Super bowl Sunday

After walking the streets and finding some beautiful street art, I saw a another tourist enjoying it too!
Miranda is a teacher from Boulder!! Her and her friend Tatiana are traveling for four months and may stay in Cuenca for a month.
I spent the day running some errand then watched the super bowl with my new friends later.

Parade wake up and met a girl from Boulder

Last night, after leaving dinner I saw a blond girl on the street. Lucy and her friends are studying in Guayaquil. On the weekends,! they all travel and party around Ecuador. They were staying at the hostel across the street and all 15 of them were awesome. Some students are from the US, Japan , Canada ,France and Mexico.
They had gone out the night before and were ready for round two. Upon returning to the hostel to change,my dorm had acquired Frances from Boston. We all went to a couple clubs , the winner being club Krak. I must admit, Not a very inviting name. Ecuador gringos pay no cover and a rum and coke, beer or vodka is about 2 bucks.
Everyone here really knows how to party.
This morning or technically late morning, about 10 there was a parade down the street. I think the celebration has something to do with the Virgin, but honestly. I have no clue. Minto ( the japanese ) backpacker and I thought it was pretty great. ( laughter and smiles are wonderfully universal)
I think I will go to the surf city Manta for carnival, a countrywide massive party in two weekends and meet up with Lucy an the bunch. I dont know if I have weekends free yet.
The hostel is also doing my bag of laundry for 2 bucks, self laundry is rare! Have to run some errands today and figure out where my school is. Class is tomorrow at 8 am!

Walking around the ruins today I met a 25 year old teacher from Boulder. The world is becoming increasingly small.

Hogar cuencano

The title is the same of my elusive hostel. Couldn't find it on the first round calle larga y calle hermano Miguel. Found wifi and finally found it. It is super clean, but very low key, family run and quite different. There is one other Japanese student there now but other than that, nothing much going on. I explored the city by myself today. Found the historic centre and parque abdon Calderon. In the centre there is a statue of Abodon Calderon, independence hero and Cueca native. Did some sketching and spent the day quite a bit paranoid about anyone walking behind me. I really need to learn some Spanish, it's been a pain without my traveling buddies to help cover my language deficit.
Found my first vegetarian meal, that god and have some job applications to cram out at an Internet cafe tm.
Hoping my jeans hold through their thread " bareness." The only ones I have found here have about 80 rhinestones on them or are more spandex than leggings....no bueno.

A bit miffed my sunglasses have gone missing. I had them last night and probably gone by now. It's really irritating and I'm hoping they're in a stuff sake. Darn it!! Least I got some free snorkel gear from Amelia, one less thing to rent, yahoo
Super Bowl Sunday tm, go giants.. Tom, you've won enough and your married to Gisele. Please lose at something, really. It's a bit annoying.

Last night, starting a revolution with Roz and red red wine

Last night, I went with Amelia to the same bus station where the attempted mugging took place to make sure she got on okay. All went well and I'm very sorry to see her off. I love Aussies!
I took a taxi back to the hostel at about 8:45 at night, as a single female in downtown Quito, you must make sure the taxi is legit, ect. Initially I was very worried, but when I got down there nothing was sketchy.
My taxi driver spoke almost no English and we laughed at trying to communicate the who time. At a stop light he asked me to come sit up front with him and I thought, okay! Don't worry mom and dad he was not a creeper!! He asked about my family and he told me about mine.. What I understood of it anyway.
He was surprised at how young I was an that " moter" must be scared.
Anyway, he dropped me off, told me it was free, which I refused and he wished me the best of luck. Ecuadorians are very kind.
After a shower, I went to happy hour on the terrace. Phin, an American glass blower and commercial Alaskan fisher ( also a western Washingtoner) was super awesome. If I can find a job commercial fishing, I will!! He said he'd try to hook me up, so cross my fingers. You make upwards are 10-15 grand in a summer!!

Next I met the most amazing couple from Edinburgh. Roz and I hit it off immediately. She's an orthopedic therapist or something along those lines, but the economy is " shit, terrible" so shes working minimum wage. Unlike the masses of educated jobless people, she's not to peeved about it. She said she has zero student loan debt and healthcare, she again thinks America is a " bit backwards". Danny he boyfriend has dreamed of shredding in Colorado and I told them to come ASAP. After discussing every facet of life with people in a few hours, I again am adjusting to leaving them. It's a bit sad. They asked me to come to the jungle with them, but I'm off to Cuenca:(.
Regardless, hugs and kisses later, I think I just may see them again.
Roz, well traveled also gave me all her info for places all over East Asia( Bali, Thailand ect) and has me convinced it has to be my next trip.
Also got dive shop info for Galapagos, from a Canadian. The dive master is his friend and he told me he'd pass my name along, and could probably get an exceptional deal..

Inca trail booked for the 24 th of April, can't wait. Perhaps will do it with several people I met. Also am hoping to make it Banjos. It's a young, small, hippe town with zip lining, paragliding and the like. Everyone I've met said it's a must.

All of sudden I'm realizing 3 months is really no time at all!!

I'm at the airport, then to a hostel in Cuenca for a few days and will meet my host family Monday.
I'm also trying to figure out how to set up a separate tab of all the crazy traveling stories I hear around, some are unbelievable, hilarious and heart warming. Those to come.

Below is a pic of just one of the " in love couples" I found hilarious and had to discreetly photograph. This one is rated PG for your viewing pleasure.. Most are shall we say " explicit"

Otavalo, The Aussies, Chicken or Beef, How many turns to open a combination lock?

I had arrived at the Hostel about 8 PM and am styaing in an awesome dorm with 6 other people. Although i was exhausted from the all nighter and travleing, naturally I socialized for 3 hours? Beer and Wine for a buck on the terrace, with an amazing view and people from all over.
The girl sleeping under me is from Darwin Australia and has been travleing South America for 4 months.Amelia  ( her name) is super awesome and we decided to go to Otalvalo, the outdoor market together the next day. However I also met Laura and Emily from Wales, a super fun pack of Aussie volunteers (who inisit I come visit in Melbourne and Sydney..heck yes) and  a lawyer , tony, from London who is travleing for 6 months. Everyone I have met are awesome people, there are always people seeing the sights or going out to the bars so it is never weird traveling alone. In fact, I couldn´t imagine sharing this experience with anyone else right now.
 Americans are a rare breed traveling abroad for an extended period of time. After discussing this conundrum with fellow travlers, we decided that it is because of the following:
                     1. American college is so expensive, many students can´t afford it
                     2. Those who can afford it, don´t hav ethe time off from work, Aussies have 4 to 6 weeks PAID vacation and of course free healthcare
                     3. American´s also seem to just really like America, english and don´t really experience other culture all that often. I really have gelt this way and I´ve travled a ton. All the " unii" kids from Europe speak 3-4 languages fluently, and walking around lost in translation for the last 3 days - I am envious.I am also oneof the youngest travlered here, most are 22-24 and there are even awesome older couples. I am so fortunate for this parent subsized travel experience and will make the most of it, because this opportunity is rare and beautiful thing. I become more appreciative of it everyday.

Another culutral observation I would like to add that I found worth noting are: No toliet paper AT ALL in ecuadorian toliets, there is bin to trash it, but it´s kind of weird and definitely did not understand the sign for the first day or so because...I don´t speak spanish yet haha. Breast feeding on buses is no big dealio, and couple get it on, on the bus as well. No where is Ecuador is there a lack of public displaces of affection.


AnyHOO!!! I wanted to give you all a bried run down of Otalvo and Amelia´s HARROWING EXPERIENCE.. hooked yet, I hope so.
 Otavalo is a 2 and half hour bus ride from Quito and is an indigenious market. There is jewerly, back, pants everything and all supe cheap. An alpaca is 6 bucks, silver rings 20 and very fun. However, I did not buy anything except for some earring for Mom because I need to send stuff home first to pack room. As soon as I got here, I wished I could go back and repack MY WHOLE bag. Although I packed fairly light, there are things and I don´t need and essentials I do.. but that will get resolved in Cuenca.

Amelia and presued Otavalo, got lunch for 1.75 and loved it. This brings me to my ¨Chicken or Beef¨" section of this blog. Vegetarianism is not easy, you can go to a VT resteraunt, but they are rare and most times things are still mae with meat broth. Though I eat to eat meat totally, I have eaten around it in about all my dishes, there is still meat. I don´t know how much longer I can subsist on rice and potato soup?? My host family and trek to Macchu are Vegetarian so yay!! Enough of first world problems.. next first world stupidity!

My combo lock is an $T"NSKNFG·)PI$ piece. But really, I couldn´t open forever, right combo not working. Well.. upon facetime with dad, I was doing it all wrong, did it right, openedit, then!!! couldn´t repeat the essential and easy task. Thus 6 dollars down and two lock and keys later, I have given up on combo locks.

FINALLY... the scary part. Amelia and I walked through Quito today to get her over night bus ticket. We were cautious, making sure no one was following us and made it to bus station. However after buying her ticket, Amerlia on my left, A man cam up to me. He was speaking rapid spanish, holding his phone asking me if he could take my photo. I was thinking umm ¨wait what?? what are you saying, this is weird, what is going on." the exact moment a man tapped amelia mumbling about the bus and BAM!! I hear her yell, "Ehh" and take off after another guy. This third man had snatched her back pack and she made enough noise everyone ran out and he dropped her pack. Nothing valuable was it, but still very scary. An ecuadorian mom who I had smiled at her baby minuted prior ran out, yelled at the men and then chekced to see if we were okay. theonly thing I could understnad was " photo, scandal" Amelia 3 months on the road by now knew what was up and took after the smaller guy. I was just dazed and confused, deer in the headlights, astronaught in space, so unaware of what was going on. Now I feel prepared for the worst. Most importnantly Amelia bashing the theif in the arm was super awesome.

Off to Cuenca tm, in the middle of booking my Inca trail and now want to get dive certified in the galapgos. A swedish couple and Amelia cannot stop talking about the epicness.

Words I now say thanks to Aussies ¨pardon, I reckon, full on¨and am in love with the music of Bernanrd Fanning.

GoodBye for now and I´ll leave you with some pics. My own to come, must get a USB card reader, the others fromthe hostel were taken on the I phone.
DISCLAIMER: Keyboards in Ecuador are quite different, I can´t work spell check and have been clicking buttons in vain, so please don´t judge the blaring bad grammar and typos.
Love from Quito.Mack.

The Secret Garden

My flights were awesome. Jim and Marty his wife (maybe short for Martha?) they're headed to St. Criox for a month and were really funny. The travel a ton and considering they live full time in Millikan Co, I found this surprising. My next seat mates Nancy and Her husband from Columbus Oh were on the way to a Galapagos cruise and she gave me a ton of tips for life in general.
I made it with no problems and I'm at my hostel the secret garden. Initially I was but taken back by the security guard in full body armor with night stick and gun, but he smiled.. Whew.
It's just a precaution. The hostel is 5 floors with a windy staircase and I'm in love already. There is an upstairs terrace where meals are, people congregate by the fire for drinks and socialize. I already my friends with a Belgium and an Aussie and I'm off to otavalo ( outdoor market) tomorrow.
Included are some pics of the view from my window and the hostel, more to come!
Tons of kids for western Washington and amazing story!! Night before me there was a peace corps volunteer for
Klamath Falls Oregon who studies sustainable development.. Sounds familiar! May it be noted: you never meet or here from people from Klamath falls Oregon. Maybe if your at a gun show but not abroad!

I also have to get another lock tm because i can't open mine, go figure. Passport, money, valuables under pillow.
I also overpacked and forgot a hostel necessity: flip flops...
Nighty night!!

Takeoff

I can't believe it's here.. All nighter. Fed exed the rest if my school work at 4 am and bam.. Probably over packed, but so far so problems. Other than I have my puffy jacket on a flight to miami. Oooops
Also I apologize to my parents for leaving a hurricane everywhere!! Up up and away!