I moved to Quito, Ecuador

-
I moved to Quito, Ecuador. Living and teaching abroad is a wonderful adventure. While I was sad to leave the island life of the Caribbean, I am excited to be in a Spanish speaking country. When I decided I wanted to live and teach internationally my goal was to do it in a Spanish speaking country.
Quito at night

Quito

The city has a lot to offer I feel like I can get almost everything here (cheese is an exception- how is there no good cheese???): food, microbreweries, entertainment, parks... I live near parque la carolina (Carolina park). It has a bunch of walking/running/biking paths and is full of people exercising and doing park things.  I’m about 45 minutes walking from work. I would be willing to walk home as it's downhill. But going to work up hill is not high on my list. The school provides a bus for staff. It picks me up about 3 blocks from my home. It is very convenient and with the crazy traffic, it’s nice to be in the hands of the school to get me to work on time.
 Cascarrabias across the street from my building
has great food and beer

Walking to parque la carolina from my home. 
The altitude is a real pain. Walking up a few stairs can leave you breathless. They say after a few weeks you acclimate, I’m still waiting for that to happen. It gets better, but breathlessness is a fact of life. Also it is super dry, even when it rains. A humidifier has helped at night.

I thought I would be cold all the time, but I’m enjoying the weather. Central heat and air conditioning don’t seem to exist here. It can get really cold in buildings at work, especially in rooms where that don’t face the sun. Dressing in layers are key. I carry an umbrella and extra sweater with me most times.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

South America part 4 The worlds' deepest canyon, condors, and an overnight bus

-
Image
We left Nasca on June 17 on an overnight bus to Arequipa. It sucked. We were seated in the back of the bus. It was smelly, hot, and uncomfortable. I woke up multiple times with claustrophobia because my legs were trapped by the reclining seats in front of us. It was horrible. We arrived in Arequipa around 5 in the morning. We elected to stay at the Casa de Avila, but we were leaving that morning for a 2 day tour of Colca canyon. The hotel was a converted colonial mansion. They were so very kind and the allowed us to store our bags and to rest in one of the common rooms until breakfast. We then were picked up for our trip to Colca canyon. The road to Colca Canyon Wild vicuña  on the side of the road The trip out of Arequipa took about an hour because of traffic. We then began our climb. The drive took us up past 15,000 feet elevation. We stopped at the highest point to see the volcanos, stacked rocks, and domestic Llamas and Alpacas. We arrived in Chivay in time for lunch. T...
Read more

Black Sheep Inn and Lake Quilatoa

-
Image
We had a 3 day weekend and it was my first chance to really get out of Quito and visit parts of Ecuador. I rented a car because of my friends I’m the only one who could drive a stick shift (thanks mom and dad!).  Quick aside - I was so glad that I had had the opportunity to drive a couple of different types of stick shift cars. When I rented the car the company showed me how to/where to put gas, open the trunk, use the radio, etc. The one thing the didn’t show me was how to put the car in reverse. I’ve driven cars where reverse is on the far right. I’ve driven cars where it was on the left, where you had to push a button to put the car in reverse. I got the car home to my parking garage and I realised I had no idea how to put the Chevy Aveo into reverse. I spent 20 min trying to get the care in reverse, slowly inching towards a wall. I finally remembered I had the power of Google on my phone.  Thank you Google for showing me where the tiny ring was that I had to pull up on wh...
Read more

South America part 5: Peru to Bolivia

-
Image
Puno We arrived in Puno and got settled in at our Hostel. It was another very basic place. Puno is a small town that doesn't have a lot of tourism. We spent the day wandering a bit in the plaza and visiting the church. There was a festival and a lot of places were closed. That afternoon we took our tour of the floating islands in Lake Titicaca. It was very cold on the lake. We took a boat about 30 minutes out to the islands. They are a series of islands that are grouped together. The tours take turns going to different islands and the people pool their money to support the community. When we arrived we were taken to an area to sit on the reeds and a local spokes person gave us information on their life and the islands. He showed us how they layer the reeds on top of the root blocks to make the island (approx 3 feet thick). We learned that they need refreshing regularly. We learned that traditionally the reeds are edible and combined with fishing this was the main sustenance.  Now...
Read more