Quito Playing Gmes With My Heart

This time I am siting in an internet cafe in the coastal city of Guayaquil. It´s Ecuador´s largest city, with a population of about 2 million, but it´s also known as one of the most dangerous (Some people say that Great Theft Auto Vice City was modeled after Miami. I would disagree and say Guayaquil). But I´m trying to keep my time in this place as short as possible (Homer Simpson vs. the City of New York-style). I leave early tomorrow morning for the Galapagos Islands.

Back to where we left off.

To address a few questions you might have had when you read my first e-mail.

1. Instead of working this summer, I decided to travel in South America. I had worked at an internship last summer and didn´t get the chance to travel as I had hoped (instead I churned out a pretty sweet camp newsletter and staffed a trip into Algonquin Park, which I was really glad I did. It just wasn´t traveling the world.) I also asked myself when I would have this opportunity to travel for a few months again. When the answer wasn´t in the next 50ish years, I decided to take this opportunity.

2. I used the term ¨host family´´ pretty loosely. The family I stayed with the for the first few days of my journey hosted a family friend of mine last summer for six weeks. When he found out that I was traveling to Ecuador, he called the family and offered to have my roommate and me stay at their house.

Now, onto further adventures (I promise to get some pictures up at some point, but I don´t have my cord with me at this point)

In the middle of it all, or so you think

As the country name Ecuador seem to say, the Equator passes through the country. In fact, Quito is located just next to the Earth´s waistline. Another fun fact about Ecuador´s location before I go into my adventures. The peak of the tallest mountain in Ecuador, Chimborazo, is the furthest from the center of the Earth and the closest to the sun of any piece of land in the world.

OK, so, to commemorate the country´s location near the equator, there is a museum a few minutes outside of Quito called Mitad del Mundor (literally ¨middle of the world¨). I´m not exactly sure why they chose this location along the equator over any other location along the equator for a museum, but my roommate says that it´s because the spot is one of the highest points on the Equator.

It turns out that the museum isn´t even on the Equator. With the advent of GPS technology and other cartographic developments, it became clear that the mitad del mundo monument isn´t even at the mitad del mundo. So, if you wanted to play the toilet-flushing game, you would have to move 240ish meters from the monument. But I did take the obligatory picture of standing in both hemispheres (and the obligatory Robinson picture of standing in one hemisphere, peeing into the other).

Trying new foods, even if I can find them at home

Although I would not classify myself as a picky eater, there are some foods that I have traditionally avoided, or would never really come across in everyday life. But in my first few days in Ecuador, I already stepped outside of my comfort zone.

I consumed my first hard-boiled egg. I don´t know what it is about this form of the egg that has botherd me over the years, but when I had no other options at a meal, I had to eat something. It wasn´t that bad but I would probably still pass over it when it comes around at the seder (no pun originally intended but after re-reading it I now intended the pun).

I also tried Tang for the first time. In the same logic as the hard-boiled egg. I was thirst and there was nothing else. I felt like Neil Armstrong (Don´t astronauts drink Tang?). At the time, I thought it was tomato juice, and only found out the next morning that it wasn´t. It was pretty good for tomati juice, but if I knew it had been Tang, I probably wouldn´t have liked it as much.

That is a perfect segue into tomato juice. I would have to say of the three foods that are easily accessible in America that I tried for the first time while I was in Ecuador, this was the best, but I would still probably not go out of my way to get it.

A national pastime

Some people might say soccer (futbol) is a national pastime in Ecuador. Everywhere you look, there is a soccer net. But I think I have discovered another - waiting.

These people have no problem waiting for hours for something to happen and do nothing in the meantime. It is still an adjustment. They will sit in their car and sleep or watch traffic go by or read the newspaper as they wait for something to happen. And they assume that I also don´t mind waiting either.

What would Dick Schaap have written?

On my third night in Ecuador, I went with my host family back to the military academy to drop something off for their oldest son. When we arrived, we noticed a booming noise coming from the gymnasium - boxing night.

It was my first boxing match that I had attended. After watching a bunch on TV and reading a bit of boxing journalism and talking to my grandfather, I would have to say that these Ecuadorian soldiers should stick to careers in the military and not pursue a career in pugilism. There was no style or grace involved, but they did have great introductions.

As each fighter was called up to the ring, they played a slideshow that gave the fighters some ridiculous nicknames and played hip-hop songs as they entered. One thing that was unclear was whether there was an undercard and a main event or just a bunch of scheduled fights without a big one at the end.

We then spent the next day and half planning our trip to the Galapagos Islands but did manage to fit in some cool museum viewing times.

Museum highlight

If you get a chance, Google ¨Incan Sun Mask.¨ It´s a sort of national symbol in this country and is really awesome.

Well, that is it for now. I will try and churn out another e-mail shortly because I don´t know how much internet I will be able to access in the Galapagos, but this marks the end of my time in Quito.

I just heard the Pistons are down by 13 in the fourth. On the positive side, the Tigers appear to have done well and the Wings are taking care of business.