” and Jose Luis said I should have said, “People, don’t worry. The floor is fine over here.” They’re a creative bunch, but I was way too disoriented to say anything. Next time, as I’m sure there will be…
Fast forward to Saturday because Friday was a lot of studying and working. I decided to go to Otavalo with two of my friend Suzi’s cousins from Ireland, and apparently a friend from the states. We made a plan to meet at the terminal at 7:30, and I was there with my bag and ready to go. After almost an hour and a half, I decided to leave without them. I found out yesterday, long after the trip, that they had also waited for a while before heading out, and we all spent the day in the same small town without meeting up. No matter.
On the way to Otavalo, which is a town known for its handcrafts market, I got to talking to a girl next to me named Alejandra. We talked about all sorts of things, from bellybutton rings to differences between Latin American and North American teenage mentality. It was pretty cool to be able to at least hold the conversation in Spanish, even if it was riddled with mistakes. Her parents live in San Pablo del Lago, near Otavalo, and she goes home on the weekends. She studies in Quito and lives with her older brother, who is also studying, during the week. As she got closer to her stop, she invited me to her house for the night. I ended up refusing, mostly because I didn’t know her really at all, but we have made promises to meet up in Quito soon, and perhaps I’ll get to return to Otavalo to see her house and family.
Then I got to Otavalo. It’s a very small town, and most of the people there are indigenous. There is a sizable market with hand-made clothes, jewelry, toys, shoes and just about anything else you can think of. There are also all sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables, and there are lots of stalls lining the market selling local lunches with meats, potatoes and all kinds of fresh vegetables. I passed about 10 fried pigs that had been picked apart for lunch, and all of the market vendors were enjoying their mid-day meals at their respective spots. I ended up getting some street snacks – a little bag of chilenos, which are balls of fried dough covered in sugar. They were, without doubt, a delicious lunch. I ate as I shopped, and it did not take long for me to finish. Afterwards, I found a place that had some good blackberry juice, and I was all set. The weather was beautiful, and I spent most of the afternoon walking around outside more to get sun than to buy things. It was really nice being in small town where I could walk on the street without worrying too much about getting run over or harassed by someone.
Nice as it was though, I decided against staying the night. I got on a bus in the afternoon to head back, and that was another adventure. I spent the first half of the trip watching Mr. Deeds in Spanish. I was sitting in the front row next to a little kid who was very perplexed with my text messaging, and we passed the time just fine. Along the road we picked up passengers, and one point the bus started to fill… so we were joined by a young woman who sat in an extra seat that folded down just below the TV. It was great, and we were fine… until our new friend looked like she might be sick. Then thirty seconds later, she was sick. And then a minute later, she was sick again. All over her pants, shirt, my shoes, the floor and my bag. Awesome. I thought fast and grabbed some Kleenex, and I tried my hardest to keep myself from gagging. Then the little kid next to me start gagging and pushing his lips together… so I threw up the windows and got out my gum for my two new sick friends. Oyoy. After some fresh air and a lot of cleaning from the bus attendant, things seemed okay. But I mean, really, vomiting on me? After a while, I moved toward the door to get off, and she moved with me. In the politest way possible, I tried to make her go ahead of me… I wasn’t going to be able to handle a repeat. Eventually she got off, and the rest of the trip passed without event. But I just couldn’t believe my luck.
So that was Saturday. I got back, and I was totally ready to go out on the town. But, by about 9:30, I was sitting in bed – dressed and ready to go – and I fell asleep. It turned out to be a good thing, though, because Sunday was a whirlwind.
Ana’s nephew was in town for the weekend with three of his friends. They’re Colombian, and they wanted to know Quito. So with two cars, we headed out to see the city. We went the city museum for an exhibit on Miró, which was fabulous. It had some of his plans, paintings, and drawings – and it ended with a great interactive part that included drawing items that you could only feel without seeing, creating a landscape of Quito with only the essence and creating a huge watercolor that disappeared because you only painted with water. It was pretty neat, and my companions did a pretty good job of helping me understand what was happening in the different rooms.
After that, we went to see the Virgin de Quito. It’s a huge statue of a virgin, apparently the only one that has wings in the world, overlooking the city, and you can climb into the virgin to see nice views of the city. It’s built out a light aluminum, and it’s not altogether attractive. But it gave a good perspective of the city.
After that, we went to the Teleférico. It’s a huge gondola that carries you from city level to way up high where the air in thin and the city looks tiny. We climbed along a dirt path to see a beautiful panorama, and it was totally worth feeling a little like I was going to die. Rudolf and I walked together, and he joked, “With this librarian physique I am surely going to die soon…” I would have laughed more, but I didn’t have a lot of air coming in.
Then we went about 45 minutes away to the Mitad del Mundo, or middle of the world. We stood on the equator, and the nephew and his friends took a ton of photos. In each direction, they took at least 10 pictures.
And then, after going to the center of the Earth, we went home. It was almost 8 p.m. by the time we got home, and we were tired. We spent the day listening to lots of different kinds of music in the trips to all of our sites, and we all had fun speaking ‘hood’ throughout the day. They like to use the phrase, “whatchu doin fool?” and things of the like, so it was quite an amusing day.
Anyway, it was a good weekend. This week is probably going to go quickly – I am supposed to meet up with the Irish for a night out, and I’m supposed to try out a drawing class. I’ll write more again soon…
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