Quito Week Something

So, Quito is moving and shaking these days. Classes are going quickly but well. In a week, I’ve learned about four different verb tenses, and I have no idea how to use any of them… but I’m learning.

However, the most eventful stuff that has happened to me recently didn’t happen in Quito. I had talked to Ana about shopping and my complete lack of clothing, and she said that the best shopping is in Colombia. So, what started as a conversation one night on one of our walks turned into a weekend trip that involved me crossing the border without papers and with the utmost hope that the kind Colombian officials would not detain me. Or better yet, that the guerrilla wouldn’t get me and ask for ransom…

My worries were unfounded. Nothing but good stuff happened, and we had a great time. Unfortunately, Rudolf Sr. couldn’t go, and he was missed. But upon return, I assured him that he picked up a few kilos for him, and he kidded that he was fine at the moment but would let me know when he needed more.

So the four of us – Ana, Rudolf, Jose Luis and I – left Friday afternoon and set off for the drive north. All-in-all it was not a bad drive. The main roads throughout the sierra in Ecuador and Colombia are mostly two lanes and curvy, so I did feel periodically like it was going to wretch all of the car. But the feeling was minor, and it passed pretty quickly. We were on the road in Colombia with mostly trucks, so passing the vehicle in front of us was always an adventure, and Rudolf and Jose would yell “déle déle déle!” to indicate to Ana to get the hell up the road, and when we made it there was communal sigh of relief. Anyway, after 7 hours of passing and stopping and turning, we made it to Pasto for the weekend.

Pasto is the closest big city to the border between Ecuador and Colombia, and Ana’s sister and family live there. So we got in late Friday night, gave our salutations, and I passed out. I knew I was ready for sleep when, at one point in the car, I woke up from half sleep and couldn’t remember where I was or who I was with. So Friday night I slept well and readjusted, which prepared me for a day of shopping and eating on Saturday.

Starting in the morning, we headed out to a street full of discount shops. Every shop had a large speaker system and an employee devoted exclusively to yelling sales and enticing people to come inside. And most of the stores had the same stuff. So after little luck, we left the noisiness of the street and headed to a huge Sam’s-Club like store full of everything – kitchen appliances, food, office supplies and clothes. I found some fun, very 80s shirts, and some desperately-needed jeans… and I felt like a millionaire paying with a ton of pesos. Afterwards, we headed back to the house for lunch. Lots of tasty, roasted chicken with boiled potatoes and these compact rice cakes that we ate with spicy aji.

To help with digestion, I made Rudolf go to the park outside the house, and we spent the better part of an hour swinging, climbing monkey bars and see-sawing. It was pretty great, but everyone was afraid that I was going to do exactly the same thing I did in the MegaMaxi – fall and crack some part of my body open. The closest I came was going down a slide that was designed poorly – very narrow and steep with a base that didn’t connect well with the rest – so I landed hard on my tale bone, but there wasn’t much damage.

After the swings, we headed to the street of shoes. I really wanted to find something, but I didn’t have any luck. We looked in probably fifteen stores, but I wasn’t seeing anything that grabbed me. So shopping time ended and eating time began. We went by a restaurant and picked up arepas, which are corn patties that were fried with a fried egg sandwiched inside. Um, delicious.

There was no fear of going hungry because within two hours of eating the arepas, I was called for another meal. I had my first taste of cuy, which is a pretty typical dish in both Ecuador and Colombia. That’s right, I had rotisserie guinea pig… and I liked it. I didn’t take a piece with the head or the feet, though I was certainly offered. I opted for the midsection, which had more meat and fewer bones. It was a little bit richer than chicken, and tasty. We had it with more potatoes and popcorn. I polished off the meal with some great now-and-later-esque gummy candies and apple-flavored chocolate that I had bought in one of the mega stores we visited during the day. I was so freaking full by the end of the day that my jeans didn’t really fit.

Ana’s family was great. We watched some game shows and chatted, and there was a lot of laughing. Ana’s sister and niece are hilarious, and there was a granddaughter and a very old Scottish terrier around who were endless sources of amusement. We made a lot of jokes, and I was happy to catch the gist of things some of the time.

We left early on Sunday and made a stop in Ipiales, which is the border town. Ana’s mom lives there, so we stopped by for lunch. She was a delightful old lady who kept trying to give us soup, and though I couldn’t really talk to her I felt very warm toward her. Her house is super old… it’s not free-standing, but it’s huge. All of the rooms on both floors open into an open courtyard, and everything has an aged look. The house used to be a hotel, and there are a lot of very creepy stories of ghosts coming through the house to haunt or visit. I wouldn’t survive a night there. You have to go out back to go to the bathroom… I wouldn’t sleep and I certainly wouldn’t leave the room to pee. To my relief, we left Ipiales before sunset, and the trip back to Quito had fewer trucks and, consequently, fewer inexplicable stops. We stopped for ice cream at one point and Cayambe bizcochos. When we finally got back to Quito, Ana asked every what they wanted to eat… the only person who didn’t wretch at the idea was Rudolf Sr., who had to fend for himself for the weekend. The rest of us had to wait till the morning to even think about eating anything else.

So yeah, I liked Colombia.