El Centro del Mundo

The long journey finally had an end and we arrived in Quito somewhen in the afternoon. A 6$ cab ride to the old part of the city opened a wide range of opportunities to rest our head during the nights to come and a simple look into the Lonely Planet guidebook saved us a long search for a decent accommodation.

The hostel of choice was „El Centro del Mundo“ situated near one of the old towns big veine, Calle Reina Victoria and right in the middle of the Zona Rosa. It was chosen by our travel accompanies because it was said to have the best value for money. After a whole week of staying there I can say we definitely had some sick times there, unhealthy but PHUN!!!

The 5 of us got a 6er dorm room to ourselves and as it was already evening we just dropped our stuff and started to mingle with the other Hostel guests.

One of them was Russ, an american from a state I don´t remember, that was currently on holiday in Quito.

(But seriously, it´s not like any of the states mean anything to us Europeans anyway… We might have heard about a few states and know a thing or two or have even been there ourselves. But come on guys, if I told anyone I was born in Schleswig-Holstein, lived in Nordrhein-Westfalen, studied in Baden-Württemberg and now live in Berlin-State/ Berlin-City, no one would remember anything but Berlin…)

Anyways, Russ graduated in a town near Quito within a year of exchange to Ecuador and now studies international affairs in Cali/ Colombia. He´s the first american I have ever come across in my live that has a sophisticated knowledge and moreover an interest in other countries and doesn´t idealize his country of origin. Maybe it has a lot to do with his field of study, but still you need the right attitude to go into tht direction in the first place.

He started of by telling us a story how he got robbed twice, the day he arrived only 5hrs earlier in Quito.

Another hostel guest was David, from Quebec, Canada, who was (unusually) able to speak veeeeeery nice english, not like the Froggy-Canadians that have the same fucked up attitude towards learning english like our lovely neighbours. I know I´m stereotyping here, but sadly that´s the unpleasant truth.

So we got together and started of with looking for some beers, and because Sunday apparently is a holy day, on that according to a new law, no one may consume or sell alcohol, we needed to be sneaky to get some hops on.

The aged senorita round the corner in a minimarket was unholy enough to sell us some beers, but the suspicious police officers, which whom the city is absolutely plastered with, would most likely not let us carry our brewskies into the hostel, if they saw us walking the street.

Russ was the man of the hour, and had the brillant idea to call a cab, stop in front of the hostel and run in. Luckily, the plan worked, none of us got punished with jail for breaking the Sunday-alco-law and we could celebrate arrival in Quito.

The next few days were mainly spend by getting up just in time for breakfast, hand around in the TV-room a bit, play pool in the backyard of the hostel and maaaaaaaaybe even cook a dish ort wo to keep the stomache filled. The nights were mainly spend by hanging around the common area, playing card or dice games and enjoy the benefits of the hostel: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays a bucket of 12L free Rum & Coke was given to the guests. And on any other days we would get ourselves a bottle of Rum for only 3$ and a bottle of Coke for 2$. Even staff got hammered… J (just kidding)

Of course we also went out to discover the big city and checked out the new town to see streets, cathedrals and markets, but clearly we could have done more.

One of the reasons why we stayed in much, was the fact that it rains every day in Quito, similar to Bogotá, Quito is a city that is rammed into the mountain ridge and hence clouds are about all the time. We only had two days without rain, and these were mild and really nice, but during the other days, rain kept pouring down and washed away everything on the street.

Thursday there was the final match of the Copa del Sur Tournament, in which LIGA Quito played against Unversitaria de Chile. As you can imagine it was a BIG game and moreover took place in Quito. Russ, David and we wanted to go to the stadium with one of Russ’ friends, but cancelled that plan, as we found out the tickets were too expensive. Instead we got on the piss 3hrs before the match in a bar just round the corner from our hostel. A few other friends of Russ came by and we literally owned the 3 tables that wes at on, including the television. Despite the fact that LIGA lost, weh ad a great evening and were ready to paint the town. A quick visit into the PACHA Club for 2 hours of all you can drink once more sealed the deal and we moved on to another place where they kicked us out around 2:30am.

The following days were mainly used to coordinate ourselves and get the jobs going that Chris and I were checking on the side. He had an job interview and of course nailed it. The job would include marketing work for a cruise liner company, selling exclusive boat tours to the Galapagos Islands at an expensive 5 grand per ass.

My jobs in Montanita / Ayampe were less exclusive, but more practically orientated. And after calling both companies from the payphone I had a new destination, the south-western coast of Ecuador, to meet up for job interviews. In the end the urge to finally arrive somewhere for a longer period of time and to settle for at least a few months overtook and I packed my things for a last 8hrs ride to Guayaquil, and another 3hrs ride to Montanita.

I had heaps of trouble getting out of the city as all my friends wanted me to stay longer and have a party with them (cuz it was a Saturday night), and when I finally managed to get away and got to the bus station, the last bus at 00:30h was already fully booked and another bus would not leave before 5:30 in the morning. So I got back to the hostel, dropped my things, went back to the disco everyone was at and stayed till 2:30am. The last 3hrs were spent with Russ and David in the common area and when the taxi later dropped me off at the bus station, I got on the bus and slept all the way to Guayaquil, where at 1:30 in the afternoon the bus driver woke me up and wanted to me to finally get the fuck off the bus, as everyone else had already left. The ride to Montanita from there was another 3hrs or sleep and at 6 in the evening I at last celebrated touchdown at the beautiful costline.

To be Continued…