Well I have been in quito for almost a week and i can safely say the honeymoon phase is over. quito is an amazing city--i had no idea how beautiful it was before i came. the old city is amazing...gorgeous colonial buildings in all different colors, green mountains all around, lots of parks. lucy and i haven't done SOOO many very touristy things apart from walking around a lot and taking a gondola to the top of a mountain. quito is at high altitude--about 2100 feet i think-- and i can really feel it, which makes me nervous to climb macchu picchu next week!
This whole week is called the feria de quito, which celebrates independence day and the founding of the city. every day this week there have been bullfights--a big deal here; the matadors are big celebrities. on monday, lucy and i took the trolly down to the plaza del toro where we haggled down to the price stated on the tickets ($15) and watched some bulls be ceremoniously slaughtered...First of all, we got there half an hour late so the stadium was already packed. it was a huge circular stadium adn everyone was wearing these white straw hats so it was just a sea of hats. the whole experience was incredible--watching these men stick spears in the bull in their sparkly costumes of magenta, turquoise, teal, yellow and pink, embellished with gold trim and hilarious hats, not to mention the pink socks. the whole thing is very theatrical, complete with audience participation...the matadors really look like theyre dancing; their connection with the bull as they dance around each other is what makes it exciting. you can note the stages of death and pain as the bull´s life comes to a close, although one bull wouldnt die so they let it go! it seems very barbaric, and i must admit that i wanted to cry when the first bull was killed but its just so outside my culture that i feel out of place criticizing it. these bulls are so celebrated...is it really different to kill them like this than for a steak? i asked the guy sitting next to me lots of questions, which was also interesting.
We decided, since we were in ecuador for a week, to go to the coast for a few days to lie on the beach and see what everyone was talking about--its supposed to be amazing. lucy and i woke up at the crack of dawn (9 am) to catch the bus at noon to baños, a small town next to a big active volcano. we get to the bus station, and immediately lucy and i kind of had the heebie jeebies. lucy kept saying what an awful place it was, and i am not just talking about it being dirty or run-down. all the people working for the bus companies shout in your face the destinations (in hopes that you will change your mind and take that bus?) and there are just people everywhere that appear to be doing nothing. i thought buenos aires was polluted--quito has quite the los angeles smog haze, and the bus terminal literally hurts your lungs. the worst part was that there were kids everywhere--street kids, or kids in mini-gas station uniforms shining shoes and selling crayons or just begging. by kids i mean boys, approximately between the ages of 6 and 13...the saddest part about it is they just look like mini-adults. their faces literally look aged but theyre just kids. we got on the bus to baños, a three and a half hour ride...about three hours and 20 minutes into it, i realized that my bag had been cut open from the back and both my passports and my camera had been stolen. im pretty sure what happened was that a kid or two crawled under the bench and cut it between the slats, because i never took my bag off even for a second. bah. it was such a violating feeling...on the one hand i felt sad that the kids were stealing, especially after i had bought fruit for a bunch of them...but mostly i was just so angry and frustrated. lucy and i got off the bus in baños for 10 minutes and then went straight back to quito--it was thursday and i had to get a new passport before the weekend so i could fly to cusco on sunday. it was awful...the one positive was that we stayed the whole week in a fantastic hostel. the other guests were just the best, most fun people, everyone got along--it really felt like a little family and i was so sad to leave.
in any case, the next day (friday), lucy and i got a fairly early start, printed out the applications for a new passport, took pictures and headed to the police station to file an incident report. we stopped a few policemen on the street to ask where we should go, and after insisting that we just needed to go to immigration, told us where the central station was. into a cab we went, only to have them tell us that no, we couldnt file a report there we had to go to the crime department two blocks away. we went to the crime department just for them to redirect us to another building a block away, at which they informed us that the tourist security building was where we needed to be. and i am just getting started. we walk to the gate of building number 4, where the guard informs us that you cant file a report for a passport, only for objects like bags or cameras. i kid you not. i was like "well, my camera was stolen too, does that qualify me??" we go upstairs where a nice man named walter was extremely efficient and helpful (FINALLY) and worked it out for me. from there we walked to the us embassy, at which i discovered that speaking english wasnt really a job requirement. fortunately my spanish was more than good enough, but i couldnt help but wonder what someone with limited spanish could have done? anyway, two and a half hours later we walked out with my temporary passport in hand, headed back to the tourist police station, where the embassy said i could get an entry stamp in my new passport. nonono, they told me, youve got to go to immigration for that. fine. on the bus we go, arriving at immigration. and what do they tell us? nonono we dont do THAT kind of stamp, you need to go to this place for it, and he reaches into a basket full of slips of paper with the other address on it. BAHHHHH. honestly, youd think i was THE first person to EVER have their passport lost or stolen in the history of the city. at this point i was more than a bit peeved. i told them i couldnt believe they couldnt stamp my passport and for the love of god would they please call the damn police station and/or embassy and tell them where to send people! they were so unhelpful and unresponsive...its really the most frustrating feeling. i was like look, i dont want to make a big deal, but honestly the police sent me to the completely wrong place and i need you either to stamp my passport with the stamp you certainly have or pay for me to take a cab to the other place. ok ok i know it was maybe a reach, but for the love, i was scared being without a passport and i couldnt understand why it was so unfathomable for someone to go slightly out of their way to give me one piece of correct information. seriously, at any point in this process someone could have said look, im not sure where you need to go but im going to take two minutes of my time and ask someone who does know. as i am standing there, another officer came up to ask what i needed and when i told him he started laughing. i have never in my life wanted to punch someone more. i turned to him and i was like its not funny. i need my passport. im going to peru on sunday. i was robbed. i cant believe that you are standing here laughing when all i am asking for are simple instructions. bahhh it sucked. i asked to speak to a supervisor and they told me he was coming in an hour. lies!! so i left and went to the other place. after taking a number and waiting (there was ONE woman working) i get to her desk, where she tells me nonono you need to come back at 3 (it was 2:15) because i dont do that kind of stamp so come back at 3 and go to desk 4 and they will do it because they are on lunch break. i turned to her and said cant you just go to desk 4 and give me the stamp (she was three desks down at 1) but nonono she only does exits not entries. huaklrfweuilyauhuhufhreuiu i thought i was going to explode. but what can you do. so lucy and i go and eat some tamales and come back at 3, at which point the agent tells us that we have to go make photocopies of the passport and police report. yup, and thats when i started crying. couldnt that woman have told me i needed to make copies BEFORE i waited 45 minutes????!!!!!!! nonono she does exits not entries, he tells me. finally AT 3:30 we were liberated from passport jail into the brave new world of regained citizenship. thank god. i honestly just could not believe, not only that people who do this every day honestly had no idea what the procedure was, but also how completely unfriendly--even rude--people were, and how far outside their sphere it was to go out of their way even such a tiny bit so i wouldnt be screwed over. of all the people i interacted with, only walter, the policeman who filed the report, and a little old man who told us we had been given wrong directions to the stamp place from the person we'd asked, showed any recognition of the fact that losing your passport is scary and serious. let me be clear: in no way am i suggesting that ecuadorians are mean, unfriendly or incompetent; i met some fantastic people that are fabulous at what they do. but man, it was definitely a departure from argentina, where they think you look pale and 18 people offer you water. when i discovered my passports had been stolen i went to the front of the bus to tell the guy working for the company and all he did was reprimand me for not watching my stuff. just an awful, awful feeling. but what can you do.
the last few days were great, though. saturday we got some trekking gear for macchu picchu and climbed to the top of the big basilica, and when i say top i mean the tippy tippy top, where you can walk out on the ledge and look out over the whole city as if its an architects miniature version. the last two nights we cooked in the hostel with some australians--lucy and this one guy had a bolognese-off--she made it friday and he made it saturday and the competition was fierce, let me tell you. this morning we went to a soccer game--so exciting and fun, even though the teams tied--and now i sit for 782396427628 hours in the lima airport waiting for our 5:50 am flight to cusco, which promises to be spectacular.
overall, ecuador was great. i would have loved to stay in baños or somewhere on the coast, but c'est la vie and we had more time to enjoy and relax in quito. macchu picchu wednesday!! four fabulous days trekking and then some cool old rocks. should be great. stay tuned.....
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