Poor?...Or is it Rich?

I keep coming back to this central theme of wealth, or lack there of, in Ecuador. This central theme was at the forefront of my thoughts as I rode on a bus from Quito to Baños. It was about a 3.5 hour bus ride, heading south. The immense amount of poverty is nothing like I have seen before. On this bus ride, it was shack after shack without plumbing or electricity (I can only assume). Most of the houses are built with cinder blocks (no paint or wood on the outside of them, just the cinder blocks) and many of them looked like they started a second floor, but never got around to finishing it, so no roof per say. It’s hard to put into words, but for the most part a lot of these homes looked like an all around mess. As I am passing through some small villages in Ecuador, I can’t help but take in the grand backdrop. The Sierra region, or the Andes Mountains, is breathtaking. The sheer magnitude of the mountains is incredible.

There are four different geographic regions...from West to East: the Galápagos Islands, the Coastal Region, the Sierra Region (or Andes...where I am now), and the Amazon Region. I have only seen one region and I still can’t believe that I have three completely different regions left to see. For being such a small country (approximately the size of Colorado), it is so incredibly rich and gorgeous in its geography. So, as I was sitting on the bus, I can’t help but think of Ecuador being this dichotomy of poor and rich. It is a very unique combination. I am falling in love with Ecuador. It is a stunning country that is becoming my home. (Don’t worry Mom… I won’t move here permanently!...I love the USA...more coming on that in a sec.)

Odds and Ends:
I always chat it up my taxi drivers...you definitely don’t get the usual “gringo” surcharge if you can speak a little Spanish and are friendly. So, anyway, when this driver asked me where I was from, instead of immediately replying with my usual “Los Estados Unidos” I asked him to guess. He said I looked like I was from “Switzerland.” That made me laugh.

I went to the US Embassy on Friday night for Happy Hour. My friend and I made friends with a few marines who are stationed here in Quito. It was pretty low key, but it was SA-WEET to see the Embassy. They call the whole thing ‘the compound.’ I felt so safe being there it was great. There are about 200 people that work in the embassy, and there were about 35 people (a mix of all ages) at this happy hour. It was so nice inside, including all the buildings, landscaping and the mega-fence that surrounded all of it. The US knows how to do it up right if you ask me. Heck yeah, USA! They said the embassy cost about $92 million to build, which apparently is relatively cheap compared to other US embassies around the world. We (the US) have embassies in approximately 260 countries. Not sure if I’ll be going back much. I really want to immerse myself in meeting Ecuadorians to speak Spanish with, but it was definitely awesome to see at least once!

I ate cuy (pronounced koo-ey) for the first time... AKA: guinea pig. It apparently is a delicacy here in Ecuador. It reminded me of the taste of rabbit, but the skin was so crunchy/tough that I only had a little bit of the skin. Overall I thought it was pretty tasty.

This past weekend, in Baños, we hiked up a mountain, ate cuy, ate sugarcane, saw some waterfalls, went biking for 4 hours, saw a volcano erupt (lava and all! --- most breathtaking experience yet) and hiked around some more. A superb adventure all in all!

A blurb from my journal (This was after riding the bus, where I was a head taller than most of the guys):
I feel like an alien here sometimes. Everyone looks at me like I just arrived from Pluto or something. Do I/we Americans really stand out that much? What’s the deal? Maybe this is what it feels like to be a minority.

Bottom line for this blog: Ecuador is the bomb-diggity.

Chao!
(I learned that ‘ciao’ is the Italian spelling. They spell it ‘chao’ in Ecuador.)