Quito: Land of the Free (and Cheap)

No other city I’ve lived in or flew to looks or feels much like Quito. A city where smoking restrictions are still nonexistent- you can light up before you leave the place where you purchased your pack and no one will squint an eye. It’s a city where Payless costs more and you won’t be able to walk down a street or load onto a bus without spotting at least a dozen fashionable city-dwellers sporting a fake pair of ray-bands they probably picked up at a corner tienda.

At the center of “gringolandia” lies Plaza Foch, a colorful ensemble of expensive bars, cafes and restaurants where well-to-do Quiteños and their foreign counterparts enjoy a leisurely afternoon happy hour before nightfall, when the center offers some real fun.

Wednesday night is lady’s night. There’s a subsection of bars in “gringolandia” where girls can get in free until 11, bouncing from one bar to another with their friends getting as plastered as possible free of charge. After 11 the boys are howling (literally) to be let in and roam freely to scope out the fresh meat. The disappointing part is, a lot of the girls enjoy this- they season themselves through the attentive stares of men.

Walk through this neighborhood and it’s hostel after hostel. No wonder Ecuador has become to loaded with tourists—this place has become geared for the weathered traveler. And with good reason. Not only is it beautiful, it’s quite cheap: Make a stop at the Santa Clara market and you can pick up two full bags of fresh produce and some sort of carbohydrate base for ten dollars.  Promotions at the nightclubs that fall on each night of the week make it hard to resist stopping in for a couple of Pilseners and maybe some Salsa.

The Ecovia and the Trollebus take you through a time warp from the South to the North, jutting out thick, black fumes that stain the streets and make you gasp at the fact that each time you cross from one side to the other you’re actually breathing this all into your lungs.  Really, this smoke is so heavy you can actually feel it entering your insides. Walk down the same street for long enough, your head will scream for the even the tiniest dose of oxygen.

The South, named a UNESCO world heritage site, is, not so ironically, the poorer portion of the city. Head to the North and you’ll find supermalls with Cinnabon and near sky-scraper status buildings with businessmen out front checking out every well-dressed girl in clear sight. Ask me and I’d chose to live in the South any day. But I’m pressed directly between the old and the new, and I can’t say my current placement is half bad.

As culturally rich and beautiful as this city is, I’m leaving it on Saturday—at least for the time being. Saturday I will be hopping a couple of buses and a milk truck to a highly remote FINCA (organic farm) outside of the village of Cuellaje, where nearest town is about two hours out, and it’ll take two days to even make that trip. As much as I enjoy Quito and all the people watching, nothing sounds more appealing right now than being isolated in a forest, where nothing but the sounds of roosters, birds and Spanish speakers will feed my stimulation.

There I’ll be teaching English for a couple hours a day as well as any other subject I may find interest in teaching to the kids. I’ll also be spending the mornings working on the farm: Milking cows, churning cheese, sowing seeds, tending to the beds and harvesting. I am told to not be surprised if one of the local farmers I will be working with hands me a machete and tells me to hack a trail to the rio.  But then again,  granted I stay for long enough, another responsibility of mine will be to stress better conservation of the land on which these people dwell.

How will I learn these things? No idea. I’ll take it day by day and see if being this far out of my comfort zone will be conducive to my mental (and physical) health. At this point I don’t foresee any unmanageable circumstances. This part of Ecuador is unanimously known for the relaxed aura of its people and the regenerative capabilities of its pristine nature.  While I’m scared a bit shitless, I must say the excitement has a better hold on me.

Stay tuned.