Breathless in Quito

In Quito now after a 7 hour flight from BA including a half hour layover at Guayaquil, Ecuador´s largest city.  I arrived at Quito airport at about 9pm expecting someone from the school to pick me up.  There were many people waiting at the airport with name placards but alas, none of them had my name on it.  For the first time in my trip, I felt really alone.  After briefly considering posing as Donald Russell (one of the names on the placards) I headed to the taxi counter to get a taxi into town.  I had highlighted some hostels in the Lonely Planet that were close to the school and decided on Casa de Eliza for 6.5US a night.  The taxi turned out to be a van and the driver was a really friendly Quitoian who spoke fairly good English.

I was a bit shocked when I got to Casa de Eliza, it was not the nice, homely hostel described in the Lonely Planet.  It was really run-down and dirty though I did have the dorm room to myself.  I promptly left my stuff in the room and headed out to find some food as I hadn´t had any dinner.  The neighbourhood was very quiet, almost as quiet as my street back home, eventhough it was supposedly close to the centre of the new town.  Anyway, I didn´t feel too unsafe and walked about a block to the some restuarants.  I couldn´t pass the Happy Panda, a chinese restaurant complete with security guards at the front.  It was actually a very nice looking restaurant although there was only 1 other patron there.  The waiters were equally amused when I showed up, the only person who could understand the Anita Mui song playing in the background.  I ordered a wonton soup and some stir-fry noodles.  It actually tasted ok and I learnt that the chef and all the staff are Ecuadorian.  Interesting, considering that they had very authentic sounding dishes on the menu, including Hunan Style Beef...I dont even know what that tastes like!

I´m suffering from altitude sickness

So it was back to the hostel and after some dramas getting into my room (i had locked it but the key didn´t fit), I attempted to sleep without touching any of the linen which looked dirtier than me.

The room actually looked much better in the daylight, though I was determined to find the school and get another hostel.  My mood improved after seeing the nearby mountain through the window.

Quito is the second highest capital in the world, after La Paz in Bolivia.  I think its about 2500m above sea level and I´m feeling it right now.  I think I´m suffering from altitude sickness as I feel very out of breath and my lungs cannot expand enough to contain the oxygen.  Apparently it will take a few days to acclimatise and I hope I don´t suffer the other symptoms of vertigo and stomach pains.

So I found the school and even found a nice hostel where I am sharing with a cool American from Washington.  She´s actually of Ecuadorian heritage and she´s volunteering in Quito for a month.  I had my first Spanish lesson and it was ok but not very structured.  It´s all bunch of foreign words at the moment.

Quito is tiny compared to BA.  It feels like a small town although there are at least 4 five star hotels here.  It´s surrounded by verdant mountains and friendly people (so far).  I am looking forward to doing some volunteer work and taking some excursions to the surrounding volcanoes after I acclimatise.

I bought a card reader at BA airport so hopefully I can upload some photos soon!