Well I did a lot of research about South America before I came, but one small detail I missed was the fact that in Quito it's now the rainy season!
Its about 4.30 in the afternoon here and once again the clouds have arrived to deliver the daily thunderstorm. It seems that the clouds here don't like to deliver half ass rain, when it rains here..... it RAINS! It doesn't take long to work out the whether patterns here so luckily I got my wee bit of sight seeing out of the way early this afternoon.
After spending six days here, my concept of a typical way of living, has been completely blown out of the water. It only took a brief walk through the city on my first day here to realize this. All of a sudden the safety of my own environment, my own language, and my own lifestyle, was no longer there, and for the first time in my life, I was experiencing being "the other person."
I couldn't stop grinning when I stood out of the hostel for the first time. After this huge build up, I was finally going to experience the day to day life of a new culture. At first it was a bit of an overload for my senses. The streets were filled with small convenience stores, and it wasn't uncommon to see people on the street, trying to sell cigarettes & candy to passers by. They don't seem to have big supermarkets here, everything is sold through small markets. As I turned down another side street, I noticed an unusual smell, then later realized there was a truck selling huge carcasses of meat from the back of the truck.
Every corner also seemed to have a small diner where you can buy an almuerzo (lunch) for around $1.50. For this you get a soup starter, rice & meat, fruit juice, and of course a banana. I recently ordered chicken soup and as I put my spoon into the soup, I thought I'd found a nice piece of chicken, but quickly realized it was in fact a chicken foot! I continued eating the soup, but kept my spoon close to the surface, then conveniently decided that I was now "full." As I continued on my exploration, it didn't take my long before I stumbled upon my first music shop.
It was only a small shop but it had some nice guitars that seemed to be the ideal size for traveling with. I asked the shop owner if I could play one and he gladly pulled up a stool and asked me which one I'd like to play. After playing a couple, I fixed my eyes on a very unusual looking one. It was a very traditional looking guitar and an ideal size, hanging on the top row and I could hear it calling out my name, so I asked to play it. I knew that this was the one, but I also knew that it was worth a lot more than the other ones, after finding out he wanted $140 for it, I handed it back and said I go away and think about it.
After a couple of days, I decided that I couldn't wait any longer, so I set off to find the music shop. After walking up and down streets everywhere I finally came across it again. I was very nervous because I didn't really know how to go about doing the bargin. I decided that I would offer $80, and that I would spend no more than $115. After having another play, it was time to give an offer. It was very intimidating at this time because there were a lot of people in the shop, all looking at me waiting for me to buy something. I offered the $80 and they looked at me, then looked at each other, then just had a wee laugh to themselves. I thought that right then and there I'd screwed the deal so I said "sorry, I really want the expensive one but I can't afford it so I think I'll give it a miss." He then looked at me and said "you can have it for $130. I only had the $115 on me, so I took out my wallet, emptied out all the cash, showing him my empty wallet, then said, "this is all the cash I have. I want that guitar (the $140 one), and a case, yes of no?" He gave me a look as if to say "you bastard", paused for a while, then accepted my offer.
As I approached the door to leave, an older guy said something to me in Spanish. It took me several attempts at listening before I realized he was asking me to play the guitar for everyone. I gladly accepted the offer and pulled it out of the case, then sat down on the front step of the door. I sang a blues for them, then he said "can you play a bossa nova?" I never thought that learning Blue Bossa at Jazz School would actually come in handy, but I guess there was a good reason for learning it after all. I played the song, and then they all clapped and continued to talk amongst themselves in Spanish. After some very bad broken spanish conversations (the guy needed to get his son to translate not just my English, but even a lot my Spanish as well!), I finally realized that this man was asking if I'd like to come to perform in their shop. I was very surprised by the offer, and would have loved to have accepted it, but unfortunately I was unable at that time. I asked kindly if they could perform some music for me, and was treated to a trio performance on some traditional Ecuadorian music.
Now that I had my guitar, I was happy to relax. I haven’t been in a hurry this week, just relaxing, getting used to the high altitude, learning a bit of Spanish, and just enjoying the experience of meeting new people every moment. I traveled to The Equator with a friend, and on the way back ended up getting completely lost. Its funny here when you ask a basic question like, "is this the correct bus to take us here (pointing at something)," instead of replying "yes" or "no", they give you a two minute explanation, not realizing that your vocabulary only contains about 20 words. We ended up taking a wild guess and going way out into the middle of Quito. Its a crazy feeling jumping on a packed bus (I mean PACKED!, not even any standing room!), being the only gringos, going through a completely unknown city, and having no idea of where you are in relation to where you want to go. I got a bad feeling about half an hour into it that we wern't going the right way so we got off. Lucky we had a card with the map to our hostel, so we were able to find a taxi to take us back. My limited Spanish has been ok so far, but I've definatly got a challenge ahead of me.
I was very nervous about organizing my trip to Tena, because it would have required me to ring someone and have a conversation in Spanish, but I was saved when my Spanish teacher kindly offered to call and do it for me. I was standing there with her at the phone, thinking I was going to be doing all the work, but she gave him all the information from me, then gave me all the info I needed to know, I don't know what I would have done without her!
In the short time I've been here, I've already created a bit of a comfort zone for myself with some good friends, but I'm kinda shitting myself now because I'm about to once again go into the unknown. But I guess this is what the trip is all about, getting to know one new environment, then going on to find other new experiences. But I feel like I'm far from knowing Quito. Society here is a whole different dynamic to back at home, but I don't think I could ever know it properly, so now feels like a good time to move on to the next step!
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