ecuador | days 1-3: quito

hey yalls! it is i, ronald, and i have finally returned home from my 2-week-whirlwind of an adventure! i apologize for the delay; i took a little detour on my way home and had to get a few things out of the way before getting my film developed... and now it's go time!

so the first three days in ecuador were in the capital of this crazy country: QUITO.

the first thing i noticed about the city was most definitely the high altitude. at over 9000 ft (2800 meters) over sea level, quito is the second highest major city in the world. also, not only is the city on a major fault line, making it the 4th most earthquake damage prone city in the world, it is also built on "the pinchincha", which is made up of three active volcanoes. HOW DO PEOPLE LIVE HERE?! anyway, pictures:

view from the rooftop of my hostel.

the first day we decided to put my lungs to the test and climb some stairs. and let me tell you, the altitude is NO JOKE. i crapped out after maybe 5. no exagg. luckily, the city is full of stairs and steps and slopes and slides... it ain't flat.

dilz and i took a little walk to the itchimbia park for a little warm up before going reaaaaalllly high up.

{on a side note: i CANNOT WAIT to dork out and get my hands on adobe cs5. for those who are easily bored and not really interested in the power of photoshop, skip to 4:00 of this video and witness the ridic-ness that is technology. my goodness. the possibilities for this panorama! ok dork out done.}

after nearly losing my lungs we took a little juice break and headed over to the teleferico, aka cable cars that run up the side of the pinchincha. the view from up there [over 13,000 ft above sea level] was incredible!

fresh guanabana and tomate de arbol juice!

delicious natural juices are everywhere in ecuador. but you have to be careful, if you get juice from street vendors and cheap restaurants they might use bad water. and bad water is something to be scared of over there. always drink bottled water!

going up.

\

don't be deceived by the peacefulness in the picture, at the bottom of the mountain lies a hot mess of a city.

afterwards we ventured over to the centro historico, or old town quito, where we found a cevicheria full of people. not just any people, but old rowdy ecuadorian dudes who knew what they were doing. during my research of ecuador i was told to be picky about where to eat ceviche; make sure the restaurant is popular with the locals. since this place fit the profile, we decided to try our very first ecuadorian ceviche.

and it was a winner!!

the ceviche[and this here fish] wasn't enough for us fatties. we had to get a snack.

yummy cheese empanada.

morocho. really warms you up when it's chilly out.

the next day we walked around centro historico some more and hit up some plazas. one of my favorite areas in quito was la ronda, a street lined with cool cafe's restaurants and shops. apparently it used to be real ghetto, but now it's all cleaned up and coooool.

we liked it so much we took a walk there once during the day, and again at night.

a big boiling pot of canelazo. not my favorite, but a popular after dinner drink in ecuador.

we also went to mitad el mundo, aka the middle of the world. sadly it turns out that the monument isn't very accurately placed, but i'd still like to think i was actually at zero point latitude. we took a rather long and miserable journey [jumping on and off buses in the cold and rain] to the park only to find out there was an entrance fee. but luckily, not sure if it was because it was almost closing time or not, we got in for free.

needless to say dilz was psyched!

still psyched!

two pictures taken separately, photoshopped together. hence the awkwardness.

again, photoshopped picture. we are such dorks.

0'0'0". wut wuut.

on our way back i saw this ridiculous painting this lady was holding in line at the bus station. i didn't care if people were staring. i had to take a picture.

if she can carry a big ass unicorn painting in public, i can take a picture of her doing so.

later that night on our way to dinner:

this was probably the largest restaurant i have seen in quito. too bad it was empty. oh wait. it's a canadian restaurant.

excuse me? what IS canadian food anyway? i wish i had stopped to take a look at their menu.

so anyway, after dinner we got food poisoning and started our way over to the galapagos.

to be continued...

toodles and check out more pictures on flickr till then,

ronald.