Brewer?!? I barely even know ´er!
Saludos desde Riobamba! Things in Ecuador are still going very well and very smoothly so far...I slept well in Quito and woke up earliesh, made some calls, ate breakfast (french toast) then headed to the bus station. As soon as I got out of my taxi, I was led to a bus headed for Ambato, which left shortly afterwards. The bus driver was very speedy (maybe a bit too speedy) but we got to Ambato in just over 2 hours. Hailey and I planned to meet up near the bus station, and I had to wander around a bit before I found her. After I found her, we went to a small restaurant so I could have some soup (chicken soup with chicken, potato, rice/quinoa and a nice broth with cilantro and scallions). Then we took a bus to Riobamba. The bus rides were all pretty uneventful, but it was nice having company on the last part of the trip. We got to Riobamba at 3 PM and headed to my host family`s house. It was very nice to see them again, we sat and chatted for a while with my host mother, then Hailey and I headed out to explore the city a bit.
Hailey and I decided to stay in a hotel for the night since there wasn`t an extra bed in my host family´s house, so we went and chose a hotel called El Tren Dorado. Got a nice room for 8 dollars each...not super cheap but very nice and comfortable. After checking in, we walked around Riobamba...weather was chilly and a bit rainy. We first went to Helados de Paila, a very good ice cream place that has lots of tropical flavors of ice cream. I had guayaba and coco and Hailey had guayaba and mora. We walked around more, window shopping, chatting....on the way back toward my host family´s house we passed by La Condamine, the big market where my host family does their shopping and where I have spent lots of time on previous trips. I was very surprised to find that the market has changed drastcially. Instead of a plain roof covering a disorganized, dirty market, there is now a 2 story building divided into different sections (vegetables, fruit, chicken, meat, clothes, etc). It actually looks very nice and is probably a lot more pleasant a place for everyone involved, but I do think it may have lost a bit of its character. Oh well. I`ll probably take some pictures in the next few days which I`ll try to post here eventually.
At sunset, Hailey and I returned to my host family´s house and went up to the roof with Paco (my host brother) to see the nice view of the mountains. Then we came downstairs, had dinner with my family and hung around chatting until about 10 PM. My host mother baked a chocolate cake which was very good. Eventually Hailey and I took a taxi back to the hotel, both slept well and enjoyed nice hot showers this morning.
Hailey is leaving to head back to Quito today, so our time together was short but fun. Paco left on a school trip to the Oriente today, he`ll be back on Saturday. On Monday, I´ll be leaving for the Oriente too (to Tena) where I am going to be working as a volunteer for a jungle-tour company that is based there. Sounds like it is gonna be an awesome experience, and I`ll be there at least until the end of February working as an interpreter and teaching English. Nothing is for sure yet, since there are some details I still don`t know, but it looks very very likely that things will work out great.....so starting on Monday I`ll be living in the jungle! I`m excited already for the warm weather, since Riobamba is a bit frio. There will definitely be more updates about this soon....
Hailey and I decided to stay in a hotel for the night since there wasn`t an extra bed in my host family´s house, so we went and chose a hotel called El Tren Dorado. Got a nice room for 8 dollars each...not super cheap but very nice and comfortable. After checking in, we walked around Riobamba...weather was chilly and a bit rainy. We first went to Helados de Paila, a very good ice cream place that has lots of tropical flavors of ice cream. I had guayaba and coco and Hailey had guayaba and mora. We walked around more, window shopping, chatting....on the way back toward my host family´s house we passed by La Condamine, the big market where my host family does their shopping and where I have spent lots of time on previous trips. I was very surprised to find that the market has changed drastcially. Instead of a plain roof covering a disorganized, dirty market, there is now a 2 story building divided into different sections (vegetables, fruit, chicken, meat, clothes, etc). It actually looks very nice and is probably a lot more pleasant a place for everyone involved, but I do think it may have lost a bit of its character. Oh well. I`ll probably take some pictures in the next few days which I`ll try to post here eventually.
At sunset, Hailey and I returned to my host family´s house and went up to the roof with Paco (my host brother) to see the nice view of the mountains. Then we came downstairs, had dinner with my family and hung around chatting until about 10 PM. My host mother baked a chocolate cake which was very good. Eventually Hailey and I took a taxi back to the hotel, both slept well and enjoyed nice hot showers this morning.
Hailey is leaving to head back to Quito today, so our time together was short but fun. Paco left on a school trip to the Oriente today, he`ll be back on Saturday. On Monday, I´ll be leaving for the Oriente too (to Tena) where I am going to be working as a volunteer for a jungle-tour company that is based there. Sounds like it is gonna be an awesome experience, and I`ll be there at least until the end of February working as an interpreter and teaching English. Nothing is for sure yet, since there are some details I still don`t know, but it looks very very likely that things will work out great.....so starting on Monday I`ll be living in the jungle! I`m excited already for the warm weather, since Riobamba is a bit frio. There will definitely be more updates about this soon....
posted by DMP @ 7:39 AM
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