Quito Weekend

Last week, after bumping into a friend from Baños, the friend (Sara) and I decided to stay in Quito for the weekend and see some of the sights here. It would make for a very relaxing weekend to say the least.

On Friday night, some of the girls wanted to go out. I decided to see what it was like, just for one night. I was nervous to say the least, seeing as I have been clubbing never and been to a bar maybe once. We met up in a part of town called Mariscal, popular for its nightlife. There ended up being 6 girls and one boy, ages 20 to 24. We let the two party girls pick the place and to my relief we were soon sitting in the booth of a classy restaurant/bar. It was similar to a Chili´s or TGIFridays in the US. A couple of hours passed as we got to know each other and swapped Ecuadorian stories. The girls had picked the place because it had 79 cent beers, and as I don´t care for beer, was the only to order something else. My strawberry margarita was a tad bit more expensive, but tasty. I thought I was doing pretty well for my first night out when they asked where we were going next. Next, I thought? To bed... So needless to say, minutes later there we were at a real club where the boys pay cover and the music is as loud as the noisy traffic outside. We went upstairs to a lounge area where we had the place to ourselves. Everyone ordered more drinks.. except for me, already woosie enough from my margarita. It took five seconds to realize all the pictures on the wall were provocative and every other thing playing on the tv screens were videos of naked girls. Yikes! No one else mentioned it, the party girls love this place, so I concentrated on diverting my attention to the converstation. We shared more stories, analyzed our host family situations and tried to ready the two new people who had just arrived the day before. Everything was going pretty well again, until they said let´s go downstairs and dance! Oh boy, that got the heart a-pumping... I have never danced in a club before, and you probably know of my dancing skills in general... but it wasn´t as terrible as I thought. We danced with our little group and scared off any boys who tried to join us. I´m pretty sure my dancing was as awkward as I felt, but overall it wasn´t terrible. The music was all American, so for the most part I had heard the songs before. I´m glad I had the courage to see if it was as I had imagined. It is now a battle of conscience to decide whether it is right/good for me to go clubbing again, or go to that particular club if the girls want me to go back. I don´t find booty dancing a good choice, and I certainly wouldn´t want to have some strange guy come and dance like that with me... so although it might be hard to go against the common practice of all of the other people here... it seems like it would be the better moral choice to stay away.

On Saturday, I had the chance to sleep in past 6:00, which was luxurious, and time to shower and look presentable, also a luxury. Sara and I met up for lunch around noon. We went to a wonderful place called Magic Bean. Both of our meals were delicious! I had beef lasagne with a side salad and seasoned carrots. Everything was so good and well worth paying a little more for. Then we taxied into Old Town. Immediately, we both were in love with the old architecture, the flowers upon every balcony and simply put, a cleaner and nicer part of town. We explored churches, museums, one building we thought might be part of a college and many side streets and plazas. There were gorgeous pink flowering trees, pigeons fluttering about in the open plaza areas, and the tail-end of a wedding where a mariachi band, complete with huge red hats, serenaded the new bride and groom. We even got to ride in a horse-drawn carriage around the city! As it got a bit later, we headed up the hill to the Virgen statue (the 1st picture). It stands on the top of the tallest hill in Old Town, complete with observation decks to see a 360 degree view of the city. It is amazing how big this city is! Estimates put it at more than 2 million... who knows for sure, as construction continues up the mountainsides. We headed back down into Old Town for dinner, which ended up being some sort of ¨crepes¨(tortillas with meat on top) in a restaurant with ¨mood lighting¨(really dark). It wasn´t terrible, just amusing. We also had the pleasure of watching Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Too bad my Spanish isn´t better... there were no English subtitles. To finish off our day, we taxied over to the cinema where we saw The Women (In English! They had Spanish subtitles). I was surprised to actually enjoy the movie. I´m not one for a chick flick, but this one gave you something to chew on - how you would choose between a job and a friend, whether you would fight for your marriage if you were cheated on, what good parenting looks like... Although the core message was wrong (only look after yourself), there was more substance than I had expected.

Sunday was another day of bliss. We had another late start and lunch out. Then, the highlight of our day, the Botanical Gardens. We stayed forever because it was so beautiful, quiet and everything else Quito isn´t. There was a pond full of giant orange (koi?) fish, with a patio area for sitting and a fountain for background noise. Butterflies, bees and birds were everywhere, especially flocking to the giant pink and red roses. I´ll get you the pictures as soon as Sara puts them up. Next we walked the giant Carolina park. There were so many people... thousands.. and everyone was having so much fun. There were pony rides, a small carnival, soccer, basketball, frisbee, kites, dogs, bikes, a skate park, vendors with fresh pineapple, mango, bananas, lunch, snacks, fresh juices, candies, handmade gifts and jewelry, and so much more... it seemed like the whole city had come to my park! I showed Sara my mall, and we drank a coffee and window-shopped. Literally window-shopped because the stores there are so expensive!! Next was the teleferico. The telefericos are small enclosed buckets that take you up to the top of the mountain (I put up a picture). The ride was slow, thank goodness, and not too scary, though it was extremely high up. At the top, the air is thin and cold, so I had trouble breathing after even little spurts of walking. We explored a tiny but beautiful mountain church and attempted to take pictures in between patches of clouds passing through. It was so cold!!! At the bottom of the teleferico there was a small carnival, and I just couldn´t pass up the opportunity to ride the swings... all by myself! The locals all stared, but it was fun! And that ended our wondeful weekend here in Quito.