I like Quito, the first day was about acclimatising to the altitude and resting.After a short walk around the old town I wasn´t immediately impressed. Some nice colonial buildings, churches and the basilica, but the streets were shabby and a little unnerving. I remembered the smell, mainly exhaust fumes and bad sanitation, it was in Guatemala and India as well. More signs appear to attest to this being a developing country, rather than 1st or 2nd world. Shoe shine boys as young as 6 or 7 years old making a living on the streets, indigenous faces, grubby and ancient. A 4 or 5 year old girl runs down the busy road to board buses and sell sweets. Beggars are from the indigena as well, so disconnected from the proud people who stubbornly hang on to their ancient culture and refuse to assimilate into the modern world. Only agreeing to meet it on their terms, to sell their wares at the market.
After a visit to the new city, visiting a museum, art gallery and collecting bus tickets, we returned to the old town and felt so much more at home. I started to appreciate my surroundings more and felt more confident after working out how to get about the city, it´s got more to it than I originally thought. The U.S was a holiday, now we feel like we´re travelling and it feels good. I can´t quite believe we´re in south america, and Peru, Bolivia and Argentina await.
The hostel (secret garden) has a fantastic roof terrace overlooking the old town, the view of the city terracing up the mountain side, on all sides, is equally impressive whether day or night. On the terrace there is one long table, a hammock and a kitchen where breakfast and evening meals are cooked. It is mainly used by the backpackers, it is actually open to the public, and serves 3 course meals of high quality food for about $5. It is unsafe to out after dark, unless you get a taxi, so from sun down we all catch the view of the lights coming on, music is playing, beer is sold and everyone gets chatting about their travels. Volunteers work for their keep and run the place, overseen by some paid managers who have made a life here. They deal with all the organisation of rooms, meals, trips, internet,baggage storage etc, while locals are employed to do the laundry and cooking. It is very well run and nicely quirky.
Next we go to Papallacta a 2 hour bus ride from Quito, to visit some hot springs and then on to Cuenca for a couple of nights and then Vilcabamba, near to the Peruvian boarder.
More pics are on flickr.com and you can search for anyone´s photos of a place we are visiting. This will be the last post for about 7-10 days as we might be incommunicado for a while- see the link to the Vilcabamba hostel earlier on in the blog to see why. Will try to post more on the above as soon as possible.
a travelogue in the time of the information superhighway
1994
My story starts in drizzly, dreary, grey England. I worked as a nurse in a specialist cancer hospital in Manchester. One day, I suddenly entered her world, there she was. At once beautiful, but decaying visibly. Eyes that melt you, fumbled for reasons. High on morphine, she slumped on the chair. Her legs, previously long and graceful, were now fat and full of fluid. She was loosing her hair, something that upset her most. We all witnessed her struggling with the remains of her dignity and modesty, but she carried on fighting. Her mother applied facial cream like a corner man at ringside, her father just looked lost. She was a twenty seven year old woman, right before us, dying in her prime. She seemed to hold up a mirror to the thoughts sailing across my mind, a metaphor for what we've all become and what will become of us. So much potential, so much waste. It is at moments like this that we can take the looking glass to our own fragile existence, and ask questions of it. Cancer had infiltrated her womb, the very giver of life. I became aware of a feeling that her death had released something else, a thirst for living itself. She haunted me. Four months later, I set out on an adventure to view the world that she would no longer see.
Posted by don quixote
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3 comments:
Interesting posting Alex! I noticed that you said that your stay in the US was a "holiday". It seems to me that, from the photos of you in the pool, the holiday seems to be continuing. You do realise that the purpose of your travels is to send back regular reports on the life and culture of South America, not to laze around and enjoy yourself!
Very interesting observetion from Mr Bob. Certainly on my travels, when staying in hostels, it was very difficult to live the culture and life of the locals. Well, at least hes bought a poncho, guess you can call him a Gaucho now, and with Macdonalds pulling out of SA, WHERE willl he eat now???, greasy Joes I expect, but it looks like hes been doing that for a while!!!!!!!!! Que viejero eres!
Hi
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