some sidenotes on Ecuador

Every Ecuadorian I have met is mind-blowing friendly and are so interesting to talk to. They are beautiful people who are very proud of their culture, and rightfully so despite so much political turmoil they have gone through (10 presidents in the last 8 years) as well dollarization (in 2001 Ecuador dropped their national currency the sucre and adopted the US dollar. The way of life in Quito compared to how it is just 2 hours north in Otavalo, a small indigenous village market town, is too unique to describe. Quito is divided in-half. There is Old town, which consists of old architectural buildings, cathedrals, and basically anything that hasn't been built for a while. Now take a guess as to what the other part is called?...... New Town! a Gringola central, a replica of 6th street with bars named things like Strawberry, No Bar, Dragonfly, and Texas Star American pop culture permeates everything.. From the moment I got off the plane in Quito there were people lining the streets selling stolen Michael Jackson memorabilia, and even a couple of people asked me how I felt about the Pop icons death...Thirty minutes west of Dragonfly and Michael Jackson, I'm having a 5 year old boy begging me for change and wanting to know if he can shine my shoes despite that they were flipflops. Although the dichotomy is strange, it is also honest. Poverty in Ecuador is not something hidden- it is evident and has been woven into the culture. I think I read that 40-60% of Ecuadorians live below poverty- and from what I've seen that sounds about right. Nearly every hostel and restaurant I've seen (unless they are cafeteria style) are owned by Europeans or Americans. The reason for this is that most Ecuadorians can't build up enough capital to start a business. It is the second poorest country in South America, however, it is considered the 4th most expensive, but I think, depending on what one may do, it is pretty cheap- no hostel has cost me more then $8 a night- there are markets everywhere that you can haggle any price down to a couple of bucks- and last night I even had cheese & beef fondue, salad, and a bottle of wine for $16! Unbelievable!

Another thing Ecuador leads in is bio-diversity. I really wanted to go to the Galapagos Islands but for about $1000 bucks a person- I had to pass... Ecuador has over 20,000 different species of plants when the rest of the Americas combined has only 17,000!
There is everything from active volcanoes, glorious beaches, the Amazon, mountains, Rainforest, there is rain, sun, snow, hot, and cold.. You can hike, white-water raft, visit waterfalls, ride bicycles up to a volcano, and then treat yourself to a tasty .80c beer at the end of the day. The climate and landscape of the country is really amazing. I found out yesterday from a Latacunga native that the US is Ecuador's number one importer of broccoli and roses. I would have never of guessed that because I haven't came across that many since I've been here. Their main diet consists of yucas, bananas, and some type of meat (not chicken, pork, or cow..) one of their traditional dishes that I'm a fan of is llapingachos


and when I say some type of meat I mean it is Lomo (alpaca meat), cuy (guinea pig) or parts of animals I've never seen before fried up at this huge outdoor food market. The lomo is good- taste like steak- the cuy... you will like only if you like dark meat chicken.

I've got more to explain about this tiny little country I'm starting to get a crush on, but I've got to go find my bus out of Baños today


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more info on dollarization:
http://www.mindspring.com/~tbgray/dollar.htm