Sunday, November 25, 2007
Hola from Quito Part II
- Ecuadorian people generally keep to themselves, at least when it comes to shopping at markets. I went to an artisanal market area - passing through - and I was not accosted unless I expressed interest, which was refreshing. Everyone's friendly enough, but in a passive non-pushy way.
- I sometimes can't tell the gringos and the locals apart. The majority of the locals have very dark complexions, but definitely not all. Occasionally I encounterd a person who I would have defintely taken for a traveller (after all, I'm wandering around in La Mariscal aka. Gringolandia) but then they'd start talking flawless Spanish. Nope, you're not from Wichita! Bizarro.
- One thing that reared it's ugly head is begging by children. I understand that some local families are poor, but it really bothers me that these same people feel the need to send their very small kids to beg for money from tourists. There are two issues here: one is that the kids & their families must be genuinely in need, and a bit of charity is in order. The other is that the children learn from an early age to be beggars, and I feel pretty strongly that this is a bad habit to encourage. I think the parents are fully to blame.
- I went to a park. All the kids play soccer - er, futbol. If I were in a park in North America, I'd find kids playing catatonica, or possibly preparing for the next hot dog eating contest. It's very refreshing. I'd also point out that people here don't seem to have systemic, widespread health problems, despite the generous "this is not a French restaurant" portion sizes.
The language barrier is nowhere near what I had in China. I think after half a day's communications and with the help of a trustly phrasebook my Spanish already exceeds my Mandarin by a factor of 100x. I can even understand a small fraction what's being spoken in my general direction, as opposed to what was going in China - which was a lot of quizzical looks, smiles, and pointing at the phrasebook. It helps that the language I normally speak draws at least in part on Spanish, and therefore some of the vocabulary is not totally foreign on me. Then again, without some instruction, I'd never know that "tengo" means "I have". I would have thought it's a dance for 10 participants!
What else is in the docket? I met Patricio's brother and (whoah!) daughter. She's 16. He's 32. Hmmm! I suppose there's nothing wrong with an early start, but I really wasn't expecting this one.
Tomorrow I will attempt to climb Rucu Pinchincha, with a head start from the teleferiqo. I'm being told that from the top of the teleferiqo, at 4000m or so, it's only a 3-4hr slow walk to 4600m. Great acclimatization. Just what the doctor ordered. I figure a couple of days like this and I'll be ready for a bigger, higher & harder destination.
Oh yes, and I can now say that I've tried Mate de Coca, aka coca leaf tea. If you divert the leaves used for cocaine production (including intermediate stages that involve a gasoline bath) and instead brew the same leaves in some hot water, you get a pretty nice cup of tea.
