Tattoo Me

So, I am really trying to keep up with this blog thing, but geez, it´s so hard with hardly any time to spare...ok, that´s just my excuse. Anyway, as you can probably tell from the title, I just got a new tattoo here in Quito. I´m telling you, there is something in the air here. I came here such a good boy(yeah, right), and now I have fallin´into the world of tattoos and piercings. I am leaving for Lima, Peru in 5 days and in just enough time for my tats to heal, so I can properly show them off..lol. There is a tremendous artist here, the one who did my new one, who has agreed to do some add-on work to enhance one of my other tattoos from earlier on. So, maybe when I return from Bolivia, I will take him up on it. I sure will miss Quito, when I have to come back to the U.S., but if everything goes well with my visa, I will be returning to Ecuador for work in September 2009. So, that´s about it. See ya again soon :)

Music Nights

There isn´t a whole to update since the last blog entry, just finishing up three more weeks here in Quito, then it´s off to Peru and Bolivia for a month before returning back to Ecuador to tour the country for a month. As of now, the current plan is to head back to the U.S. around the first of April, where I have to wait until my permanent work visa is approved around September, then it´s back to Ecuador where I will be working here for a year to two years on the coast in a city called Canoa. In some ways I hate to even have to leave here to head back to the U.S. because the restaurant is doing well, and it´s a lot of fun here. We just started having music nights up on the terrace here at the hotel, and every night is a different theme. Sundays are 80´s night, and everyone hadf a great time eating , drinking, and listening to music from the past. But, after I leave in April, they have to close the restaurant, until I return in September, because they don´t have anyone to take it over. Anyway, it will still be nice to visit family and friends back home for a bit, but Ecuador and the people and culture here sure grow on you. Caio´for now!

What the Smell Is Goin´On?

No doubt, this is one of those rather random blogs that may just leave you shaking your head after you read it...for such as life are those moments that don´t necessarily leave us affected in any other way, only in the occasional moment that hindsight comes again to remind us of why we took the time to write about it in the first place, or in this case for the reader, well, maybe I´ll let you choose the appropiate word. Yesterday, as we were preparing to ready the kitchen for another night of dishing out burgers, booze, and music to the plethra of tourists that would soon make their way through the doors, Jacob, Joel, Xavi, and I noticed a rather odd, and somewhat disconcerting smell making it´s way through the entire hostel. Now, moments earlier, our resident Spanish teacher, Maribel, had commented that she noticed what she thought was the smell of marajuana lurking about, but when we investigated, we all decided there was something else definately a´foot´making itself known. Then we realized that her Belgian student was conviently around every time we noticed the odor. After some more investigating, we finally all figured out that it was him....more specifically, his socks! Apparently, he´d been wearing the same pair underneath a pair of sandals(another no-no), for more than a week, and no intention of changing them any time soon. Eventually, we may have to start fining him daily if things don´t change. Now, because I am writing this in my blog, I had to give him an alias, just in case he tries to add me on facebook, in which case he will certainly find this entry. So, if a Belgian guy with sunburn, and a bad case of style and sock odor asks...My name is Paco Van Sustran, and I come from Iceland on a scientific mission to study the problem of Volcano water evaporation. I´m hoping this is enough to through him off my cybertrail. Thankfully, he hasnt asked what my name is yet!

Behind Bars

Well, today was one of the more difficult days in my life as far as experiences go. My friends Jacob, Joel, and I visited a womens prison here in Quito. Things are much different here than in the US. We arrived at the prison with a bag of clothes to give to the prisoners there. We had no idea how bad things were, and I guess we were slightly unprepared for what we saw. The clothes were accepted with more gratitude than we could have imagined, but we sonn started to hear the stories of the women staying there. In Ecuadors prison system, you must pay for everything you have in the jail. If you have no money or no family to give you money, you have no bed, covers, soap, etc. NOTHING...the only thing you get for free is three bowls of rice a day, with a tiny portion of chicken. We talked to one girl who was from Estonia and was in there for 7 years, because her boyfriend planted a small amount of marijuana in her bag. Most of the women in there were in there because of drugs or prostitution, and were serving multiple years. If you have money, things are much easier, but those without money are left to basically fend for themselves. It´s a terrible balance that exists, but justice is a much different word here. The other problem is the massive corruption among the prison guards..Its even so bad that the poorer inmates often serve lengthier sententces just because they lack the funds to bribe the proper offiicials. We are taking a collection of money, clothes, and bathroom supplies at the hostel here, and are making a return trip next week to bring them some more items, hopefully to brighten there day if only a little. We are also planning a trip to the mens prison in the near future, and from what we here the conditions there are even worse. I just wish there was more that we could do. It really makes you appreciate the freedom you have, and the simple things in life that they may never get to experience again.

Sick in Quito!

OK, so one thing is for sure. Getting sick in a foreign country is not something I would recommend. Actually, it comes right after getting mugged by a gang of angry girlscouts on the list of things one should never have to experience. To make things worse, it may have been one of the most incapacitating colds I have ever had. By the second day, things were starting to spiral downwards. If you can imagine a sore throat so bad, that every attempt to swallow was first prepared for by bracing myself against the bed as if I were in a Boeing 747, and the pilot had just announced to prepare for a crash landing. If that weren't bad enough, I was so severely congested that those two little portholes to respitory freedom, might has well of been for asthetic purposes only. Of course, this just forced me to breath through my mouth, which caused it to dry out even faster, and thus, making the countdown to the eventual swallow come even excruciatingly quicker. Throw in a headache that even makes an entire bottle of Tylenol look appatizing, and three nights of sleep totaling about 17 minutes, and hopefully you can get a little bit of an idea how this going. By the third day, it was time to make a trip to Quito's Military Hospital emergency room. Surprisingly, this was one of the bright spots in my little adventure. I walked up to the window, gave them my passport, paid $12.00, and waited about 30 minutes to see the doctor. He was a very kind man, who took the time to really look me over, take some tests, and make sure it wasn't anything more than a cold. He gave me a prescription for a combination of 5 different drugs, that I took to the pharmacy on the way home. The total cost for all the medication...$26.00 dollars. This all happened yesterday, and today I am feeling much better, just as the doctor promised. Hopefully, by tomorrow, I'll be as good as new. Now, I just hope that this is the last time I have to go through that again. The lesson learned here is that when I am in America, and I get really sick, I 'm going to fly to Quito, and save a couple hundred dollars or more!

Time For Spanish

If you happened to read my last entry, you saw that I was planning to go to the city Banos. Well, I am still going, but I have rearranged my schedule. The current plan now is to stay in Quito for one month while I take advanced Spanish classes. My class starts tomorrow, and I will be attending for 20 hours per week for 4 weeks. The goal is to be perfectly fluent by the end of the classes. Communicating at this point isn't too bad. I am much better at speaking than comprehending. Even though I am comfortable in conversations, my vocabulary is somewhat limited, so I find myself missing a lot when I speak with the locals. At the end of the month, I'll head to Banos for at least 2 weeks. I'm finding out there is even more there than I thought. You can rent a bike for 5 dollars for the day, and just cruise around the mountains, and explore in complete safety. And because of the altitude, and relatively small size of the city, it's nearly impossible to get lost, but I plan on testing that assumption. They also have this bungy jump thing that flings you across the lake and into the thermal HOT springs. These springs are heated by the volcanic activity around the city, and remain at a constant 95 degrees. You can pretty much soak the day away. They even have a cable car that goes between the two mountains..not so sure about that though..ugh! Oh, I forgot to mention, today I climbed to the top of this clocktower in the heart of Old Town. It's one of the oldest churches in Quito, and offers incredible views from the top. It was only 2 dollars, and I hung out for a couple of hours, and had a little lunch there. It was really cool. The photos on this post are the ones I took there. Bye for now :)

Banos

Well, after a couple of days of unwinding in the capital city, I am planning to head out tomorrow to a city called Banos. It's probably the most beautiful, and safest city in Ecuador. There are plenty of trails available for hiking, and the thermal springs offer a place to just soak in hot water while waterfalls cascade over you. Not so bad. I've been told it takes a couple of weeks to really explore everything there, so after this week, I may book a week stay there and just relax and take my time and enjoy it. You can take a 3 hour bus ride there for about 3.50. I'll make sure to get some pictures. Bye for now :)

Starting Out In Quito

Well, even though there are 2 other posts on this blog, this is my first post from Quito, Ecuador itself. When my plane landed and I got into the airport terminal, I really thought that I had arrived at the craziest, most chaotic terminal I had ever been to in my life. You would of thought that people were evacuating a major catastrophe. Maybe they were and I just haven't found out what it is yet. After about an hour of terminal torture, I finally made it to the taxi line, and took a thirty five minute ride to my hotel for only 8 dollars. The same ride in the states would have cost about 25 or more. By the time I got to my hotel, it was almost midnight. (My plane landed at 11:00pm.) It was a little disconcerting when the reception didn't answer right away, and I was left standing in the middle of a strange city with three bags and no bed, but thankfully after another buzz on the door, she finally came to my rescue. The room was really nice and quaint, and very comfortable. The downside is; one channel in English, undrinkable tap water, and the very infamous inability to flush toilet paper in any toilet in South America. They just stick a wastebasket by the comode..I'm sure you can do without any additional commentary on that subject. But the good news is I get to watch "The Simpsons" in Spanish. The voice overs are hilarious. Anyway, tomorrow I will probably head to the BIG market and stock up on food. They have a nice kitchen here where you can keep your food and cook whenever you want. It's really convienent. Well, I have to sleep now, and they shut off internet at 11:00pm anyway. Bye for now :)