One concept I need to follow more often is not to settle. For the past two days I walked about 10 blocks to the only restaurant I thought was open nearby. So for two days I ate disgusting fried chicken. The kind that is so greasy and fat you just want to vomit it up afterwards.

Naturally on the third day I was more curious and walked a few more blocks to find dozens of better choices open, including restaurant’s overlooking beautiful colonial plazas and also KFC. I settled on a filet minon that day.

I met Carolina on Tuesday night in the new town for some dessert. We drove to a café in Guapalo, a bohemian little section of Quito with cobblestone streets and cafes. It was a strange and terrifying night as some of the street lights and traffic lights were not working. As we drove past broken traffic lights it felt a little like playing Russian roulette. We drove down Guapalo but it was not worth the risk of parking the car in the dark because there is a good chance it will get stolen.

Instead we settled on Crepes Y Waffles, a Colombian restaurant chain I have written about many times. It’s that good. We had a nice time piecing together my birthday night. I learned how great Carolina is to go out with. For example, in the last place when I was dancing with one girl Carolina blocked each guy who wanted to cut in by telling them to back off because it was my birthday. Haha!

On Wednesday afternoon I traveled. I went to a tourist town, Banos,  with an American (Arielle) and a Dutchman (Richard). The Dutchman even had the Richard Von in his name making him really, really Dutch in my mind.  On the way to Banos we passed an overturned truck that spilled bottles of some liquid all over the side of the road.

What do you get for a US$3 haircut? Scissors covered in hair from a previous client and the feeling that the barber might ruin your look at any moment.

I walked into the first barber shop that was open and landed a barber more distracted than the kids with major ADD back in high school. The film, There’s Something About Mary, was playing in the background and while cutting my hair he was fascinated with Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz. He was really watching it. His head was pointed at the TV as he combed my hair to cut, followed by a quick glance back to my head. He cut the strands just as he would move his head back to the TV.

I wanted to yell but on the other hand do I really want to anger the guy responsible for cutting my hair? By the end I was surprised because it turned out really well! This experience was just as exciting for me as a week later when I jumped off a bridge.

My original plan for Monday was to travel. I have not left Quito for the two weeks I have been abroad but Carnaval means my intended destination, Banos, is fully book. Instead of travel I did the next best thing and changed hostels to the Secret Garden at the opposite end of the city. A tip for all travelers is if you find yourself not liking a place then move to a new hotel or hostel for a completely new perspective of a place. Everything changes. I was not immediately impressed with my new hostel. The streets nearby were empty and the hostel was not as nice I had heard. Dinner on the rooftop terrace changed all of this with amazing views of the entire city.

Shots from the roof during the day

The atmosphere completely changed as a few dozen travelers gathered at a big long series of tables for communal dinner. The food was alright but the sparkling city lights and great people made it perfect. This was a wow moment. At dinner I chatted with a few older Americans for a pleasant conversation about Ecuador and life for them back home where they live in the wilderness to make their rafting hobby possible. After dinner I played Texas Hold’em with two Americans and a Dutch guy. The Dutch guy had never played so it turned into a learning experience for all four of us. The most interesting point in the night was someone from the hostel approaching me to say they I looked familiar. Myself and this guy tried to figure out how for a few minutes until we figured it out. The guy, Paul, had been on my 4 day Salar de Uyuni tour in Bolivia last July. While I had finished my trip and gone home for 4 months Paul was still on the road. But for now working at the hostel in exchange for room and board. Paul’s birthday was also that night so by midnight Paul phoned a taxi service to call for a bus.

Paul and I

A school bus that is. The school buses here moonlight as taxis so ten of us (the entire staff and a few of us travelers) rode the school bus to La Mariscal to celebrate. We wound up at an Irish bar and there it was a mini reunion of practically everyone I met in my two short weeks in Quito. I ran into Rafael, the 3^rd culture kid from Italy, Bolivia, and Argentina. Then later on I ran into the American roommate who thanked me for waking the snoring guy one of my first nights. It’s actually not strange I would run into all these people. We as travelers are not as unique as we think and most of the times will go to the same cities, same hostels, and same discos because we hear they are the best. I was not surprised to see people I thought I might never see again for this reason.

On Wednesday my websites worked as usual so I put in a long day of work and then met some travelers for the trice weekly rum and cokes. This is usually the easiest time to meet people. I spoke with people from Israel, Germany, Finland, and the most interesting…a third culture guy. His father is from Argentina, his mother from Bolivia, and he lives in Italy having also lived in those countries for a while. What an upbringing, right?

I enjoyed talking with him the most because his story was different and you know it’s a good conversation when what each person does for a living never comes up in conversation. Likewise, he was not full of clichés like I find with others. For example, he is going to live in an Ecuadorian Jungle town doing some kind work with the people there. But what I like about what he told me is that he’s doing it for himself. For his own experience rather than expecting to “save the world”, which if some of what he does is positive all the better. It’s refreshing to hear this perspective rather than the other in which the person truly believes they will completely improve a town.

I led our group of 4 to a disco around the corner and a bit of fun showing off my intuition. I spotted a group of two girls and approached them with the third culture kid.

“Let me guess…you two are from the United States?
“Yes”

“And you are both here studying abroad”

“Yes”

“At the Universidad de San Francisco”

“Wow, how could you tell all of that?”

I had a good laugh at how easy it is to identify the study abroad students here in Quito. Meanwhile at the disco I did meet an Ecuadorian girl but excused myself after a while and found a German-Asian girl who I taught some salsa (i.e. the basic step). I was interrupted by the pretty German girl we came with who at the time was dancing with the Israeli. In a moment she jumped away from his and then to me. She was pretty but I felt guilty that the Israeli guy had been chatting with her all night. I looked at him with a confused look and he did the same back.

Regardless I danced with her and it was only five minutes later that I realized what a psycho this girl is. Her behavior was really off the wall and I could notice how drunk she had become. I tried to pass her off to the Israeli guy but he had been watching and agreed that she was nuts. So soon enough as I kept trying to get away she spotted the third culture kid with the American girl I had identified before and latched on to him. She followed them around for the next half-hour, literally hanging on to him as he tried to dance with the American girl.

On Monday I worked all day. All day. But I also finished just in time to meet some other travelers. I spoke with a French guy in Spanish for a while which is a good thing because prior to then my encounters with the French were mostly negative.

On Tuesday disaster struck when all three of my websites would not load. This is the kind of problem that is solved with a simple email to my webhost along with another to my “webmaster” in Arizona. I think of it like a snow day. During the night I received no new orders because nobody could order. That gave me the time to stop work early and actually do something touristy.

I took the trole (bus) into the old colonial part of the city and found a colonial looking restaurant. I had to walk down stairs to what looked like a dimly lit cave with lots of Spanish bull fighting decor on the walls and old retired men in suits they must have worn every day straight for the past 20 years, while eating food alone but still talking to each other from across the room.  I ordered a potato cheese soup called locro de queso

and fish ceviche. The ceviche here is slightly different than what you might find in Peru or Miami because they like to put popcorn and fried plantains in it which I think is a nice touch.

I sat in the main plaza after lunch deciding what to do next. I took the trole back to my hostel and saw an advertisement for a spa which meant I got right into a taxi headed right where I had come from.

I had trouble finding it after asking a few different people. It wasn’t until I finally gave up that I saw the spa. I spent the next few hours finishing my book while I sat in a pool, a hot tub, the sauna, steam room etc. It was well worth it! Funny thing though is after all the hate for Herbalife they finally got me. As I was sitting in the hot tub a guy who looked like part of the facility staff asked if I wanted a drink. I got an iced tea and when I went to go pay on my way out it was up the stairs into almost an attic with multiple blenders and the Herbalife people.

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.