We aren't in Kansas anymore!

 Buenos Dias,  mi amigos y familia!

Sorry for the delay in updating this, but we had some acclimating to do.  The flight to Quito, Ecuador was uneventful.  After heading through customs and picking up our luggage, we attempted to purchase SIM cards for our phones.  No success there as my phone was brand new and not "unlocked" and for whatever crazy reason, Marco's phone wouldn't recognize the new SIM.  I think it was probably a miscommunication between the gringos and the young girl who didn't speak English.  We then went to the rental car desk to pick up our Rinault Logan 4-door (think Toyota Camry, except not) rental car.  The rental car package included a GPS which was good since we couldn't use our phones for that, but the street and house numbering down here was a little tricky to pick up on.  

We found our Hostal, the Don Quijote and checked in.  It was about what you'd expect when you hear "Hostal."  A room with a bed and a bathroom, but there was a restaurant two doors down and they provided us with a delicious meal that consisted of steak or pork, rice, avocado, soup and a drink for $6!!!

The next day, we headed to the mall to get the cell phone situation sorted out and were finally able to get a SIM card for Marco and we bought a burner phone for me.  The mall here was really nice, like probably nicer that the Oaks Mall in Gainesville.  I saw a Benetton clothing store which I hadn't seen since middle school days.  They even had a Burger King!

We also realized very quickly that our Spanish is absolutely awful.  Marco had a better grasp on communicating than me, but I was able to ask where the bathroom was.  LOL

Quito is the biggest city in Ecuador with approximately 1.5 million people.  The ones that are brave enough to actually drive are batshit crazy.  Just because the road has lines, doesn't really mean a hill of beans and if you are in someone's way, they will honk and pass or ride your ass until you pull over. 

Two nights in Quito was enough for us.  Quito's elevation is about 9000ft and I was experiencing altitude sickness, which was just mostly feeling winded, like all the time, and I had a headache and a little bit of vertigo.  Nothing some good ol' Ibuprofen couldn't take care of.  

We packed up and headed out to the coast.  This was the most beautiful scenery!  Mountains and jungle and rivers, we even saw a waterfall!  Now, if we thought the driving in Quito was crazy, let me tell you the driving on the mountain roads was absolutely insane.  Buses would pass on curvy roads, people riding your ass on a downhill, if I was driving, I would have been crying.  

Up until now, the food has been different, but still identifiable and edible.  Every meal, so far, has come with soup and rice.  Let me introduce you to a delicacy of Ecuador... cuy.  Cuy is Guinea Pig.  The cute little furry creatures that kids have as pets.  We stopped at a place for breakfast that had this on the menu.  Not only that, they had a little cage in the parking area where they were kept.  I guess it was sort of like, picking out your lobster at Red Lobster, but still a hard pass for me.  A few hours later we stopped at a road side for lunch and of course, soup was the first course, but this time, there was what looked like raw chicken in it.  Except, it couldn't be chicken because the bone was way too big to be from a chicken.  So we asked (side note: don't ask, if you don't want to know) and were advised that it was beef.  Baby beef.  So, it was veal.  Um, ok?  The soup part was delish, but we both "sampled" the meat and it wasn't for us.

We arrived at the coastal city of Montanita after dark and there was a very "Daytona Beach" vibe happening.  The place was packed and it felt very festive.  One thing about Ecuador is that almost everyone heads to the coast for the weekend.  Like, Every. One.  All those buses we saw in the mountains? Yep, headed to the coast.  Here's where we ran into some more small issues; the place that we booked, told us they didn't have our reservation and they were not even willing to work with us on this.  So, we both hit the inter webs and found another place that was close by.  It was much pricier than the other place, but they did have hot water (in these parts, this is a huge luxury) and a couple of cats and an adorable husky.  After driving for 12+ hours, we grabbed a shower, found a cute AirBnB for the next day and fell into bed. 

The sun came up on a new day and we packed up the car and headed out for some breakfast and to check things out.    

Check out the next post for the update!