As most of you know I’ve been taking a little break from traveling the last few weeks.  After visiting Nepal for a couple months I made a marathon push through India (30hrs on busses, 30hrs on a train, followed by a 20hr flight) to make it home in time for a family reunion.  I arrived smelly, black-eyed, and 20lbs lighter, and definitely ready for a few days off.  While I love traveling (obviously), after 7 months on the road I was looking forward to spending a little down  time with friends and family. 

And my time at home was great.  A big thanks to all of you that I was able to see while back, and to those that I wasn’t able to connect with, how does next weekend in Quito sound?   It was awesome to be able to do a few normal things that I had missed: movies, drinks with friends, biking, and spending all day online and playing video games.  I seemed to have stayed just long enough to get comfortable and out of traveling mode (i.e., changing my underwear more than once a week).

So now I’m back on the road for 8 months of travel in South America, starting with Quito, Ecuador.  Quito is about as nice as any Latin American capital could hope to be, with a mix of colonial beauty and crime.  The old town area has picturesque cobblestone streets, wide plazas and plenty of churches.  My personal favorite is the Basilica del Voto Nacional, decorated with iguanas and armadillos instead of gargoyles, and whose bell towers can be climbed like a playground, with wobbly wooden bridges and rebar ladders leading to crumbling a guardrail-free peaks.

After getting a few recommendations I’ve signed up for some Spanish language classes for the next week.  Pointing and smiling got me fine through Asia, but apparently the folks around here expect a little more.  The fact that most of the other people traveling though here seem to speak flawless Spanish isn’t making me look any better either.  I’ll be kicking off some salsa lessons as well, and by this time next week I plan to be amazing at both.  One of the great thing about traveling is that you can take the time to learn things like this while far away from the jokes and laughter of the people you know.

Categories: Ecuador, Travel