Gringolandia

Last Saturday morning, I left Cuenca after a very fun going away party for me on Friday night that ended about 3 hours before my flight departed.  Exausted, I hopped on the plane to Quito for what would be a 45 minute flight (versus 10 hours on the bus, this seemed like a good use of funds).  By 8:00am, I was in Quito and settled at my hostel which was in the heart of "Gringolandia," the place where all of the hostels and restaurants and bars for tourists are.  Totally unimpressed with my surroundings within the first few moments there, I decided to leave my stuff in the room and jumped on a bus for a 2-hour trip to nearby Otavalo which has a renowned market on Saturdays.  I went and bought just a few things -- there wasn't a ton of room to fit stuff in my bag -- but the whole thing was totally immense! 

I headed back to Quito in the afternoon.  My first impressions of Quito were pretty dismal I have to say.  So dirty and polluted, but it does look pretty from afar.  I will wait until Mom and George come back to really explore the city.  I went back to the hostal, had some dinner and hung out for a while in the common area chatting with some Isreali guys who were on their way out for the night.  I opted to stay in and have what I thought would be an early night so that I could wake up again at the crack of dawn to get on a bus to the jungle.  Much to my dismay, I had taken a room overlooking the street and there was an outdoor concert taking place... all night. I finally got a few hours of sleep and when I woke up in the morning, the Isrealis were all just coming home.  Next time, I'll probably just go out all night too and save sleeping for the bus.