The Key to Quito

Quito reminds me a little bit of parts of other Latin American countries. It´s similar to La Paz, Bolivia, because it´s way high up. We´re at about 9,000 feet. As a result, the days start out nice and by the late afternoon, cloud up and the temperaturees drop to the low 50´s. The sky darkens and there´s a daily thunderstorm. The thunder is impressively loud, and the rain is about as heavy as it gets. The only thing one can do is find a place indoors to sit it out. It´s usually over in an hour or two. But during that period of time, the streets fill up with water, traffic comes to a standstill; it´s pretty impressive. I suspect the weather is so dramatic because we are so high up and the thunder clouds must be so close to the ground.

Quito also reminds me a bit of Cuzco in the sense that there´s the gringo side of town ("Mariscal") and the rest of Quito. Unfortunately, the guide books are full of warnings like, "Don´t go here after dark; don´t go there after dark; and don´t go west of this street anytime at all." For that reason, most foreigners tend to park in hotels/hostals in the Mariscal area. This neighborhood is upscale by Ecudador standards.

Mariscal is a great place to meet fellow travelers, but you certainly aren´t going to rub elbows with the natives. Perhaps that´s for the better, since after rubbing, you might end up missing your elbow. The advantage of living in this "Gringoland" area of Quito is that it is relatively safe. In addition, there are all sorts of great restaruants, internet cafes, and regular cafes offering REAL coffee (Good bye, Nescafe!). For the young crowd, it´s marvelous as well because each block has numerous bars and discos and the party is on every night.

Columbia and Venezuela are probably the two most dangerous countries in South America for nationals of that country. There are robberies, murders, kidnappings, and all sorts of terrible stuff. For foreign tourists, however, Ecuador takes the prize for being the most dangerous. Fortunately, for us gringos, violent crime to tourists is relatively rare. This is balanced out however by the high rate of non-violent theft.

I had an interesting conversation with the English owner of a bookshop here in Quito. He said based upon his reading of the local papers, conversations with tourists, etc., he figures 70% of tourists are victims of theft while in Ecuador. Unfortunately, I´m one of them and from my conversations with fellow gringos, I think his evaluation is correct. The young lady at the South America Explorers Club tells me, based upon her conversations with members of the club, she thinks the number is higher than 70%. Ouch! Everyone seems to agree that you don´t walk around the streets with any more than about $10 on you, and expect to lose that. A great marketing opportunity would be for a local tailor to put ads up in all the hostals here in Gringoland offering to put zippers and/or velcro on all pòckets!

While the English bookseller and I were talking, a local kid about 18-20 came in to the shop and asked the owner if he could change a $10 bill. The owner opened up his till and said "Sorry, no I can´t." The Ecuadoran snorted sort of derisively and walked out. "That´s typical," said the Englishman, who was a little peeved. "First they grovel and beg and whine and plead. Then when you don´t do what they want they act nasty." There was indeed a definite change of attitude in the young man. But to what extent that offers some some insight into anything, I don´t know. But I pass it on for what it´s worth.

Gringoland is considered by the young travelers here as a good place to headquarter while planning trips elsewhere. Most of the sights worth seeing are out of town. One way to get there is to simply take a public bus and it would cost about $1 an hour to get to wherever. The problem with that is that the bus station is located in a bad part of town and the crime rate there is very high for tourist-victims.

As a result, all the travel agencies here in Gringoland, and there are a number of them, offer van rides to the same places for $50 and up, advertising that it´s the "safe" way to get there. My guess is that the gringos divide up about 50-50. Half put their money in their sock and take the public bus. The rest opt for the gringo van. The general impression of most gringos is that the landscape of Ecuador is beautiful; the people are not. I think some of this criticism is valid. However, so much of the negative reaction is attributable, I blelieve, to the fact that most big cities in Latin America, particularly where they´re crowded with tourists, are not particularly attractive. Walking down the street while gringo is like making an object of exploitation out of yourself. People will try to pick your pocket by selling you junk or by sleight of hand. Perhaps after 5 centuries of exploitation in the other direction, paybacks are understandable.

In retrospect, I´m glad that I experienced Ecuador at the end of my trip and not at the beginning. Tomorrow, I return to California (!), which feels very strange indeed. I hope you enjoyed some of these missives.

Hasta luego.