Autobús Tour!!

On Friday, 6/10/11 most of us decided to skip clinic and go on a free tour offered by the language school. The bus we were going in sat about 17 people and we fit 19—a bit squished and of course, no seatbelts. The first stop was a beautiful vista of the city of Quito. To get there we were going up all kinds of steep roads and switchbacks. Most of the cars here are stick shift because an automatic would die trying to handle the hills of Quito.  I can only imagine trying to learn how to drive here. On the way there we saw many of the local people in the traditional indigenous garb. In general, they are all around Quito as well. After we stopped for photos, the second stop was El Panesillo, the Virgin Hill. On top of the hill is a giant statue of Mary—the only one in the world, which depicts Mary with wings. The people of Quito are quite proud of it, because it is distinct. We went up inside of the statue, which is Mary standing on top of the world, crushing a snake creature beneath her feet. She has her 12 star crown and wings, of course. It was pretty cool to go up inside of it and then there is a balcony where you can walk around the world. It’s a bit hard to describe—pictures will show it better. I also incidentally paid to use the bathroom for the first time in  my life. The bathrooms there were run by a little lady. I went in to use one—they were quite nice for being public. She handed us a napkin—an extra luxury in a public bathroom. Most of them don’t have toilet paper. So when we were done she expected a donation. All I had was a dollar and the only change she had was 5 dimes! So I ended up paying 50 centavos to use the bathroom. In comparison, she definitely was not happy about my friends 10 centavo donations.

So another cool thing about Ecuador is you get to barter and haggle over goods, taxi prices, and what not. At El Panesillo, there were lots of booths set up with tourist attractions and souvenirs to buy. So I got to experience some of my first bartering. I was able to get a knitted hat for 2.50 and a medium size purse for 4$. It was awesome. You just can’t do that in the states at all. It’s something I’m going to miss.

After the Virgin Hill, we made our way to one more lookout area on the opposite side of Quito. It was in a nice park area, but we were all about ready for lunch and to get ready for traveling to Baños for the weekend. The way back definitely included lots of crazy driving. This group of school-aged kids got really excited when our bus passed theirs. They were all waving and excited to see us.

Another note, Ecuatorians especially like to stare at white blonde girls. I don’t think I’ve ever turned so many heads in my entire life. They also like to make a point of staring. One man stared at me and continued to look backwards even after I had passed him on the street. Ha and I only looked back to see if he was still staring, which he was.