Never in America

I took a walking tour of the historical part of Quito on Monday.  The guide hustled us through the first few usual stops because we had to get to the Independence Plaza, the main square.  The government house is on the square and on Monday mornings at 11, they have a ceremonial changing of the guard.  There was the usual pomp and ceremony - soldiers in colonial uniforms, soldiers on horses, a military band.

But here is the amazing thing.  Take a good look at this picture.

The plaza is full of people.  On the balcony in the middle, overlooking the ceremony in the square, are the president and vice president of Ecuador.  Every Monday morning at 11 AM they stand out there and greet the people.  On the balcony this week are the members of Emelec, the team that recently won the national futbol championship of Ecuador.  In the very front, seated in a position of great honor, are students from a random rural area who have most likely never seen the big city and don't know anything about politics.  After the ceremony, they will have lunch with the president.

Students lining up to go into the government building for lunch

Like most places outside the US and Europe, public safety is ... uh ... not very safe.  I'm not talking about the water you can't drink or the air you can't breath.  Sidewalks are uneven.  Steep stairs in public buildings have no banisters.  I thought the park on Sunday was incredible.  There were thousands of people enjoying themselves on uneven soccer fields and cracked basketball courts.  Anyone could dirt bike or skateboard, and there were truly people of all different skill levels.  One idiot was guiding a kid with training wheels on the dirt bike track while the good riders were literally flying by them.  Skateboarders of all different abilities were practicing their tricks, and apologizing if they got in someone else's way.  As far as I could tell, the city provided a place, imperfect and rundown as it might be, and people did what they wanted.

Okay, you can always blame the lawyers.  Is it enough for the city to provide a place?  Once they do that, do they have to guarantee its safety?  And does that mean screening to keep unsafe riders out of the way?  Should everyone sign a waiver?  Is a waiver worth the paper it is printed on?

But the lawyers are only part of the problem.  What I didn't see - at least in my short viewing - was any gang or territorial behavior.  Grown men were riding by six year olds.  No one "owned" the tracks or ramps or looked down on beginners or outsiders.  Kind of like the sack race last week in Montanita, they seem to have an old fashioned idea of good, clean fun.

I mentioned the street performers that I have seen.  They mystify me as well.  First of all, there is always a big circle of people around them, no matter what time of the day or night it is, and no matter where they are.  I have seen them in the middle of the park in the middle of the day, and yesterday I saw a big group around a troupe of three in the square in front of the National Theater.  Like the crowded plaza at the ceremonial changing of the guard, who are all of these people that can hang out for hours in the middle of a work day?  I watched the troupe for fifteen minutes yesterday.  I have no idea how long they had been going on or how much longer they went.  Roughly the plot was a woman who had a fiance and a boyfriend.  No one asked for money.  No one (except for me) left.  It was farcical, almost slapstick, humor that I mostly don't get and the crowd loves.

Some things you just don't see in the US of A.

Sunday in the park in Quito

I am staying in the Mariscal neighborhood in Quito which turns out to be the big party neighborhood.  Within a few blocks of my hotel are dozens of restaurants and discos.  I just couldn't leave the party scene behind in Montanita.  So it was pretty packed here on Saturday night when I first arrived and wandered around.  On Sunday, however, not much is open in Quito.  They forecast rain but it was sunny in the morning, so I hopped on the first double decker tour bus of the day, so I could get oriented to Quito.  It is a huge city, and because it is surrounded by the Andes, it could not grow to the east or west, only north and south.  So you can practically walk across the city, but it takes a loooong time in a car to get from one end to the other.

Quito is not just surrounded by the Andes; it is IN the Andes.  It reminds me a lot of San Francisco with its steep streets and tiered houses.  But ... it is at 9,000 feet elevation.  Walking the hills here is a lot harder than in San Francisco.  Also, as a colonial, World Heritage city, the buildings come right up to the sidewalks and the streets are narrow.  I was amazed that the bus could drive on half the streets.

In the distance you can see the Virgin of Quito, who sits on a hill overlooking the old part of the city.  She is made of aluminum and is a copy of a statue that is in one of the churches in Quito.  The hill is called Panecillo and our guide said that some people erroneously call her the Virgin of Panecillo, but really, the Virgin of Panecillo does not exist.  She is the Virgin of Quito.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that the Virgin of Quito probably doesn't exist either.













The bus tour ended at Parque La Carolina - the Central Park of Quito.  According to the guide, up to 50,000 people come to the park on weekends.  It was still sunny out, so I headed off across the park.  It was amazing.  First, there were dozens of futbol fields -some concrete and some sand - with games on all of them.  Pick-up games or organized leagues?  I don't know.  Then there were dozens of volleyball courts and a few basketball courts, all with games going on.

 

Then I came to a steep hill that people were walking bikes up.  It was the start of the dirt bike track.

Then the local street performers.  I have seen them now in several cities.  Always a few young men, part of whose act involves dressing as women and dancing.  But most of the act is talking and engaging with the audience, and although I understand what they are saying, I never get the humor.

Then came the concrete bowls and ramps for bikes and skateboards.

The sign says:  Whatever you decide to do, be assured that it will make you happy.

There was a lake, a playground for kids, lots of food stands, and botanical gardens.  And finally ...  when the guide on the bus listed the sports people do in the park, he included gymnastics.  Really?  I thought.  Then I came upon an acrobatics class.

There could only have been one thing better than walking through the park on a beautiful Sunday.  I forgot that I had read that they close some streets on Sundays and everyone goes biking.  I could have rented a bike and gone for a ride.

Oh, well.  Next time.

Second week in Montanita ...

Just like the first.  Life moves very slowly in Montanita and, for most people, doesn't begin much before 10 at night.  I got a new teacher and a new classroom this week.  The classroom is on top of the building with a great view.

It is the last week of public school, so the kids have exams, and I only had a few more days to help with their English classes.  It was an interesting experience.

On Saturday, I walked two kilometers to Olon, the next town up the coast.  It is much quieter than Montanita.  On the way, I passed another school that was having some kind of parent-kid field day.  (Why there are two schools within two kilometers of each other, I don't know.  It doesn't seem like the area is that big.)  Anyway, it is like stepping back in time watching the activities and games in Ecuador.  They had relay races with the parents and kids, including a sack race.  You don't see that often back home.

When I got to Olon, I was rather disappointed to see that, like Christmas in Guayaquil, it is sponsored by Pepsi.  Who knew you could sponsor whole villages as well as holidays?

And this sign on a hostel totally mystified me.  Where do they speak Euskera?

I was not surprised to see lots of people playing futbol (soccer) on the beach.  I was surprised to see that the second most popular game here is volleyball.  They don't even need a net, and carrying is legal.  But what really surprised me was to see a game of girls' rugby.  I haven't watched a game since Rachel played rugby at Duke.

It has been mostly overcast in Montanita for at least part of each day.  Friday, my last day here was sunny and beautiful.  It was really tempting to cut classes on that last day, but my Spanish has improved a lot, so off I went.  I got to read in the sun for a couple of hours in the afternoon before leaving for Quito.  But I didn't go right into the city from the airport.  I went two hours north to Otavalo, which has a large regional market, and on Saturdays, it has the largest market in South America.  I spend most of the day wandering around the market, finally arriving in Quito on Saturday night.

Montanita: And another hundred people just got off of the bus

Montanita is a surf town on the Pacific coast of Ecuador that is very definitely on the backpacker circuit.  All of the guidebooks warned that this is a party town and not appropriate for people over the age of 30.  Also, that it was impossible to sleep here because it is so loud.  I thought, how bad could it be?  I never imagined an entire town could be so loud.

I arrived last Saturday and found more life here than in the entire city of Cuenca, parades and all.   Because it is warm here, none of the buildings have front walls, much less doors.  All of the restaurants and clubs are open to the street and all play very loud music.  When you sit in a restaurant, music blares from five directions, and you can't carry on a conversation.  OK, I thought, my cabin is half a mile from town.  I'll be fine.  Well, you can't hear the music at that distance, but you can feel the persistent bass beat.  Last Saturday night was pretty bad and I wondered what I had gotten into.  But Sunday night was much mellower, and it seemed a lot better during the week ... or I had gotten used to the undercurrent of bass beat.

But I'm not complaining.  It is hot, humid, and uncomfortable here - just the way I like it, although some days it is overcast.  I like my hot, humid, and uncomfortable with full sun.  Everyone wears shorts, tank tops, and flip-flops although tops are optional for the men.

Backpackers waiting for the next bus

Backpackers moving on

My cabana

My office

The backpackers are mostly South American with a fair number of Europeans, mostly Swiss and German.  English is the second language in Montanita, but there are not many Americans here.  The language school is considered to be very good so a lot of people stay for a while.  As you can see it is very formal.

The sign says to take off your shoes to go into school.

My classroom

Since this is a outdoor party town, the bars are open air.  The sign says, Welcome to the street of cocktails, and each of the stands is a bar.

Although my class is good, I decided I needed to speak Spanish in a non class setting, so I volunteered to help the English teacher at the local public school.  We are at the end of the school year (it is summer here) so the ninth graders are preparing for graduation.  Like adolescents everywhere, the line of girls walked in perfectly and stood still for ten minutes while the line of boys had to repeat (walking in a straight line, that is, without falling), and at one point had to do push ups.  They are all balancing books or papers on their heads.

Maybe it's a cultural thing, but ... the English teacher seems pretty bad to me.  She has no classroom management skills, so she just keeps talking while the kids talk, move around, and just do whatever they want.  For the first few days, she asked me to help some individual kids, so I did, and other kids came and asked me questions, too.  One day, she asked me to read the words, so the kids could hear them without a Spanish accent.

The kids are learning very simple English, way below the level of my Spanish, so I pretty much explain in Spanish.  They are hardly ready for English immersion.   Yesterday when I got there, the teacher asked me to teach that day's lesson which was too and enough.  (This skirt is too tight.  That box is not big enough.)  Seemed pretty easy and I didn't know why she didn't just teach as she'd been doing and I would help, but I said okay, and started teaching.  After ten minutes, she left the classroom and never came back.  I had to wing it after I finished the exercise in the book.  Then class got over and it was time to go to another classroom.  (The kids stay, and the math and English teachers change rooms.)  She never showed back up.  I went to the other classroom, looked at where they were in their book, and came up with a quick lesson plan.  Oh, well.  Sometimes, you get more than you bargained for.  But this has been good for my Spanish.  The kids' language is not very sophisticated so I understand most of it.  They correct my errors or help me when I don't know a word.  One boy laughed at a mistake I made and I said:  you are learning English and I am learning Spanish, but I don't laugh at your mistakes.  No one laughed at me again.  Fortunately, I had recently learned the word for laughing at someone.

When I left the school yesterday, I told the kids I hoped they had a good weekend.  They told me they had school on Saturday.  Sorry, but it is my day off.  I spent the day reading at the beach although after a few hours, I realized that there was no sun at all.  I sure hope it comes out tomorrow because I have another long day of reading planned.

Leaving Cuenca

They do like their parades in Cuenca.  I had a few hours to walk around on my last day in Cuenca and there was another parade.  Once again, the spectators, particularly the children, were as dressed as those in the parade.  This parade was for the Infantil Migrante (traveling baby?).  I never got a good explanation, but it seemed to have something to do with Jesus and immigrants to the US.  Because that makes a lot of sense.  As do the costumes.

This lady seems to be holding THE infant.  People ran up to her, cried, and threw flower petals at the doll.  I don't get it.

And what is a parade without a little dancing in the street?

It was a short parade.  When it was over, sanitation workers immediately swept up the flower petals, the street was reopened, and that was that.  Ten minutes later, you would not know there had been a parade.