Ecuador - First Impressions

Before arriving in Quito I was told by a couple of people how beautiful Ecuador is and how much they envy me for spending six weeks there. Another thing I've heard was that the country has a massive safety problem, that you can't trust in its inhabitants. By arriving here I've got all kind of advice - from teachers, family, brochures: everybody. Be careful on this street, don't go to that park, better take a taxi in the night, never walk close to walls, keep your money hidden well, keep as little money with you as possible, never stop walking when called by a stranger...

The story of two fellow students from germany: One night, they took a cab for two dollars back home. They first paid with a 20 bucks note. The cabdriver took it, said he didn't have any change, so the girls got them back and paid with a couple of coins. Later on they worked out that the 20 dollars they received were faked.
A week later - it was 6pm - the same girls walked along a street in the citycentre. A car passed by, two men came out, pointed on them with a riffle, pushed them against the wall, camera, cell phone and money were gone.

May I was just lucky in my first three weeks, but everything I can say about the inhabitants of Ecuador I met so far is the following: They are friendly, helpful, trustworthy and openminded. For example, one day I was reading in a park, when a guy walked past. We started chatting despite my very basic Spanish, and we went for a drink. When the waiter arrived with the bill, he insisted on paying my juice! Although there certainly are robbers in this city (like in every other), I feel absolutely safe and welcome here. One should be careful, but one should never judge upon people he doesn't know.

Spanish and tennis

I had a great time the first three weeks here in Quito. I live in a very kind hostfamily - Carlos and Edith, two spanishteachers - in the middle of the city, just five walkingminutes away from the school. There I have private spanishlessons from 8.30 to 12.30 every weekday. Although not having had any knowledge before arriving, I picked up the language pretty well and talk a lot with my hostfamily and random people I meet. I struggle with the grammatic, especially with the conjugations, and therefore still make lots of mistakes. But my conversationskills are fairly good, and its a lot of fun to speak with the people here.

After class I go out for lunch with mates from the school. For usually less than two dollars, you get a whole meal including soup, main with meat, juice and dessert. Afterwards I either play tennis with one of a few young coaches that are working in the national trainingcentre - five claycourts close to my homestay - or study or read in one of the parks or waste my time in the internet. Late in the afternoon the school offers some special courses or salsalessons I always participate in. Then I have a great dinner with the family and my housemate Simon. Afterwards I either go out to the Foch - the great clubbing centre - or am too tired, do some homework, read, go to bed and dream of something sweet.

Banos and Otavalo

At the weekends I have some time to discover the beauty of Ecuador. On the first one I went with a group of seven students from the school and my teacher with his family to Banos. Thats a little town four hours away from Quito - at the foot of a reasonably activ volcano - that offers a great deal of adventure-attractions. It started very slowly with a horseride in the countryside, and highlighted with a bridgejump. The bridge is maybe some 30 meters high, you fall about 25 of them and then you swing back and forth. I was really scared standing on that bridge, but was in free fall before I realised I really had jumped - and that adrenalinrush was just one of the coolest feelings ever.

The next weekend I went with five other mates to Otavalo, two or three hours - depending on the trafic - away from Quito. There we visited the big traditional saturdaymarket, and then went for some walks. On saturday we hiked along lago Cuicocha, a big lagoon with two little islands and massively beautiful. The next day four of us climbed Mount Fuya Fuya (4286 meters above sealevel), before we enjoed the lago Mojanda on its foot. It was a decent first training for the Cotopaxi volcano, the big hikinggoal of us.


Pollution and mangos

There are also a couple of not so great things in Ecuador. Or particulary one, the pollution. There is no visible smog in Quito, however, what especially the buses and trucks omit is just horrible. Another - rather crazy than bad - thing is the weather. Since Quito is near perfectly on the equator, it doesn't change much all over, but therefore during the day. In the morning it's mostly sunny and warm, but at midday there are always some huge clouds coming up - which not seldom result in massive downpours and wash away my tennishopes.

But I want to finish this post with something good, and one of the best things of Ecuador is certainly the food - fresh and healthy, not fast and canned as in Europe. I especially love the whole lot of fruits you can get fresh or as juices - some of which I've never heard of before - and all incredibly tasty. The mangos are my favorites, I can't get enough of them.