Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Hola from Quito

A dancer performs during X-9 samba school's parade at the sambodrome in Sao Paulo



Thing´s is going well here. Moved out of the hostel and into a house around the corner, with a very nice family that love having the ´craic´, i only understand about 5% at times, but they like having fun and eating well, so i understand enough.

Had a game of football with them a few days ago when i met them, it was Europe V Ecuador, and with the altitude you have to be pretty fit to keep running, anyway we were beaten convincingly by a bunch of girls and the mother and father, i spent most of the time in goals gasping for air, good fun all the same.

I was voluntering at the hostel, but they wanted me to miss Spanish classes, so that wasn´t on and i put a stop to that, so no more free beer, accomodation, food and i´m feeling the better for it.

There´s a market really close with heaps of cheap food, great coffee, fruit and vegtables.
Today i had a potato and meat soup, i was pretty happy with that for a dollar and then i was given a plate of rice beans and chicken and told it was included, all for a dollar. Too much!!!

Went with the family to their house in the country with a few other tourists and had a great time. Went to a place called ´Rio Bamba´, and as the people in Ecuador love doing had a huge water fight. Arrived in this town and there was over 1 km of everybody drenching everybody else, when we couldnt get water we got these aersol cans that squirted foam, what a laugh, i must have got about 8 of these cans in about 90 minutes.
Some guy got me, and he happened to be holding a hamburger, so i got him and his hamburger, i might have been going a bit too far, but if your going to start a war......
Even women in their 60´s were getting into it, hard to believe

The family´s place is in a valley outside the town, where everyone grows their own crops, they have a stream flowing above their crops and they unblock it and the water winds down and waters their crops, they must have spent ages digging. It´s volcanic earth too, so everythig grows, very beautiful.

Went to a suprise party in their grandfather´s place, i was probably told about it, but since i havent got the hang on the language, i was suprised and everyone got shots of the traditional brew and then more and more.

Went to an outdoor basketball court later that night where they had a DJ playing with 3 of his MC´s who have to talk over every song, i suppose urging everyone to get into it.
The local brew was $1 for a big bottle and everyone was being offered shots from the same glass, very funny.
The people complain here when it´s 17 odd degrees, they think it´s the middle of winter, they cant believe me walking around with a T shirt, they´d never survive the Arran Islands.

Had a few more water fights before leaving next day, everyone must get wet, everyone, what a laugh, everyone gets envolved, no water restrictions.

Since it was carnival, everybody was up for singing, it was a variation of the pretty much the same song, with the chorus ending with ¨... carnival´, great craic.

I´ll be renting a double room off of them now with a kitchen, sitting room with TV, bathroom and if i wanted 3 all you can eat meals thrown it, it would be $15, i cant eat that much food, so i´ll proably just have dinner with them and everything is cooked from scratch and you get more and more and more.

Going to head to an indiginous market 2 hours south on Thursday, apparently it´s the most important market in Ecuador.