With apologies to Ecuadorians who might be offended by the provocative title of this post…
“Gee, Josh, are you sure we’re in Ecuador? I mean, all the menus are in English.. so are most of the signs. And I try to speak Spanish to shopkeepers, but they immediately switch to English. Plus, most of the people on the street are gringos. I don’t know, it looks an awful lot like Boulder, Colorado..” [Yes, I often talk to myself like this!]
It was a bit of a culture shock coming into Quito, particularly after having been away from touristy places for so long. Of course I welcome the bagels, pancakes, and other comfort foods from home that I haven’t had in so long.. but it’s also more expensive (my breakfast this morning was more expensive than it would be in New York! Somebody is getting very rich off all the tourists, since I know food doesn’t cost nearly this much around here), and you know I usually prefer to stay away from fellow gringos. I’ve been reminded why American travelers have a negative connotation abroad – the loudest and most obnoxious people in a restaurant are invariably American. And they always assume locals will understand English, they don’t even attempt to speak Spanish. So many of us Americans are not like this, but those few bad apples leave a bad impression for the rest of us.
Fortunately most of the above is less true when one leaves the “gringolandia” neighborhood of La Mariscal where all the backpacker hotels, internet shops, travel agencies, foreign-geared restaurants, bars and clubs are located. Quito has an historic colonial downtown that’s been revitalized in recent years. I wouldn’t call it a destination the way Cartagena is, it’s more like the La Candelaria district of Bogotá. There are a large number of impressive churches, including one wanna-be Notre Dame where the service is in Latin. I don’t know why guidebooks spend so much ink on churches – to me, once you’ve seen a few, you’ve seen them all. Actually, they scare me a little bit. I almost never enter them – it’s like entering a hospital for me, too much darkness and death.
Although the city doesn’t have any bodies of water, it is built on a series of hills that afford nice views, reminiscent of Medellín.
continue reading the rest of this post (and view the photos)…
