ECUADOR - My June/July 2003 Trip Journal -- by Donna R. Carter
Page Eleven
~^~ Bed & Breakfast / National News? ~^~ Monday ~^~ July 7, 2003
I checked out of the Guest House in the morning and headed over to the Parque Italia Bed & Breakfast, located closer to downtown. There was definitely a different feel about the place. I had way too many bags, still, but I hadn't sorted through everything and re-packed and re-organized it all properly yet.
I arrived at the gate as a couple was leaving, so they let me in. I managed to haul all my stuff up the stairs and into the entry way where I stood for a moment... not knowing who to talk to about checking in. I heard someone in the other room, talking, and I noticed that they were discussing a hike they were planning. The speaker looked up. I identified myself and he said, "Okay. Wait."
So I waited, standing there by the front door, with all my stuff around my feet.
Eventually I was led, with all my things, through the house, around and through several open area rooms and then up the stairs to another end of the house and into a back room just about as far away from the front door as could be. I think the house had originally been two houses around a corner lot, that had been combined together or something.
My room had a single and a double bed, a large double closet with shelves, and a private patio, overlooking the street, across which was the Italian Embassy. It was not the street that I had come in from. I still haven't quite figured out the configuration of that house to have a clue where exactly I was.
I stood there in my room for a while, not knowing when breakfast was served or what (if any) the rules were, and having no keys to get in or out of my room orthe outside gate. I set my things down and opened my suitcase to try to do some re-organizing.
The owner of the B&B came up while I was organizing my things. He looked askance at them, and proceeded to tell me that our scheduled trip into the Pululahua crater that weekend would involve hiking in, as well as out. He commented that since I was staying only three days in the crater, I wouldn't need to take any clothing with me other than what I had on, and I wouldn't be eating much food, so...
I was a bit taken aback. I may have been mistaken, but this was not the impression I had been given when the plans had originally been arranged at all!
He said it would take about the same amount of time with the car as it would walking. And that when I left, I'd have to hike out (UP!) and out to the road, by myself, and catch a bus back to the Mitad del Mundo (Middle of The World) and then from there catch another bus in to Quito where I'd be staying at the Moncayo's. I did some mental gymnastics trying to accommodate the differences between what I'd been led to believe and what was actually going to happen.
My Spanish lessons began at 1:00...
I met my teacher, Adriana. We got along right away. The first thing she asked me was if she could shorten the lessons to 5 hours instead of 7, because she was not comfortable walking in that area of town at night in order to catch a bus. I didn't have a problem with that. She was a bit afraid that the owner of the B&B would have a problem with it, but I told her it didn't bother me, and not to worry about it. (But I began to think: "If she isn't comfortable walking here at night, then what am I doing here?") and I thought perhaps I should consider finding another place to stay for the rest of the week - and maybe cancelling entirely on the Pululahua trip.
Adriana and I decided that the first half of the lesson would involve going around town on "field trips" of sorts, and the second half would be mostly writing and working on grammar. I told her that if she spent that afternoon just talking with me, she'd pick up on the areas where I was having difficulty and we could work from that.
We walked down to Ave. America and got on a bus to go into Colonial Quito where we stopped at the library and went up to the roof and looked out over the Plaza de Independencia and Carondelet (the presidential palace). I videotaped a bit, and took a few pictures. We went back down the stairs and walked over to the Palace to see if maybe we could get in. We were allowed into the outer courtyard, and saw a bunch of news reporters inside the inner courtyard (but they wouldn't let us in... Adriana tried to finagle our way in, but I couldn't go along with the farce that we were press but forgot our badges. Way too unlikely.)
We stood there waiting, camcorder poised. The shade was cool, so I put on my sweater. It caught on the tiny bead bracelet Melissa had made for me, and the elastic on the bracelet broke and little teensy beads started bouncing all over the courtyard of the palace. Soldiers and strangers, and Adriana and I, were all bending over picking up these tiny little beads... I know we didn't get them all... I thanked everybody for their help and put the retrieved beads in my change purse.
After waiting a while longer, still hoping maybe we'd get a glimpse of the president, the press ended up going upstairs and the press conference was held out of our view. We were disappointed, but we shrugged, went out to the plaza, bought a soda (she had a Sprite, and I had a Fiora), and sat at one of the benches around the fountain.
While we were sitting there, Adriana saw a bunch of the cameramen running outside the front entry of the palace, and she got up and motioned while she said, "Hurry! Run! They're coming out!" So there we were, both running across the plaza to the steps of the palace and I had a coke in one hand and my camercorder out ready just in case it was the president...
But it wasn't. We sat down, panting, on the edge of the stairs and then we realized the cameras were following these VIP's all the way down the stairs past us - RIGHT past us.... and for all I know we ended up on national TV, sitting on the sidelines, sipping our sodas from straws out of bottles, while these government VIP's walked past.
We walked from there to the Basilica de La Merced where the priest was standing in the door of the church. I asked Adriana if maybe he would bless my rosary that Jeff had given me and that I had brought from the U.S. I'm not Catholic, but I think there are some Catholic rituals that can be blessings. Anyway, she said we could ask. She asked for me and the priest was very nice and blessed it for me - commenting on how beautiful it was and how they don't make them that nicely here in Ecuador.
We walked through the church and I took a video - I don't know how well it turned out. There were several portraits of El Señor de la Justicia (The Lord of Justice), said to be the one who metes out justice to those who have been mistreated. It was one more step of healing, for me to light a candle - in a way to trust that justice will be, or has been, served regarding a childhood incident many years ago, not so very far away.
From there, we walked up to Impiales - the NEW Impiales. They have taken all the vendors off the streets and provided them with a huge new (kind of ugly lime-yellow) building instead. Now you can enter this building and walk row upon row, floor upon floor, of store-front booths instead of squashing through crowds of people packing a street to the point that cars can't get through. In some ways it is less fun, but it really makes more sense and makes pick-pocketing much more difficult with it being organized like it is now.
After browsing the market, we took a taxi to the Supermaxi that was close by the B&B, bought some bottled water (and lotion for my sunburn) and then ate at ... "Mc.Donalds" ... definitely NOT McDonalds (they are here too). Oh well... We were hungry and that was the only place nearby.
From Mc.Donald's, we walked back to the B&B where Adriana wrote out a writing homework assignment for me and then she went home. I read for a bit, did my writing, and went to bed early, listening to buses going up the hill at night - shifting gears and rumbling/whining by...
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