Vacation Story

It took me a while to finally get around to it but here’s my vacation story. My vacation made me realize that even the lower class in the US lives better than the lower class in Ecuador.

Ecuador is a land of extremes. In Quito, the weather is cold and the area is mountainous. It’s so cold that the Volcano Cotopaxi is snow-capped. People don’t have heating systems in their houses, so if you leave a gallon of lukewarm water on the kitchen counter overnight, the bottle will be like if it was refrigerated in the morning. It’s so sucky taking a shower for this same reason. The water would never stay warm for over 5 mins, and when you got out of the shower, it’d be freezing.
Not only do you have to suffer from the cold, but I also got altitude sickness. I went from living in Florida, where we’re right at sea level to 9,500 ft above sea level. If I wanted to snuggle myself up in the covers, I had to take a breather afterwards because I would run out of air. One night I wanted to cry because my stomach’s walls were burning and I couldn’t cry. If I tried to cry, my chest would start heaving like if I had been running for a mile, haha.

Something that made me laugh though is the Middle of the World. It’s this touristy area where the Equator passes through. I’ve always been told in school that the area around the Equator was supposed to be really warm. Well, I stood on the Equator and it was fucking cold. They lied.

Anyways, two hours away from Quito is Santo Domingo de los Colorados (Direct translatos: Saint Domingo of the Reds). I was loving it there. The weather was warm and not too humid. The area is like a city mixed with the indigenous. On one side, it’s bustling with the activity of cars and people, and on the other, the Tsachila (or the Reds) live there. I have many pictures of them for you to see.

Then we went to Riobamba, which isn’t that far from Quito, so it’s cold too.

Anyway, the story continues on with pictures from here on.

This was where we first stayed at in Quito. It’s the Hotel Patio Andaluz. It was originally the home of the first president of Quito, and it was converted into a hotel later on.

My mom and my sister.

My family

This is the back of the hotel

This is Quito

This is the Market Place in Riobamba:

I wanted to take all the animals home with me

This kitty is sleeping on top of a rice bag with a picture of a dog, haha.

The indigenous women didn’t want to have their picture taken. They wanted us to buy the tomatoes they were selling. She changed her mind when I gave her a dollar.

I don’t know how you call these in English, but they’re fruit.

She was selling watermelon.

I thought this was funny. It’s on the way back to Quito. It says: “Don’t smoke marijuana, sell it to the Americans.”