We are finally off!

The amazing city of Quito

Well. To be honest I can hardly believe it. We are finally in Ecuador. It´s been quite the trip. We have spent a few amazing days in the bustling city of Quito Ecuador which is pretty unique pricipally that it´s in Ecuador, but it´s also almost 4000 metres higher than Vancouver or sea level so the airs thin and the clouds roll over it´s verdent green hillsides as if they´re in time lapse. No, I haven´t licked any mind altering toads nor drank too many chelas, es verdad me amis! We spent New Years Eve at our hostel and the cozy, cobbled avenue outside, burning old man effigies and jumping through the flames, not to mention a little inpromptu dance lesson in Quiteno style cumbia dancing from the people who owned the hostel accross the road. We bought some soap from them as we had nothing the first night in town because American Airlines had ¨misplaced¨ our bags somewhere between Miami and L.A. I hear a lot of things get misplaced between there. Quito is sort of rolled out like a taco between volcanoe´s steep hillsides and this makes it dramatic. In the old-town which is really the only part of town that bears mention, the streets are narrow and, well, old. Very old. Old enough for UNESCO to give it the big thumbs-up for the world heritage site! I can hear vancouver super-mayor McGregor Robinson Crusoe clacking-out an official request to UNESCO for the DTES in Vancouver as I write this, but his post-olympic hopes would be dashed if he came to Quito and scoped the competish. Old customs, old people, heritage colonial buildings and narrow streets and stairways climb the mountainsides like some detailed escher drawing.

residences near the sea with shrimp ponds behind

We have now left Quito and are on the road and down by the sea! The temps are a groggy 30 plus degrees and we are unabashadly sporting sport shorts and white cod-fillet stomaches around this long flat stretch of beach. I really want to post some pics but untils I figure out how to plug-in the digi-cam into the cyber-cafe computadoras, it´s going to be ASCII only homies!