Quito -- First Impressions

The major first impression of being 9000 feet up is that it takes some time to adjust to the altitude. Today, I was walking up some stairs and got completely out of breath, and I´m sleeping like I´ve been drugged. According to my host family, it´s a combination of the pressure and the lack of oxygen, and I hope to feel completely like myself soon.

The second impression is that it sucks not to have your luggage. That´s right no luggage, so far for two days, although they insist that it´s coming in tonight. It meant a quick stop to buy some extra underwear. Hopefully, though, they will be right, and tomorrow morning I can pick it up. (The reason why it didn´t come was that my originating flight from Newark arrived in Houston with only 2 minutes for me to get the flight to Quito, and I was almost positive my bag wasn´t going to make it).

Quito is a city that looks amazing from above, but kind of grungy from the ground. With the exception of the old city, which is kept immaculate, there´s a lot of garbage and graffiti. However, it´s situated in an incredibly beautiful setting in the Andes. The city is surrounded by hills, that so far usually have clouds hovering over them and the city gives the sense of being perched up in those clouds. There are tourists, but not nearly as many as in Costa Rica or Barcelona, for example. I think people come to Ecuador and then spend either a week in the Galapagos and leave, or a week going throughout the country. Even though there´s a lot to see in Quito, it might not be the big draw.

I came here 3 days before my classes began, and that might have been a mistake because it´s hard to be in a strange city with no connections. However, my host family is wonderful. They live in a high-rise building really near the tourist area, on the 12th floor. I´ll insert a picture later. The parents are both professionals, and one of their adult children live with them, and he´s a musician. I think Alicia and Manolo knew that I was freaking out last night about being here sans luggage, and so they took me on a great quick overview of the old city at night, which was beautiful -- churches everywhere. But they also brought me to this street called La Ronda which, literally 3 years ago, was so dangerous that no one except prostitutes, their clients, and drug dealers and their clients came. But it´s the oldest neighborhood in Quito, and so 3 years ago the mayor decided that it was completely unacceptable, and he spent the money to clean it up. It´s now a beautiful pedestrian walkway that few foreigners know about with cool art shops and bars, and a beautiful hotel. We went to this little bar where they had live music and had a drink of hot wine. Yes, they heat their wine here for a nightcap. Weird, but good.

Today, among other things, I went to the Capilla del Hombre (The Chapel of Man) a large museum designed by Ecuador´s most famous artist, Oswaldo Guaysamín. I was moderately aware of his work, but I have to say he´s a very powerful painter. When I can upload some pictures, I´ll write a blog entry about him, but in the meantime, I really recommend him if you can see his work near you. He painted pictures about the subjugation of humanity, the problems of the indigenas, and the importance of family. I also went on a tour of the museum with a Spanish guide and understood about 80%. Not bad!!