"Si Se Puede"

Sorry it has taken so long for an update. It has been a very busy week.

9-6-08

I woke up the next day at 9am. Ate breakfast and just relaxed before the game. By noon we were dressed in our yellow Ecuador jerseys and got to cheer for "our" country against Bolivia. We took the bus about 45 minutes to the stadium. The game was incredible. Ecuador won 3-1 and all 40,000 fans were very happy. After the game we went back to the hostel (not before stopping for empenadas) and were ready to take salsa lessons. Unfortunately only about six of us were dancing, but it was still fun. The teacher said I was good, which as a white guy with 2 left feet, that is quite a compliment. After the dancing I went online to see that Arizona beat mighty Toledo and that made me happy. Although I didn't really want to go out, we decided it was our last night in Quito and went to "No Bar" which is a dance club in the new city (aka Gringo Landia). Without going into details it was a good night, followed by an awful 9am wakeup.

9-7-08

We packed up and took a truck the 30 miles to Cotopaxi Volcano. Two and half hours later (roads are not great here) we arrived at the hostel which has the most incredible view of the entire landscape and the volcano itself. The hostel is the owner's home which he bought about 2 years ago. There are a few bungalows with really comfortable bunk beds. I just basically sat in one of the hammocks most of the day and read and just enjoyed the scenery. The property has chickens, a pig, a sheep, rabbits, turkeys and guinea pig (aka cuy) which I have yet to try. All the food is home cooked and the meals have tasted great so far. We met a German family which we debated on the age of the son and daughter, but we think they were both in their early twenties. We discussed how it was interesting that they were doing a trip and staying in hostels like this, since I don't see many Americans doing something like this. They taught us how to play this card game that was fun. I lost but I was functioning on very little sleep. If I were rested I would have won easily. We went to bed early and now I am sitting writing in my journal about to take the bikes down to the river to go fishing. I'll update when I catch 10 trout. So maybe I will never update.