A Night on the Town
So last night was our group´s last night in Quito together. Hilarity ensued. We all met up at a Cuban restaurant for some dinner and dancing. The food service here is in a word casual. Basically you order your food and can expect to just hang out and talk for at least two hours until your food comes. Not an ideal setting for On-the-go people, but what are you going to do.
One quick note about transportation. My main mode is a bus line called the Ecovia. It´s a big red bus that shoots you north-south along an avenue called seis de diciembre. Many of the streets here are named after the dates of famous holidays. Actually a pretty cool idea. I wouldn´t mind living on the corner of July 4 and December 7th back home. All of the trains are completely diesel powered so if you get caught standing next to one as it accelerates you are treated to a nice blast of eau de cough up a black lung. The pollution is intense. I definitely miss the cold clean air coming of the Pacific or Lake Mich. The best thing about the Ecovia is finding out whether you have Careful Carlos or Raging Raoul as your driver. It usually takes about five minutes and you either chuckle at the fact that you are taking a sunday drive on a tour bus or drag racing on a box on wheels. There literally is no middle ground. Hopefully you get luck enough to find a seat so either way you´re golden.
Anyway back to last night. Basically everyone was super pumped to be done with seven billion hours of instruction so people started getting ragey. The Cuban Restaurant was very chill and we were treated to a live rendition of Guantanamara, which was pretty tight. I even felt so inclined to Steveo swing dance some of the ladies. However our trip to the cuban restaurant was cut short by the 4.00 tab for all beverages. Thanks but no thanks when you can walk down the street and purchase cervezas grandes for less than a dollar.
Being a foreigner is crazy. We were rolling about six deep into this homebar and when we walked in we enacted that scene from a movie where the music screeches to a halt and everyone stares in awe. However luckily for us the silence was broken by good old Kane dog throwing up his arms and yelling, ¨Los gringos han llegado!!¨, which basically means ¨Ta-Da! White people!¨Lucky enough for us my quip broke the awkwardness and they bartender set up a nice little corner for the whities. We started playing never have i ever, because clearly that´s always a good idea, and then I got bored so went and started chatting up the Ecuadorians. After explaining never have I ever to them in Spanish they chuckled and we became casual acquaintences. As someone stated, we are not here actually to teach English. We are simply here to amuse people.
Anyway so it was a girl´s twenty-fourth birthday so I led our group in a vociferous version of Happy Birthday in English, which went over very well. The group of twenty Ecuadorians was all family members, which is one of the coolest things about Ecuadorian culture. The people here are extremely family orientated and excited to be around each other.
AFter that we went to kareoke and then danced at a local club. I happily honed my bartering skills and got the cover down from 3 dollars to 1.
Quick disclaimer before I share some thoughts about Quito women. I hate generalizing because obviously no gerneralization can be entirely true. However, I do want to shed some light on my first impression. In Quito as a whole the women are not drop dead latin lover gorgeous. I guess all the J-Lo´s are on the coast. They also are very shy. The birthday girl´s brother came up to me last night and whispered that she ¨Wanted to get to know me¨, so I introduced myself and she giggled and then went to the bathroom. I guess the extra twelve inches and one hundred and fifty pounds seemed a lot bigger up close and personal. Quito women also look gorgeous all though their university ages, and then quickly age. I don´t whether it is parasites or bad diets, but I have seen an unstoppable barrage of bare bellies that really are GET IN MY BELLIES. One of my colleagues offered up a hypothesis, that maybe there aren´t a whole lot of middle aged looking women and after talking to some people I think he might be right. You either look 19, 40, or 60 in Quito on the whole. Not a whole lot of transition areas.
All right I am off to Ibarra tomorrow. Hope everyone is well.
One quick note about transportation. My main mode is a bus line called the Ecovia. It´s a big red bus that shoots you north-south along an avenue called seis de diciembre. Many of the streets here are named after the dates of famous holidays. Actually a pretty cool idea. I wouldn´t mind living on the corner of July 4 and December 7th back home. All of the trains are completely diesel powered so if you get caught standing next to one as it accelerates you are treated to a nice blast of eau de cough up a black lung. The pollution is intense. I definitely miss the cold clean air coming of the Pacific or Lake Mich. The best thing about the Ecovia is finding out whether you have Careful Carlos or Raging Raoul as your driver. It usually takes about five minutes and you either chuckle at the fact that you are taking a sunday drive on a tour bus or drag racing on a box on wheels. There literally is no middle ground. Hopefully you get luck enough to find a seat so either way you´re golden.
Anyway back to last night. Basically everyone was super pumped to be done with seven billion hours of instruction so people started getting ragey. The Cuban Restaurant was very chill and we were treated to a live rendition of Guantanamara, which was pretty tight. I even felt so inclined to Steveo swing dance some of the ladies. However our trip to the cuban restaurant was cut short by the 4.00 tab for all beverages. Thanks but no thanks when you can walk down the street and purchase cervezas grandes for less than a dollar.
Being a foreigner is crazy. We were rolling about six deep into this homebar and when we walked in we enacted that scene from a movie where the music screeches to a halt and everyone stares in awe. However luckily for us the silence was broken by good old Kane dog throwing up his arms and yelling, ¨Los gringos han llegado!!¨, which basically means ¨Ta-Da! White people!¨Lucky enough for us my quip broke the awkwardness and they bartender set up a nice little corner for the whities. We started playing never have i ever, because clearly that´s always a good idea, and then I got bored so went and started chatting up the Ecuadorians. After explaining never have I ever to them in Spanish they chuckled and we became casual acquaintences. As someone stated, we are not here actually to teach English. We are simply here to amuse people.
Anyway so it was a girl´s twenty-fourth birthday so I led our group in a vociferous version of Happy Birthday in English, which went over very well. The group of twenty Ecuadorians was all family members, which is one of the coolest things about Ecuadorian culture. The people here are extremely family orientated and excited to be around each other.
AFter that we went to kareoke and then danced at a local club. I happily honed my bartering skills and got the cover down from 3 dollars to 1.
Quick disclaimer before I share some thoughts about Quito women. I hate generalizing because obviously no gerneralization can be entirely true. However, I do want to shed some light on my first impression. In Quito as a whole the women are not drop dead latin lover gorgeous. I guess all the J-Lo´s are on the coast. They also are very shy. The birthday girl´s brother came up to me last night and whispered that she ¨Wanted to get to know me¨, so I introduced myself and she giggled and then went to the bathroom. I guess the extra twelve inches and one hundred and fifty pounds seemed a lot bigger up close and personal. Quito women also look gorgeous all though their university ages, and then quickly age. I don´t whether it is parasites or bad diets, but I have seen an unstoppable barrage of bare bellies that really are GET IN MY BELLIES. One of my colleagues offered up a hypothesis, that maybe there aren´t a whole lot of middle aged looking women and after talking to some people I think he might be right. You either look 19, 40, or 60 in Quito on the whole. Not a whole lot of transition areas.
All right I am off to Ibarra tomorrow. Hope everyone is well.
posted by ecuadortraveler at 12:02 PM
1 Comments:
Bartering Covers, Karaoke, and Swing Dancing? I did that yesterday. Same old story different setting. What do you think a big nosed tall skinny gringo's chances are with ladies?
Fancying a Visit,
Matthew
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