Ecuador in a whirlwind

All in all, I had 5 full days in Ecuador and 6 nights, which isn´t nearly enough to see such a jam-packed country. The tourist industry boasts that even though it is the 2nd smallest country in South America, an adventurous tourist can do a huge range of activities. And unfortunately, I didn´t get to do nearly all. What I did do was explore Quito, explore some surrounding towns, and make some friends. Quito is a really cool city, though not my favorite. It´s huge and has a wide range of neighborhoods, from quiet and ancient, to modern and lively. It´s also pretty catholic, so there are gorgeous old churches all over, especially in the old section. While it was nice for us to explore the city a bit, my favorite part of being in Quito was going out at night. On the plane ride over, I sat next to an Ecuadorian who moved to Miami 8 years ago for college. He was going back to visit his mother and friends, so invited us out for a couple nights. I decided during these adventures that clubbing in Quito, and probably many other Latin American locations, is way more fun than in the US or Europe, mainly because most clubs play a mix of all the popular music in the region (salsa, reggaeton, house...), so you never get bored. It was also fun to get to know some natives of the city, they could show us around a lot better than we could do ourselves. Also, one of his friends is a super-famous soccer player. That was neat.
Other than Quito, we went to the equator and a small indigenous town called Otavalo. The equator has a really cheesy town/complex built around the wrong site. It´s about 200 meters off. On the real equator there is a lesser-known, way-cooler museum about indigenous life and the freaky ¨science¨ experiments you can do on the equator. For instance, water draining clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the north. The best part of this was the guide would say ¨and now lets move to the northern hemisphere¨ and we´d walk 4 feet. Otavalo was really just a place for some shopping. They have a famous handicrafts market there. But it was also nice to see the country side outside Quito. After I left Quito I spent 3 days bussing down to Lima, 31 hours total of being on the bus, not including the 4 hours we waited when the bus broke down. I´m glad I did it, but I doubt I will ever opt to do that again. Like the Mark Twain quote. In Lima, I met two friends, Aimee and Rocheene, and thus began the next stage of the adventure.