First real Friday in Ecuador

A lot happened today. I woke up early to go to my first Andinismo class (mountain climbing) at 7 am. I was a little short on time, so I took the bus up the hill. Unfortunately, I forgot how short the ride was, so I wasn't standing when we got to the stop for the university. I had to get off probably 100 yards later and walk back. It was all good though, we learned how to tie half a dozen different knots. There will be an optional expedition every weekend, so I'll never be stuck with nothing to do. I'm not great at knots, but Jake knows them well from his Boy Scouting days. After class we walked to the nearby strip mall to buy 2 meters of practice knot-tying rope from an outdoorsy store. Then we practiced a bunch and I actually feel rather comfortable with it now. I also bought a cheap soccer ball yesterday for 7 bucks, and we kicked it around at one of the little fields at the university.

After getting out of class at noon, we ate at Hogwarts (the inexplicably-named on-campus Italian restaurant) and then hung out for a while. Unfortunately, our Ecuadorian escorts (young friends of Jake's family) to the Mariscal club/bar scene had to cancel, but Jake, Chris and I went on our own anyway, hopping a bus for Quito at around 6:30. We realized after getting in the cab from the bus hub Rio Coca that the cab was only 80% legit. Then the cabbie started talking to someone on his radio. We had heard stories during orientation of shady cabs that brought Gringos to street corners where thugs would jump in and mug you. Our cabbie mentioned "tres amigos," "estados unidos," and "6 de diciembre," a street we didn't think we were going on. He also had this low, sort of disconcerting laugh. Jake said we should maybe have him stop, and we both agreed. I was sitting in the front seat, and told him in Spanish, "Sir, our plans have changed. More or less here is good." He let us out and we tried to hail another cab. Fifteen minutes later, we had still not succeeded. Instead, we decided to try the shawarma place right where we had gotten out of the cab. When we got in, we saw that no one had food, people were only drinking. A similar thing happened to us at a tiny restaurant in Cumbaya last week, so we figured that they might be past eating hours. We went to a Chinese place next door instead. I had Pollo con piña (chicken with pineapple), and Jake and Chris both got Lengua de vaca (cow tongue). It was all tasty and cheap, so Jake and I thought we'd get some noodles too. We noticed on the menu that one option was noodles with tripe (basically innards, guts), and we figured we'd try it. It was a first for me, and as I had a little piece of something on my fork, Jake said, "Now, you've gotta be ready for this. It's gonna feel a little different, it's gonna taste a little different, but you gotta roll with it." I asked, "So what is this?" "I don't know," he asserted, without so much as taking another breath. Maybe you had to be there. At any rate, it wasn't bad. After eating, we went next door, back to the shawarma place. Turns out they were doing food, and Chris got shawarma. Jake and Chris shared a $3 hookah pipe (mango flavor), and I got a $3 cuba libre.

We had been dropped off right by a bus station, so when we finished at the shawarma place, we took a bus to Rio Coca, and another back to Cumbaya. We never did make it to the Mariscal (Jake and I still have yet to go), but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, taxi adventure notwithstanding. Looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow; we plan on seeing the historical district in Quito (during daytime hours).

Two weeks in, still having an awesome time :)