He oui ca y est ca fait deja un peu plus d'une semaine que je suis en Equateur!
J'ai fais bon vol et nous sommes arrives Alex, Sao Mai et moi le jeudi 6 a 13h30 heure locale! La bas nous avons rencontre Monica (a gauche sur la photo), l'amie de Sao Mai (au centre de la Photo). Nous multiplions le groupe par deux et passons de deux gars a deux gars et deux filles! C'est cool! Nous partons donc de l'aeroport en taxi vers le centre coloniale (la vieille ville de Quito). On est agreablement surpris! C'est une ville qui a l'air beaucoup plus propore et jolie que ce qu'on s'imaginait! Haaa j'avais oublier I have to continue in English for everyone to understand!!
So yes once in Quito we looked for a hotel which we found pretty quick thks again to our new bible: Lonely Planet South America (Sao Mai, fortunatly had it, yeah coz alex and i had only the lonely planet for central america and the rough guide for south america...but the rough guide...we did not like it at all). We entered this old colonial house giving us the impression to enter our great grandmother's house. The well polished wooden floor would crack under our feet while discovering our big room with high ceiling for 6$ dollar each with private bathroom. The friendly owner was representing very well what we were going to realize every following day in Ecuador, friendliness of people! We went on a tour as soon as we had droped off our backpack in our room to discover Quito! The city is divided into two sections the old town, in which we were lodging and that holds all the interesting colonial buildings and the new town made with the buisiness center, banks, tourism agencies and apparently more comfortable for tourists to stay in (what we really did not agree with and stood all the time in the old town). Visiting one of the square of the old town, we faced a demonstration in front of what we learned was the presidential house! Indeed a few minutes later we had the opportunity to see the president of Ecuador Rafael Correa from his balcoony saluting at the people. We did not really understand if the demonstration was to support him or against him... What we heard and ask just got us confused. Some saying it was to reclame more budget for the sport ministry other presenting Rafael Correa like the one to save ecuador!?... At least he seemed really friendly smiled and waved at his people for 10min and went back inside. We were already deeply integrated in our new country! On this same square, some marginalist were doing a show for another social reclamation with the Che Gueverra song and images of him. Sitting down on a banch a little indegenous boy asked me if I wanted my shoes to be polished, just by looking at me he understood that it was not gonna be possible since my shoes are walking boots which don't need to be polished. But he did not mind and just sat down next to me and started to ask me questions. He was maybe 7 or 8 but did not seemed afraid at all by the differences that were separating him from me! I continue on talking with him and felt like I had yet never felt, felling like if I was living in the street. His family joined us and started eating their diner some chips with "salsa de tomate". Her mom was wearing the tipical Indegenous costume while the man was wearing a very used pair of jeans. Just after being a few hours in Quito the four of us had already the impression of having fully steped in South American Culture. We loved it!
Next day we went to look for a car! Yes we had the idea already since a while ago to buy a car once in South America. The girls were fine with it so we went on. The day before we had been in a Spanish school who's director had given us some information on other cheaper hotels in the old town and on some nice tours to do like climbing the Cotopaxi (second higher pick in Ecuador culminating at 5800m!). We therefore went in the other hotel and from there asking to the reception came to meet people that were car sellers! We passed our whole day looking for cars dreaming of the perfect one at the cheapest price! We went back to the hotel after having travelled a lot through the city, we needed to get prepared since one of Sao Mai friend from Vietnam were having a big party! Once we met her friend we went on a Chivas Bus! The concept concist of about 50 people going on a open air decorated bus and go on a circuit in the city making as much noise as possible with loud music and whistles! It was a lot of fun and gave us the opportunity to mix with young rich ecuatorians! The party was continuing in a club looking a lot like the european ones and in which a famous Reggaeton group was making a concert... All this night environement was completly different from the Quito we had seen so far, european looking people, rich, with big cars and going on parties like in Europe execpting the Chivas Bus tour! It was my first night in a club since a long time ago! Nice but really expensive!
Next morning we had plan on going to one of the biggest market in South America (according to the Lonely Planet) the one in Otovalo. North from Quito it took us a bit more than two hours to get there passing throug our first Andes' mountain desert! We arrived in this little village which made me think a lot of San Cristobal de Las Casas in Mexico. Indeed, you find in this town an important mixture of the colonial culture and the indigenous one, you get to see the limit of the spanish influence. The indigenous colorfull culture therefore is seen a lot more and people in traditional costumes forms the majority. As soon as we arrived there we went to the market quickly dropping our bags in hostal on our way. We spent the next 5 hours losing, mixing oursleves into this impressively diverse market!
(on the photo I found Alex in between colorfull panchos and all type of covers). We had a meeting point were we would meet frequently when suddenly a mass of people met at the same place! We realised that once again we were going to see the president who on this saturday was making a visit to the market! People seemed crazy and tryed to touch him as if he was a rock star! After buying quite a lot of souvenirs we went on the internet and back to the hotel! At night an important concernt was going to be held since those first weeks of september are Otavalo's Festivals days! There was an excellent "banda" from Colombia bringing a little bit of Carribean ambiance to this quite cold andean town! It was funny to see how people were not into dancing as in South Mexico and Central America! Thanks to some happy drunk locals we started to warm up and did not stop dancing Salsa and merengue till 2 AM! Next day back to Quito our new favorite town!! On this Sunday in Quito we went to a huge car sell all the way south of town! It was amazing to see all those cars and planning of buying one! But later in the evening after thinking reading mails and checking the budget we came back to reality and decided to abandonned the project of buying a car! Monday we started quite early our planning of the week! We went to confirm with agencies we had meet before our expedition to Cotopaxi for Monica and I and a Jungle tour for the four of us!
J'ai fais bon vol et nous sommes arrives Alex, Sao Mai et moi le jeudi 6 a 13h30 heure locale! La bas nous avons rencontre Monica (a gauche sur la photo), l'amie de Sao Mai (au centre de la Photo). Nous multiplions le groupe par deux et passons de deux gars a deux gars et deux filles! C'est cool! Nous partons donc de l'aeroport en taxi vers le centre coloniale (la vieille ville de Quito). On est agreablement surpris! C'est une ville qui a l'air beaucoup plus propore et jolie que ce qu'on s'imaginait! Haaa j'avais oublier I have to continue in English for everyone to understand!!
So yes once in Quito we looked for a hotel which we found pretty quick thks again to our new bible: Lonely Planet South America (Sao Mai, fortunatly had it, yeah coz alex and i had only the lonely planet for central america and the rough guide for south america...but the rough guide...we did not like it at all). We entered this old colonial house giving us the impression to enter our great grandmother's house. The well polished wooden floor would crack under our feet while discovering our big room with high ceiling for 6$ dollar each with private bathroom. The friendly owner was representing very well what we were going to realize every following day in Ecuador, friendliness of people! We went on a tour as soon as we had droped off our backpack in our room to discover Quito! The city is divided into two sections the old town, in which we were lodging and that holds all the interesting colonial buildings and the new town made with the buisiness center, banks, tourism agencies and apparently more comfortable for tourists to stay in (what we really did not agree with and stood all the time in the old town). Visiting one of the square of the old town, we faced a demonstration in front of what we learned was the presidential house! Indeed a few minutes later we had the opportunity to see the president of Ecuador Rafael Correa from his balcoony saluting at the people. We did not really understand if the demonstration was to support him or against him... What we heard and ask just got us confused. Some saying it was to reclame more budget for the sport ministry other presenting Rafael Correa like the one to save ecuador!?... At least he seemed really friendly smiled and waved at his people for 10min and went back inside. We were already deeply integrated in our new country! On this same square, some marginalist were doing a show for another social reclamation with the Che Gueverra song and images of him. Sitting down on a banch a little indegenous boy asked me if I wanted my shoes to be polished, just by looking at me he understood that it was not gonna be possible since my shoes are walking boots which don't need to be polished. But he did not mind and just sat down next to me and started to ask me questions. He was maybe 7 or 8 but did not seemed afraid at all by the differences that were separating him from me! I continue on talking with him and felt like I had yet never felt, felling like if I was living in the street. His family joined us and started eating their diner some chips with "salsa de tomate". Her mom was wearing the tipical Indegenous costume while the man was wearing a very used pair of jeans. Just after being a few hours in Quito the four of us had already the impression of having fully steped in South American Culture. We loved it!
Next day we went to look for a car! Yes we had the idea already since a while ago to buy a car once in South America. The girls were fine with it so we went on. The day before we had been in a Spanish school who's director had given us some information on other cheaper hotels in the old town and on some nice tours to do like climbing the Cotopaxi (second higher pick in Ecuador culminating at 5800m!). We therefore went in the other hotel and from there asking to the reception came to meet people that were car sellers! We passed our whole day looking for cars dreaming of the perfect one at the cheapest price! We went back to the hotel after having travelled a lot through the city, we needed to get prepared since one of Sao Mai friend from Vietnam were having a big party! Once we met her friend we went on a Chivas Bus! The concept concist of about 50 people going on a open air decorated bus and go on a circuit in the city making as much noise as possible with loud music and whistles! It was a lot of fun and gave us the opportunity to mix with young rich ecuatorians! The party was continuing in a club looking a lot like the european ones and in which a famous Reggaeton group was making a concert... All this night environement was completly different from the Quito we had seen so far, european looking people, rich, with big cars and going on parties like in Europe execpting the Chivas Bus tour! It was my first night in a club since a long time ago! Nice but really expensive!
Next morning we had plan on going to one of the biggest market in South America (according to the Lonely Planet) the one in Otovalo. North from Quito it took us a bit more than two hours to get there passing throug our first Andes' mountain desert! We arrived in this little village which made me think a lot of San Cristobal de Las Casas in Mexico. Indeed, you find in this town an important mixture of the colonial culture and the indigenous one, you get to see the limit of the spanish influence. The indigenous colorfull culture therefore is seen a lot more and people in traditional costumes forms the majority. As soon as we arrived there we went to the market quickly dropping our bags in hostal on our way. We spent the next 5 hours losing, mixing oursleves into this impressively diverse market!
(on the photo I found Alex in between colorfull panchos and all type of covers). We had a meeting point were we would meet frequently when suddenly a mass of people met at the same place! We realised that once again we were going to see the president who on this saturday was making a visit to the market! People seemed crazy and tryed to touch him as if he was a rock star! After buying quite a lot of souvenirs we went on the internet and back to the hotel! At night an important concernt was going to be held since those first weeks of september are Otavalo's Festivals days! There was an excellent "banda" from Colombia bringing a little bit of Carribean ambiance to this quite cold andean town! It was funny to see how people were not into dancing as in South Mexico and Central America! Thanks to some happy drunk locals we started to warm up and did not stop dancing Salsa and merengue till 2 AM! Next day back to Quito our new favorite town!! On this Sunday in Quito we went to a huge car sell all the way south of town! It was amazing to see all those cars and planning of buying one! But later in the evening after thinking reading mails and checking the budget we came back to reality and decided to abandonned the project of buying a car! Monday we started quite early our planning of the week! We went to confirm with agencies we had meet before our expedition to Cotopaxi for Monica and I and a Jungle tour for the four of us!
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