Ecuador: Quito & Otavalo

My flights to Ecuador were my first "big" plane rides. My brother-in-law has his pilot's license and I'd flown in a 4-seater with him, but nothing commercial. So this was a first. I'd never been out of the country. Another first. So I guess you could say I was excited! That would probably be an understatement.

Quito is a massive city. According to the stats I found online, approximately 1.3 million people live there. It's huge. Especially to the girl who's hometown population numbers all of 600.

From the air, the houses look stacked on top of each other.

The weather? Yeah...it was awesome!

On the streets of Quito, I saw my first "first-hand" glimpses of poverty. For the most part, Quito didn't seem all that different from large cities in the US - to me at least. But I don't think I'd seen anyone who was truly destitute before this. It was heartbreaking.

Our first stop after leaving the airport was to pickup the Bibles we'd ordered and eat supper. We were picking up the Bibles at a mall, so we ate in the food court. My first Ecuadorian dish?

Taco Bell. Yes, you can laugh!

We also went to a pharmacy there, where many antibiotics are over-the-counter. Which we found out later in the week would come in handy.

Saturday was sort of our touristy day. We went to the Middle of the Earth and stood on the equator. We also went to the Otavalo Marketplace. Both places I thought at the time that we had seen most everything. But after seeing other team members' pictures, I realized there was a LOT I missed!

In the marketplace, you learn to say "no, gracias" really quickly! The first booth Avis, Aaron and I stopped at a man held up a shirt. It was a pretty, hand embriodered. I was just trying to tell him it was pretty, but he took that as, "Yes, I want to buy this!" I ended up buying the shirt. We had been told to barter prices (Something I am NOT good at. It's why I hate yard sales!), so I'm sure I was given the "tourist price" at least a few times.

One thing that was definitely different from anywhere I'd been in the States... you had to pay for toliet paper (some places you had to pay to use the restroom). When we got our packing list, I saw toliet paper and thought, "Why on earth?" Now I know!

My Spanish is "poquito" (a tiny bit), but some signs didn't need translation.

Another difference was with toll booths. There were random toll booths (to raise money for road improvement). That's not all that different. But you paid to go in AND you paid to go out. That was different!

The farmers there - they rock. They farm some steep inclines. I'm amazed.

Okay, I know that was kind of random, hitting all over the place. But there you have it.