We got up pretty early, but by the time we had breakfast and got to the bus station it was already 9:45 am. Luckily for us, a bus to Quito was leaving at 10 am, so we hopped on. As per usual, Dave worked the entire way and I read the guidebook and picked out a place to stay in Quito, then slept for a hour or so. The bus ride was uneventful and seemed longer than the 3.5 hours that it was. Once in Quito, we got a cab and headed for a hotel that we thought sounded good.
There are two main areas in Quito: the Old Town (aka el Centro Historico) and the New Town (aka Mariscal Sucre aka Gringolandia). Apparently Mariscal Sucre is full of budget hotels, cyber cafés, and tourist-oriented shops and restaurants (kind of like the Ecuadorian version of Khao San Rd., for anyone who’s been to Bangkok). We didn’t want to stay there, so we found a hotel in el Centro Historico. It was in a great location, right in the centre of the Old Town across the street from the lovely theatre building.
The hotel was $10 each (not including breakfast) per night, which was more than we have paid yet on this trip. But, the room was fantastic and we were already there, so we went for it. The room is very spacious with four huge windows/balconies facing the street. The bathroom is the nicest we’ve had yet, with a luxury that none of our previous hotels have had: hot water in the sink! Most places only have hot water in the shower (and that’s not a given) and the sink will have only one faucet for cold water. The people who work at the hotel are very strange – particularly this one older woman who seems to be in charge. I asked for a room with a double bed (instead of the three single beds that our room currently has) and she asked me if we were married! Um, no, but how is that any of your business? (Of course I didn’t say that latter part, I just thought it). After a long discussion among the employees (none of which we understood), they proceeded to show us a room that supposedly had a double bed, but actually didn’t. So, we just took the nicer room with three single beds. Little things like getting a receipt after paying for the room are exceedingly difficult here and seem to require about 4 employees to put their heads together. It’s entirely possible that we are the only guests in the hotel.
After checking in to our hotel, we headed out to explore the city. Like elsewhere in Ecuador, people in Quito celebrate New Year’s Eve by burning elaborate, often life-sized, dummies in the streets at midnight. Of course, they also pray a lot, drink heavily, and set off firecrackers and fireworks in crowded public places. Anyway, the dummies are very cool. Although a minority of them are made of paper mache, most of them are made by stuffing nylons full of crumpled up paper, putting clothes on the body they have constructed, and affixing one of the masks that are sold in almost every shop throughout the city. Many of these dummies seem to be made to resemble people; for example, outside of police stations, we often saw dummies that were dressed up as cops. Many of them are also holding signs that say the name of the person they are supposed to represent or a simple Happy New Year. These dummies are carried around the town, set up in displays outside of homes and shops, and are very often strapped to the front or rear bumper of people’s cars.
Another Ecuadorian New Year’s Eve tradition is even more unusual to us. Men dress up in drag and stand in intersections harassing (e.g., going up to the window and saying things, throwing themselves across the hood of the car, doing "erotic" dances in front of the vehicle) the cars until they get a coin from the driver. Based on our observation, all drivers play along, leaving their windows down and having coins in hand ready to give out. Even the two grouchy taxi drivers that we rode with that night joined in the fun, handing over a coin and wishing the costumed men a Happy New Year. The men themselves were varied in their costumes: some dressed up as old hags whereas others tried to look "sexy" (i.e., a mini skirt, a tank top with huge lopsided fake boobs, and body hair protruding everywhere).
Almost like a toned-down version of Halloween in North America, most of the kids and some of the adults we saw around town were wearing masks and a few people were also wearing costumes. Vendors were selling masks and fire crackers all around town. Before we realized that it was part of a New Year’s tradition, we had commented on how strange it was that so many places in Banos and Cuenca were selling these masks.
Anyway, back to our walking tour of the Old Town. Quito has some incredibly beautiful old churches, so we visited a number of those. Despite my lack of religiosity, I love churches, especially big old churches. The grandeur, the silence, the history, the stained glass, the creepy artwork, that unmistakable church smell of old wood, faint incense, and candles… These churches did not disappoint, and Dave took some amazing photos of them. We also wandered around the city and took in some of the other beautiful old colonial architecture. Quito, like Cuenca, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the recently completed restoration of the Old Town means that all the buildings are in great condition. Quito definitely feels like a capital city – everything is very grand.
Despite its picturesque buildings and the quaint feel of the town, Quito has a bad vibe. The Old Town is supposedly the safe area, but Dave and I agreed that many people looked sketchy. On the bus on the way to Quito, we were discussing how Ecuadorians were some of the friendliest, kindest people we had ever met. Then, we got to Quito, where even on a festive day, people around town seemed to be a bit scowly and the people in shops were not very friendly.
Warning: Mom, Dad, Thom, and Maggie (and anyone else who is prone to worrying about our well-being), you may want to skip the rest of this entry!
At about 4:30 pm, we were on our way to see the final church of the day, the fabulously imposing Basilica that towers over the city. We had just finished saying to one another that the people here didn’t seem as nice as elsewhere in Ecuador, when we came face-to-face with three wretched-looking guys in their late teens or early 20s. Rather than the three of them moving to one side of the sidewalk and us moving to the other side, they parted and made it so that we had to walk between them. As we passed through them, one of the guys on our left side gave us a look that was unlike any look I have ever received before: He emanated pure hatred, disgust, and contempt for us from every ounce of his being. His eyes looked truly evil and, from the way he curled his lips back, I was absolutely certain he was about to spit in our faces. I looked away in fear, only to see the guy on our right side give Dave, who was walking slightly ahead of me, a really hard body-check. The next thing I knew, the same guy took off running, hitting me hard in the shoulder on his way by. It only took me a split second to realize that he had grabbed Dave’s camera, which Dave had attached to his belt under his t-shirt.
Dave took off running after the guy faster than I’ve ever seen him run, all the while yelling "Thief, thief, help!" Of course, no one here knows what that means, so no one came running. The other two guys also ran off in different directions. I was stunned and wasn’t sure what to do. It's funny, Dave and I have gone over the "ok, what do we do if we get mugged/attacked/accosted" scenario so many times, but at that moment, I couldn't remember what our plan was. All I could remember was Dave saying, "I don't care about my money. I'll give up my wallet, but nobody's getting my camera!" Apparently this fierce camera protectiveness stems from an incident years ago in Europe when his camera was stolen and he didn't get a new one and has regretted not having those photos ever since.
Anyway, I looked around and didn’t see a single soul in sight (odd, given that the streets everywhere else in town were really crowded). So, I just took off running in the same direction as Dave and the thief and I began screaming as loud as I could. Anyone who has ever been around me when I’ve been surprised by a spider knows that I have an incredibly loud, blood-curdling scream, and at that moment, I screamed louder than I’ve ever screamed in my life. I just let out one long, loud, glass-shattering, ear-splitting scream after another. I'm writing this the next day, and my throat still feels like I swallowed broken glass and chased it with some fire, that's the kind of screaming I did. People began running into the streets from every building in the vicinity, probably thinking that someone was being raped or murdered. Just as people began running into the streets, Dave caught up with the guy. The fact that Dave caught up with this guy was pretty amazing. Not only did the guy have long gangly legs, but he had a rather large head start. I guess Dave's desire to get his camera back gave him an adrenaline rush that allowed him to sprint like some kind of Olympic athlete. Later, Dave said he never doubted for a second that he was going to catch the guy and get his camera back, which is funny, because I never thought for a second that he was going to get the camera back.
As I was screaming like my life depended on it, the guy turned around and saw that Dave was right behind him and that there were people coming out of all the buildings. He had a look of utter shock on his face, as though he couldn't believe that Dave had caught up to him and that I was screaming so loudly. He just threw the camera at Dave and ran like hell. Dave grabbed his camera and started freaking out. One of the three guys had stopped running and was just standing there, and Dave went a bit nuts and started shouting and swearing at him and calling him a thief. The guy just put his hands up in the air and said, "Me? No, I didn't do anything!" That was true, but he was guilty by association, and I thought Dave (who is quite a pacificist and has never been in a physical fight in his life) was going to kick this guy's ass. I don't think I've ever seen him quite that mad. It only lasted a minute, though. A security guard who had come out of a nearby building acted concerned, but said that he couldn't do anything. Everyone else was just standing there shaking their heads. One bystander apologized on behalf of the thieves and said they must have been drunk, because it wasn't a typical occurence in Ecuador. We ended up just leaving the scene, and headed for the church as planned. Admittedly, we were pretty shaken up, but also pretty pumped up because we actually got the camera back.
That night, we couldn't find a single restaurnt open in the Old Town, so we hopped in a cab and went to Gringolandia. What an awful place! We ended up eating at a crappy, overpriced restaurant that had Texas in the title (Texas Grill?)! Ugh! By time we found the place, it was almost 10 pm, and we were too hungry to care. That night, we just played cards and drank wine in our room. There wasn't much in the way of New Year's Eve celebrations going on, and the streets were filled with dodgy looking drunk people. We opted to just observe them from the comfort of our room as they aimed fireworks at each other and threw their dummies into the streets, kicked the crap out of them (and even beat them with sticks) and then set them on fire. A rather barbaric way of ringing in the new year, we thought, although maybe not much better than the drink-til-you-can't-remember-the-previous-year celebrations that are common in North America. Anyway, Happy New Year to all!
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