Quito, Mi Nuevo Amor! (:

It has been six days and I am still here. Six. And I haven't blogged once. In other words, this is the greatest city I have ever visited and I have been way to busy to sit and blog.

Day one: My Austrian boys and I walked around the beautiful city.

(A pine tree that looks like a palm tree!)

I was absolutely amazed by all the people who smiled and said hello. Such beautiful people! :)

We visited an art museum...

...and got interviewed by some school kids for an English class.

Then we rode the cable cars up 4,800 meters to the mountain overlooking the city. 

It was so incredible - so silent, and strange, knowing there is so much noise an activity below. 

The sun shone on the mountains and the clouds came rolling in. So tranquilo.

Quito is like no city in the world - only around five kilometers wide, and over 40 kilometers wide. We couldn't see the end!

On the mountain there was some Christians having a little worship service. I joined them and they all hugged me and welcomed me to Quito.

Later, we ate at little local comedor with a wonderful $2 meal. This place quickly became my favorite!

(My cook!)

Then, we chilled in the park with hundreds of relaxed Ecuadorians. Several came and talked to us. The park has become one of my favorite hang out spots in Quito.

(A shoe shiner in the park. Tons of little boys walk around with black hands and bottles of shoe polish, looking for shoes to shine for $1.)

Day two: My super awesome travel buddies left me. :( But I met a girl from Spain and we climbed up another hill to the virgin statue where we could see the other side of Quito.

As always, the view was amazing.

On the top, there were food stands and vendors, and other very touristic things...

After descending the hundreds of steps, we again ate at the comedor. And it finally happened - there was a chicken foot in the chicken soup!

Thankfully, the woman exchanged it for beef.

Side note - her kids are absolutely adorable...

 

That night I met up with a guy from couchsurfing. He showed me a bit of the town and we talked about travel, and then, he gave me a ride on his motorcycle! One thing checked off my bucket list - ride a motorcycle in Ecuador. It was pretty exhilarating speeding between the crazy car drivers. 

Day three: Jorgina and I took a two hour bus ride to Mindo where we hiked through the woods and saw some really cool butterflies and other jungle things...

And this is how Ecuadorians cross rivers...

They sit in a little box on strings and pull a little rope to move! It was a little intimidating above the rushing river.

Day four: I randomly met a guy in the park because we were both listening to the street preachers and musicians.

We spent the afternoon walking around Quito. He introduced me to two very strange local things - a milky drink with something like rice in it, and a food kind of like an empanada filled with meat, but it was somewhere around 15 inches long. We couldn't eat it all...

And day five: Futbol!!! I FINALLY got to see a real football game, and it was incredible! 

The fans sang pretty much the whole time, and were so into the game. Unfortunately there were no goals, so I didn't get to experience that craziness, but it was epic anyway...

So, Quito in a very small nutshell. I don't want to leave...:)