A post from Friedi adding a few extra thoughts to our Quito experience.
We left Quito a few days ago and are now in Baños. There are a few things about Quito that add to my liking of it. I enjoyed the randomness of this city: there are a lot of small stalls where people sell all sort of different things (mostly sweets, drinks or fruits). There are also those people which have the goods hanging around them or carrying them- and whenever the sun shines all of a sudden everyone sells ice cream but as soon as there is the first raindrop they offer you umbrellas and there is no sign of ice cream! (according to a taxi driver the weather in Quito changes as quickly as a women’s mood – haha). It also took us a bit to figure out how the bus system works here: they stop whenever you want to hop on or off… well they only totally stop when you are old or carrying a child, but otherwise you need to be up for a little jog! While on the bus people come in and sell you goods such as cds, fruits, scratch cards etc.
During the whole week in Quito I have only seen 2 prams and there were way more children than that!! Ecuadorians seem to carry their children- either on their backs or more commonly just on their arms and they are being wholly covered with a blanket. Then you see people carrying a lawnmower on their bike and most taxis have no seatbelts and they drive sooo quickly.
Furthermore we learnt a few interesting things about Ecuadorian tribes- there is still a tribe which hasn’t been in contact with civilisation yet and another one was only discovered and contacted about five years ago. Until 50 years ago they killed people and made “shrunken heads” out of their enemies chiefs as a trophy. My “shrunken head” would be as big as my fist! Nowadays they only shrink animal heads.
One last discovery we made here: you do not put your toilet paper in the toilet but put it in the provided bin next to the toilet. Therefore ALL the toilet paper is perfumed! Every time I blow my nose I have a scented smell in my nostrels…
Overall we really liked Quito although it is not a particularly pretty city (maybe except the Old Town) and the smelly exhaust fumes are sometimes unbearable. Somehow Quito has an atmosphere which we enjoyed. Now we are looking forward to the “greener” side of Ecuador. Buenos noches!
Baños seems to be a strange name for a city. Doesn’t that mean restrooms?
The thing with the toilet paper in the bin I learnt in Cuba and Mexico as well. They seem to have problems with the drains in Central America
have fun!
And in Asia as well for that matter …
Fun with toilets one can have around the globe
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At least you have real toilets and not the “holes” I encountered in Africa!
Weather in Leipzig also changes really quickly right now. Seems to me a little bit like April! And what did the taxi driver mean with “like a woman’s mood”??? tsts! Take care you two!! Grüßeeeeeeeee!
PS.: Nice Partner Look, hahah!!
banos can also mean “baths”- and i think thats where the town got its name from: there are loads of pools with (apparently) healing water…
its really confusing to ask for toilets there though!
i dont mind the “different” toilets- im just always afraid an animal will crawl up there…euw!