Yesterday we checked into a grotty little hostel in Quito, Ecuador. A few hours before sunset I look up and realize that I have no light switch. I have the plate that guards all the wires and screws, but no physical switch. Just a hole. I walk down stairs and talk to the two managers, Jose and Carlos. Jose is in his sixties, about four feet tall, constantly smiling, and once told me that he was the King of the Americas: North, Central and South. Carlos is much younger, much taller, and everyday he wears a suit jacket, slacks, and rainbow flip flops.
How To Change A Light In Ecuador
Step 1: Put your finger in the open hole to make sure there's no running electric current, and to see if there's a way to get it to work without having to fix it.
Step 2: Swear colorfully as you chip off the paint from the screws that have been there twenty-odd years.
Step 3: Once the plate comes off put some electric tape around the loose wires.
Step 4: Once you realize that you need those wires for the new plate, take off the tape and shock yourself. Then push the wires into their respective holes.
Step 5: At this point you will realize that you have bought the wrong plate, and that there is no way to connect it to the wall. Take a screw, hold it with a pair of scissors, and burn the end using a lighter. Once hot, try to burn a hole through the thick plastic plate. Try again. And again.
Step 6: Once you have failed, pick up your electric tape, tape the switch to the wall, and walk away. Done! You have successfully changed a lightswitch in Ecuador!
I'd be lying if I said Ecuador wasn't a weird country, but maybe that's why we like it so much here. It's way more tranquillo than Colombia, much cheaper, and clean. For those of you who have never been to Latin America before, you might not understand how amazing CLEAN can be. The large majority of Cetral and South America is covered with trash, every road littered to the extent that it makes you sick. Common practice is to throw your trash out the window of the bus when you are finished with it. Mostly this is due to education, or lack thereof, on the subject. Sadly, most people just don't know that throwing your trash on the ground is bad for the environment, pollutes the city, and makes it a worse place to live. I'm not saying that burying it under the ground is a viable solution, but at least we're not walking around in our own filth. Ecuador, by comparisson to its neighbors, is spotless.
Quito, which has a bad reputation outside of Ecuador, is a beautiful capital city of 2.2 million people. There are massive, clean, well-kept public parks all over the city, a great transportation system, a stunning Centro Historico with sprawling plazas and elegant cathedrals. In 2011, Quito was voted Cultural Capital of the Americas. The city center also boasts twenty-seven churches, monasteries and convents, twenty-three plazas and monuments, thirty-four museums, ten cultural centers, and seven theaters. Surrounded by mountains, it's about 9,000 feet above sea level, and for the first few days you will feel constantly out of breath. Sweet little indiginous ladies walk around in delicately embroidered skirts, white blouses, a colorful shall, and for some reason, a fedora. Children laugh and run after pidgeons.
Oh, and when you ask for a cafe con leche (coffee with milk) you'll get a steaming hot cup of milk and a perfume vial of espresso for you to pour in at your leisure.
I assume the budget is tight, but I recommend the Hotel Quito as a great mix of price and quality with nice location. The airliners fly overhead to the airport, but that ends when it gets dark or foggy - which is much of the time.
ReplyDeleteI carried my camera on a long walk once. I got some fun pics, but noticed a large number of passers-by eying my Canon held firmly on my chest with my big arm protecting it. I got the sense that targets of opportunity would be seized.
For a big city, Quito is fine, but not nearly so fine as Buenos Aires. My recommendation for Ecuador is to go anywhere but Quito - not because it is bad, just because the rest is so much better.