I cannot stand long bus rides any longer. A lot has changed since I last traveled in August. Now that I am making a lot more money it has changed some fundamentals of traveling. My time is now far more valuable than money and so if I can get somewhere faster (i.e. airplane) I will do it regardless of price.  Or to frame it differently money is no longer an issue. Why should I take a bus when I can fly?

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I bussed it back to Quito in about 4 hours and checked back into Centro del Mundo in the old town. I even got the same private room…or closet would be a more appropriate term. Not exactly the accommodation you would get in any normal hotel special offers. Usually you have some space to move! In most cases, at least. At least the company was better. Once in the hostel I chatted with an American couple and a few Chileans. In my notes when I wrote “pretty boring” but have since run into the American couple here in Bogota and have had some great conversations with them. So maybe I was actually the one who was boring the night I first met them?

The next evening during a boring TV watching session I was eying the crowd trying to see if anyone looked like they were up for a night out. Many people are content to stay inside and just talk but to my surprise an Israeli guy, Mark, asked if anyone was interested in going out.  And that’s how I made a great new friend!

Mark (Israel), I, and a Chilean guy Joaquin were a good fit for going out. All three of us had no interest in going out in the “Zona” where all the trendy bars and foreigner filled cheap discos were. We wanted to try the best nightlife in Quito and landed at a club called “CientoOchentaDos” (182) a short taxi ride away. I have never seen a better looking collection of people in my life. This includes discos in Brazil, Colombia, Canada, etc. It looked as if everyone was a model and the three of us could not stop staring.

The following night we found another fun guy from Portugal to make us a group of four. It was such a relief that all of us were on the same page. Cost was not an issue which is a nice thing when it’s pretty common to get stuck going out with other foreigners who would rather walk around for an hour rather than pay a $5 cover to get into a place.

This night we went to another disco outside of the “Zona” which was called Flashback. The name gives it away as it turned out to be a nice disco filled with people in their 30’s to 50’s. It was still a nice place with tons of people and a live cover band playing hits from the 80’s which I can’t pretend I really knew all that well. Being the youngest guy there I was naturally a target for some of the women. One even played the bait and switch game leaving me with her less attractive friend. I can’t believe she really thought she could pull that trick and not expect me to walk away. Regardless it was a great night that ended back at the hostel where the four of us shared stories until 6AM.

On Saturday night it was our last hurrah together. This time we chose another great disco away from all of the cheap backpackers called Juliana. This was more of a middle ground between the previous to disco with most people being in their 20’s rather than 40’s, and a more normal looking group. I quickly struck up a conversation with a very cute student named Diana. We danced salsa and reggaeton together for the next few hours until the club closed.

Overall another great weekend in Ecuador with some great new friends.

I can’t decide if I enjoyed Wednesday night or Friday night more because both were a blast. On Friday night I limited myself to just a quarter of a cup of rum and coke. I originally planned to attend a birthday party that night.  While working at a café during the day I met an Ecuadorian guy my age, Henry, who invited me to come to a friend’s birthday that night at one of the discos.

But after just a little bit of free rum and coke I left with Thierry, a 30 some year old French speaking Swiss man that night instead who invited me to come out for some drinks with some friends from a jungle tour he had returned from that day.

We met this odd mix of people at the main plaza for drinks. There was a cool 50+ Irish man, a rude 70+ Canadian woman, a nice mid 20’s Welsh woman, and a 50+ Swiss man.

Thierry was a lot of fun to go out with because together we had a great time meeting different women, starting with a pair of Ecuadorians at the bar for a few minutes until I went to help out the Irishman with his bill. He was not expecting to pay $8 for his Cuba Libre drink and so I acted as his translator.

We headed to a restaurant after the bar and that is where I received my first hint that there was something off with the 70+ Canadian women, Angela. During a pleasant conversation with all of us she brought up politics.

I hate George Bush. He’s such an idiot. He has done so much wrong in the world. You know America is going down, right? Yeah, it’s really turning into a really a bad country. I mean, Obama is great. But Bush he’s an awful person. America is on the decline. It’s an awful country you know.

She continued with her rant until I told her that I realize people have strong opinions about politics but this is not an appropriate time to talk about it. Surprisingly it is not nearly as common as some might think for travelers to discuss American politics. Nearly everyone I encountered during the past three years of travel are not anti-America and certainly do bring up politics out of the blue like this woman.

We went to the same disco from Wednesday night, Bungalow 6, which was packed as usual. Like at the bar before, Thierry and I headed off from the group and met a pair of Ecuadorian girls that we danced with for a while. And just like Wednesday I had a ton of fun dancing with this Ecuadorian woman to the music:  salsa, reggaeton, etc.

But after some time in walked the girl whose number I got from Wednesday. We made eye contact and smiled so I excused myself to go to the bathroom so I could find the girl who was really more my type. But as it sometimes happens, I screwed myself over when I could not find either girl.

Meanwhile, half of our group had called it a night and left but Angelica, the 70+ Canadian woman stuck around with Thierry, the Welsh girl, and myself until the disco closed at three. Angelica had a ton of energy and I enjoyed watching her dance reggaeton with a few guys a quarter of her age.

The four of us moved on to Blues, an afterhours disco in a different part of the city. As Thierry and I walked around the club I saw a really beautiful girl and so I ditched him to go talk to her.  Her name was Diana and we spent the next hour and half together until she left the disco with her friends. I would like to see her again so I plan to call her this week.

Later on I met the strangest woman and a few days later I still can’t figure out what her deal is. Every ten minutes while we were talking one of her male friends would say hello to her. But instead of the friendly kiss on the cheek it was a kiss on the lips. I think she introduced one of the guys as her brother. Other than this strange behavior she was otherwise an educated, attractive woman dressed normally. I just can’t figure it out.

While we came as three we left as four people in the taxi because Angelica, managed to land herself a younger Ecuadorian man in his late 30’s or he was a prostitute. They went back to her hotel together.

All was well in a hostel dorm room full of 8 people. That was until one-by-one each of us fell asleep. But a little past 2AM we all began to wake one-by-one because of one Brazilian guy snoring like a pig. Eventually all 7 of us were wide awake wanting to punch this guy in his mouth.

I know everyone was awake because in this room you could hear anytime someone tossed around in their bed. Plus all of the “dios mio” being cried from other beds in the room. I hoped someone would be brave enough to get out of bed and wake him.

Some time passed and he continued to snore while I continued to hear by hostel mates frustration. I counted to 10, put on my shirt, and stepped out of my bed to walk a few steps to the bed with the snorer.

“Hey….hey….come on”, I whispered loudly.

My words made no difference. I started pushing him lightly until he woke.

“English o Espanol”, I asked.

The girl beside his bed said espanol when he did not respond so I told him in my rusty Spanish,

“El sonido de tu nariz es muy alta y nadie puede dormir”

In english it means the sound from your nose is really loud and nobody can sleep. He did not respond but for the rest of the night he did not make a sound. A few minutes ago one of the girls in the room came over and thanked me for waking him, making me a dorm room hero.