Monday, November 14, 2005
Last day in Quito
Quite an interesting day today. I took a tour of the city, including one cathedral where every square inch of the interior is covered with gold leaf...estimated to be 30 tons of gold. Meanwhile, there are a lot of very poor people out in the square trying to make a living by selling small handmade souvenirs or offering to shine shoes...go figure.
After a little shopping and dropping off my packages at the hotel, I headed for the mall to see if I could find a soccer ("football") shirt from the Ecuador World Cup team. I was unsuccessful at that, but did find their food court on the top floor. There were about 30 different places with food from all over the world. The biggest line was at KFC, second biggest at Pizza Hut, followed by McDonald´s...not a major revelation, I guess, but interesting nevertheless.
I stopped at an Ecuadorian place where they were grilling lots of meat and chicken over an open flame and where the dishes had a lot of great-looking beans. I ordered "combo con pollo" from the picture on the wall, mostly because I thought it would be easy to order. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be sufficient just to say "combo con pollo" as she asked me something unintelligible and once again I had to say "no hablo Espanol...¿hablo Ingles?" She shook her head no and we were at an impass until one of the cooks yelled out "Beans!" and I said "yup, that´s it."
After lunch, I headed off to Papaya.net (the internet cafe in "Gringoland") so I could print off my e-ticket for tomorrow. While I was on the phone with Cindy, an elderly indiginous woman walked by the cafe and stopped at my window to show me the Ecuadorian flags she was selling. I rubbed my fingers together making the international sign for "how much." She held up 4 fingers and I held up 3. She motioned for me to come outside so we could discuss the transaction. I looked in my wallet and saw that I didn´t have change and waved a 20 dollar bill...she indicated that it was too big for her. I went back inside to see if I could get change, then I realized I did have $4. I went out and said OK $4....great bargainer that I am. As I was paying her and she was getting a flag out of her bag, I felt my wallet being removed from my back pocket. I usually keep it in my front pocket, but due to the haphazardness of figuring out the right amount, etc, I must have put it in my back pocket.
The really important facts here are:
1) I only had about $100 in my wallet, but
2) It´s all the cash I had and
3) Both of my credit cards and my ATM card were in there too.
How do you say " I don´t have any money" in Spanish?
I´m sorry, I´m running out of internet time...I´ll have to finish this if and when I get back to the US.
After a little shopping and dropping off my packages at the hotel, I headed for the mall to see if I could find a soccer ("football") shirt from the Ecuador World Cup team. I was unsuccessful at that, but did find their food court on the top floor. There were about 30 different places with food from all over the world. The biggest line was at KFC, second biggest at Pizza Hut, followed by McDonald´s...not a major revelation, I guess, but interesting nevertheless.
I stopped at an Ecuadorian place where they were grilling lots of meat and chicken over an open flame and where the dishes had a lot of great-looking beans. I ordered "combo con pollo" from the picture on the wall, mostly because I thought it would be easy to order. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be sufficient just to say "combo con pollo" as she asked me something unintelligible and once again I had to say "no hablo Espanol...¿hablo Ingles?" She shook her head no and we were at an impass until one of the cooks yelled out "Beans!" and I said "yup, that´s it."
After lunch, I headed off to Papaya.net (the internet cafe in "Gringoland") so I could print off my e-ticket for tomorrow. While I was on the phone with Cindy, an elderly indiginous woman walked by the cafe and stopped at my window to show me the Ecuadorian flags she was selling. I rubbed my fingers together making the international sign for "how much." She held up 4 fingers and I held up 3. She motioned for me to come outside so we could discuss the transaction. I looked in my wallet and saw that I didn´t have change and waved a 20 dollar bill...she indicated that it was too big for her. I went back inside to see if I could get change, then I realized I did have $4. I went out and said OK $4....great bargainer that I am. As I was paying her and she was getting a flag out of her bag, I felt my wallet being removed from my back pocket. I usually keep it in my front pocket, but due to the haphazardness of figuring out the right amount, etc, I must have put it in my back pocket.
The really important facts here are:
1) I only had about $100 in my wallet, but
2) It´s all the cash I had and
3) Both of my credit cards and my ATM card were in there too.
How do you say " I don´t have any money" in Spanish?
I´m sorry, I´m running out of internet time...I´ll have to finish this if and when I get back to the US.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Tales from Ecuador
Jon and I returned to Quito on Friday and kicked around town Friday afternoon and yesterday. Last night we went to the internet cafe to try to download all of our Galapagos photos from the ipod so that we could burn CDs. (I say "our" because Jon and I tooked turns taking pix with my camera). Imagine our dismay (understatement) when we read the ipod help site and it said that you could load photos from your PC to your ipod, but you can´t go the other way!! Argh...cardiac arrest! We had nearly 1700 photos stored on the ipod! Of those, we had burned about 400 to CDs using the ship´s very costly system, just as a precaution, leaving 1300 possibly lost forever, except viewable only on the ipod. We were nearly devastated, thinking the only way to go was either to contact Apple and see if there was any way they could take apart the ipod and retrieve the data, or the only other thing we could think of was to take pictures of the ipod screen...major loss in resolution, probably barely recognizable at best.
Well, we did some googling and found a 3rd party software that promised to do just what we wanted. They said that Apple had built a block into the newer ipods so people couldn´t share purchased music from person to person. This had apparently been possible on the early versions and the music companies complained. Apparently the same block also pertained to photos, which of course, does not have the same financial implications. This effect was indeed noted in the very fine print on the new ipods, which of course I didn´t read before leaving on this trip...
The good news here is that the software worked. We were certainly very nervous when we first plugged the ipod in, but having downloaded a trial version to the internet cafe computer, we just forged ahead and it worked really slickly. So now we have all of our 1700 photos...we´ll try to pare them down to several hundred we can share with all of you!
Jonny left early today and I have been having fun trying to find my way around Quito, speaking only enough short Spanish phrases to get myself in trouble (see below). I walked quite a bit this morning and then spent most of the rest of the day on top of one the the mountains that overlooks the city. They´ve just opened a brand new state-of-the-art gondola to the top. At the foot of the gondola, there is an amusement park for young kids...it´s really neat. Unfortunately, the mountain top was shrouded in clouds for most of the day. I did manage to get several photos when the sun rarely broke a hole in the clouds. At the top there is a small restaurant where I had lunch - some of the best food I have ever eaten! I had "pollo a la naranjo" or chicken with oranges...it was incredible!
Tomorrow I go on a tour of the city for the morning and then I plan to go to the old town area in the afternoon. It´s handy to have the restaurant here in the hotel so I don´t have to go out at night at all. I´ll be leaving here early the next morning. Getting around town is really quite easy if you want to take a taxi and they are very cheap...abut $1.50 is the minimum and we have never paid more than $4, no matter where in town we want to go. This morning it was $4 to the airport. When I went to get a taxi to go back, first I asked "quanto questa?" (what does it cost) and he said "cinqo", which means five. I said "quatro?" and without any hesitation at all, he answered "si!" I guess it pays to bargain! So I´m getting along without speaking Spanish except for the occasional useful phrase I mentioned above. Sometimes, though, when I ask a little question using the tiny bit of Spanish I know, they rattle off an answer from another planet and I have to say¨"whoa there, partner, no hablo Espanol!"
The other thing that happens is that I work up my courage and struggle out a phrase in broken Spanish and more often than not, they´ll just answer in relatively perfect English. Today after trying to get some directions using one of the few words I know..."donde"...which is related in some unclear way to "where" ....as in " donde is the dang bathroom"....said with obvious angst and holding certain parts, dancing with legs crossed...you get the idea....Anyway, I was asking "donde" something, and the young woman rattled off a bunch of Spanish words that all sounded the same...since I don´t know how to day "I don´t have a clue what you just said", I just shrugged my shoulders and crossed my eyes...she said "¿Do you speak English?" (in Spanish you always start a question with an upside down question mark...¿why we don´t do that...) anyway, I tried to make a little joke by responding "not very well..." She apparently didn´t understand my humor and asked with possibly a barely detectable irritation, "¿Do you want to speak English?" I said "Muy bueno," and the fight was on...
Anyway, I´m back at the hotel...even this wasn´t easy as I had a similar battle with the taxicab driver...I said¨"quanto questa Hotel Republica?" He said ¿Hotel Raypoobleeka?" and I said, "Yes, Hotel Republica" (It´s OK to say yes, or yeh, as it is understood everywhere as long as you nod your head)....so he says again "¿Hotel Raypoobleeka?" This time I take a different tack and respond, "Si, quando Avenue Republica y Asssway." (the hotel is located at the corner of Avenue de la Republica and Azuay....in Spanish, Z´s are pronounced like a lot of S´s in a row)...I think he finally got the idea, even though I don´t actually think "quando" means corner, because he said "quatro"...I got in and we didn´t speak to each other all the way to the hotel except when we finally got there he said, "¿Aqui?" and I said "yes... I mean si...", followed as I got out with "Por favor" (inappropriate) and "Danke", which I say a lot because I got so used to it last year... So goes my attempts to survive in a foreign country...
Well, we did some googling and found a 3rd party software that promised to do just what we wanted. They said that Apple had built a block into the newer ipods so people couldn´t share purchased music from person to person. This had apparently been possible on the early versions and the music companies complained. Apparently the same block also pertained to photos, which of course, does not have the same financial implications. This effect was indeed noted in the very fine print on the new ipods, which of course I didn´t read before leaving on this trip...
The good news here is that the software worked. We were certainly very nervous when we first plugged the ipod in, but having downloaded a trial version to the internet cafe computer, we just forged ahead and it worked really slickly. So now we have all of our 1700 photos...we´ll try to pare them down to several hundred we can share with all of you!
Jonny left early today and I have been having fun trying to find my way around Quito, speaking only enough short Spanish phrases to get myself in trouble (see below). I walked quite a bit this morning and then spent most of the rest of the day on top of one the the mountains that overlooks the city. They´ve just opened a brand new state-of-the-art gondola to the top. At the foot of the gondola, there is an amusement park for young kids...it´s really neat. Unfortunately, the mountain top was shrouded in clouds for most of the day. I did manage to get several photos when the sun rarely broke a hole in the clouds. At the top there is a small restaurant where I had lunch - some of the best food I have ever eaten! I had "pollo a la naranjo" or chicken with oranges...it was incredible!
Tomorrow I go on a tour of the city for the morning and then I plan to go to the old town area in the afternoon. It´s handy to have the restaurant here in the hotel so I don´t have to go out at night at all. I´ll be leaving here early the next morning. Getting around town is really quite easy if you want to take a taxi and they are very cheap...abut $1.50 is the minimum and we have never paid more than $4, no matter where in town we want to go. This morning it was $4 to the airport. When I went to get a taxi to go back, first I asked "quanto questa?" (what does it cost) and he said "cinqo", which means five. I said "quatro?" and without any hesitation at all, he answered "si!" I guess it pays to bargain! So I´m getting along without speaking Spanish except for the occasional useful phrase I mentioned above. Sometimes, though, when I ask a little question using the tiny bit of Spanish I know, they rattle off an answer from another planet and I have to say¨"whoa there, partner, no hablo Espanol!"
The other thing that happens is that I work up my courage and struggle out a phrase in broken Spanish and more often than not, they´ll just answer in relatively perfect English. Today after trying to get some directions using one of the few words I know..."donde"...which is related in some unclear way to "where" ....as in " donde is the dang bathroom"....said with obvious angst and holding certain parts, dancing with legs crossed...you get the idea....Anyway, I was asking "donde" something, and the young woman rattled off a bunch of Spanish words that all sounded the same...since I don´t know how to day "I don´t have a clue what you just said", I just shrugged my shoulders and crossed my eyes...she said "¿Do you speak English?" (in Spanish you always start a question with an upside down question mark...¿why we don´t do that...) anyway, I tried to make a little joke by responding "not very well..." She apparently didn´t understand my humor and asked with possibly a barely detectable irritation, "¿Do you want to speak English?" I said "Muy bueno," and the fight was on...
Anyway, I´m back at the hotel...even this wasn´t easy as I had a similar battle with the taxicab driver...I said¨"quanto questa Hotel Republica?" He said ¿Hotel Raypoobleeka?" and I said, "Yes, Hotel Republica" (It´s OK to say yes, or yeh, as it is understood everywhere as long as you nod your head)....so he says again "¿Hotel Raypoobleeka?" This time I take a different tack and respond, "Si, quando Avenue Republica y Asssway." (the hotel is located at the corner of Avenue de la Republica and Azuay....in Spanish, Z´s are pronounced like a lot of S´s in a row)...I think he finally got the idea, even though I don´t actually think "quando" means corner, because he said "quatro"...I got in and we didn´t speak to each other all the way to the hotel except when we finally got there he said, "¿Aqui?" and I said "yes... I mean si...", followed as I got out with "Por favor" (inappropriate) and "Danke", which I say a lot because I got so used to it last year... So goes my attempts to survive in a foreign country...
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Quito II
The good news is that we have survived several terrorist situations so far...only here they call them taxis...I´ve figured out that you never say pronto or anything that indicates you might be in a hurry...even without that indication, the rides are truly something to behold. Some of the streets are "una via", ie one way...but I can´t tell any difference in the way the taxi drivers operate...they seem to drive on whatever side they think is the fastest. And this idea of leaving one car length for every 10 mph? Rubbish! If you ever did that, a bunch of pedestrians would be sure to try to leap into it...pedestrians definitely do not have the right of way here...in fact, if one of them tries to walk across the street when a taxi is coming, the driver honks his horn and sometimes shakes his fist out the window.
Yesterday we walked all over old Quito...like the manual on altitude sickness says...don´t overexert the first day...we walked up some awfully steep streets. The most interesting thing we did was to climb up inside the Basilica which is a giant old cathedral in the middle of town. First we take an elevator to an observation deck...then we walk up about 4 flights of stairs to a level where we can look out all over the city...then there are 4 flights of circular stairs if you want to continue...which we take on as a challenge...then there are three flights of ladders to go hand over hand...finally you are at the top...except the ceiling is made of welded wire about 4 inches square and if you want to, you can take one more ladder to this...which we do...walking on the wire is a bit difficult...you can´t look out very well because it´s mostly solid walls, but if you really want to, you can step out into the open and stand in a triangular area about 2 feet wide, hanging on to the re-bar so you don´t fall off and get impaled on one of the spires that are below you. We see this as yet another challenge and Cindy isn´t here to tell us we can´t do it....hee, hee. We say this is the only risky thing we are going to do this trip...except possibly taunt the hammerhead sharks in the Gallopagos...
More to follow...if we don´t get eaten....
Yesterday we walked all over old Quito...like the manual on altitude sickness says...don´t overexert the first day...we walked up some awfully steep streets. The most interesting thing we did was to climb up inside the Basilica which is a giant old cathedral in the middle of town. First we take an elevator to an observation deck...then we walk up about 4 flights of stairs to a level where we can look out all over the city...then there are 4 flights of circular stairs if you want to continue...which we take on as a challenge...then there are three flights of ladders to go hand over hand...finally you are at the top...except the ceiling is made of welded wire about 4 inches square and if you want to, you can take one more ladder to this...which we do...walking on the wire is a bit difficult...you can´t look out very well because it´s mostly solid walls, but if you really want to, you can step out into the open and stand in a triangular area about 2 feet wide, hanging on to the re-bar so you don´t fall off and get impaled on one of the spires that are below you. We see this as yet another challenge and Cindy isn´t here to tell us we can´t do it....hee, hee. We say this is the only risky thing we are going to do this trip...except possibly taunt the hammerhead sharks in the Gallopagos...
More to follow...if we don´t get eaten....
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Quito
Jon and I are in his favorite internet cafe now. The flight down here were fine...kind of a long day as we got to SF at midnite, checked into the motel, and got up at 4:20 to go to the airport. I thought Cindy should go back and sleep some more, but she decided to go right back to Sac instead.
On the flight from Miami to Quito, I had to fill out a disembarcation form, but it was all in Spanish. I did my best, but I might get arrested for false information. When it asked for nombre, I said "Make my day, nombre." There were some boxes to check for why you were
going to Ecuador, there was a box to check for tourist. I thought about writing in "terrorist," but at the last minute, I just checked tourist.
On arrival at Quito, I cleared customs without incident. Jonny was waiting for me and we made our way out to the curb to get a taxi. I was really impressed with Jon´s Spanish as he negotiated how much taxi fare we would pay.
At Rosita´s I met everyone...lots of girls, still don´t know how many...Rosita was super friendly and made me some leftovers for dinner...she was very excited about the cosmetics and vitamins Cindy got for her. Heidi told us about the package from her mom...it was really big...she was hoping for some goodies...turns out it was just her new glasses and a parking ticket notice...not even a note! Heidi called her mom and gave her a bad time...
Jon and I decided to go down to the Internet cafe to call Mom. We hail a taxi on the corner...$3 for the ride...the city at night is like any other downtown...I wouldn´t walk it alone all the way...once we get to the European area, there are a lot of cars...so many that the taxi driver wants us to get out 2 blocks early so he can get out of there...no reduction in price though...LOTs of people...basically a crowd....$5 bar for all you can drink....most of the music booming from the cars. The internet cafe itself is neat...we look at all Jon´s photos that he has put on CDs.
We´re not sure what we are going to do tomorrow...possibly a train ride...possibly go to the cloud forest...possibly a tour of Quito... more to follow...
On the flight from Miami to Quito, I had to fill out a disembarcation form, but it was all in Spanish. I did my best, but I might get arrested for false information. When it asked for nombre, I said "Make my day, nombre." There were some boxes to check for why you were
going to Ecuador, there was a box to check for tourist. I thought about writing in "terrorist," but at the last minute, I just checked tourist.
On arrival at Quito, I cleared customs without incident. Jonny was waiting for me and we made our way out to the curb to get a taxi. I was really impressed with Jon´s Spanish as he negotiated how much taxi fare we would pay.
At Rosita´s I met everyone...lots of girls, still don´t know how many...Rosita was super friendly and made me some leftovers for dinner...she was very excited about the cosmetics and vitamins Cindy got for her. Heidi told us about the package from her mom...it was really big...she was hoping for some goodies...turns out it was just her new glasses and a parking ticket notice...not even a note! Heidi called her mom and gave her a bad time...
Jon and I decided to go down to the Internet cafe to call Mom. We hail a taxi on the corner...$3 for the ride...the city at night is like any other downtown...I wouldn´t walk it alone all the way...once we get to the European area, there are a lot of cars...so many that the taxi driver wants us to get out 2 blocks early so he can get out of there...no reduction in price though...LOTs of people...basically a crowd....$5 bar for all you can drink....most of the music booming from the cars. The internet cafe itself is neat...we look at all Jon´s photos that he has put on CDs.
We´re not sure what we are going to do tomorrow...possibly a train ride...possibly go to the cloud forest...possibly a tour of Quito... more to follow...
