First day in Quito

I arrived at the Quito airport late because we had an almost two hour delay out of Houston. Who would have thought that severe storms would delay air traffic in Texas in April? The planes got stacked up on the runway as we waited our turn.

So I arrived in Quito late, in the middle of rain and fog, with no place to stay and no way to get there. And the airport was in the process of closing; we were the last plane.

I avoided the one guy who kept going up to me saying: "`Taxi? Taxi?" I instead headed for a taxi, with a sign and well marked (and therefore hopefully licenced) that had just pullled in. I figured if he hadn t been waiting there, he probably wasn t one of those guys who prey on the gringos.

He was super sweet to me, taking a look at the map in my travel book, and trying to make small talk even though I really didn t understand much beyond the talk about the weather, and is this my first time in Quito?

He charged me $10 to get to the hotel, more expensive than some cabs, not as bad as the $40 cabs at the airport I d been warned against. We headed south through the mist and fog, finally down a series of extremely narrow one way streets. "Secret Garden" was well marked, and the proprieter was friendly if not a bit sleepy. No single rooms left, so I got a dorm. $7 a night, not bad. And someone just left so I snagged his locker.

I crawled up the top bunk, trying not to wake the slumbering travellers. Even though I was tired, I couldn t fall asleep. My mind continued to race and I put on my Ipod, grateful for the familiar tunes. Finally, after many songs, I put it away and let the slow fingers of sleep claim me.

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Now its morning and Ive met my roomies. Shortly, this girl from Vancouver- also named Sarah- and her friend from Holland- his name escapes me- and I are going out for breakfast in New Town. Apparently to one of those places where you can see the whole city on the balcony. Now that s breakfast! The altitude doesn t seem to be affecting me but we ll see I suppose.

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ps- this keyboard is weird! There is a z where the y is supposed to be, and tons of funny characters. Its taken me forever to type this. Next... I ll write about where I m staying. Its pretty cool.

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