Quito!

Well I am offically in Quito, Ecuador right now and it is wonderful. So different than venezuela already.
Friday April 30th
We started the day off taking a taxi at 7 am to the airport in el vigia which is about an hour away. Our flight to caracas was at 10am. Flight was short and easy. We reached caracas at 11am and went through customs which took a ridiculous amount of time because of the sheer amount of people there. But we got our exit stamps and paid our fees. Luckily, I ended up having an excess amount of money which is only valid in venezuela soo we feasted on some american pizza and burgers which i really missed. Our flight out of caracas to quito was at 530pm. The flight barely had anyone on it, probably like 50 out of 250 seats filled. This was great because i got a whole row to myself, free drinks, and extra food. We arrived in Quito at around 745pm. In the airport, customs were pretty much the easiest thing ever and took around 5 minutes total. From there were received by Sams family friend Alberto, who we would be staying with in Quito. He speaks pretty good english but likes us to practice our spanish with him. He is in charge of a company that does lighting for concerts like guns and roses. We arrive at his house in the suburbs on Quitio called Tumbalo. This is a really nice neighborhood on a private drive. The house is absolutely amazing! giant beds and awesome showers really hit the spot. He lives with his wife gina and 3 year old son Juan Diego. Such a nice family and give us advice about what to do. They feed us a great dinner and we talk about what our trip will entail. We are all so tired and hit the sack.
Saturday May 1st.
We got us early at 7am in order to go to the town of otavalo. Alberto fed us an awesome breakfast and took us to the bus station. From there we took a two hour bus ride to otavalo. The town itself is not much to look at but has one of the largest markets in Ecuador. It was so huge, i found myself lost a few times. Amazing handmade things there. actually got to watch the workers make everything. Bought a little too much for myself because everything is great and pretty cheap.(bought some wool socks, slippers, sweater, and a really cool tapestry.) Side note, Ecuador uses the american dollar which is convenient for everyone because you never have to change money. The country is cheap but not as cheap as venezuela because of the black market. The market in otavalo was great. Lots of tourists. I havent heard that much english in a long me. After some time in the market we decided to go to a volcano called Cuicocha. We went to this inactive volcano at the crater at the top. Took a cool boat trip around the lake in the crater. Afterwords we were treated to a hot alchoholic drink called candeleza which i thought tasted a lot like apple cider. After that we headed back on a 6pm bus back to Albertos house. We hung there and ate and then went out on the town. Sam and Courtney, who are dating, have friends that are currently studying in quito from minnesota. It just so happened that the night was when everyone came back from their internships of 6 weeks. Needless to say, everyone was so excited to see each other and drank all you can drink beer for an hour for 7 dollars. Downtown was great, so much more modern than merida. Lots of white people which is soo crazy to see. Went to a couple of bars and ended the night with some delicious mexican food.
Sunday May 2nd.
Started the night a little later because of the night before. We headed around 11am to mitad del mundo, whihc is the center of the world. This is the place around 45 minutes out of quito where the equator is. A must for any tourist in Quito. The park was cool and full of museums about everything Ecuador and the equator. Got to take our pictures on the equator line and everything. But...The site we went to is not actually the real ecuator. Something like 200 years ago, a discoverer made the monument in the wrong place. The actual site of the equator is around 300 meters away but everyone goes to the other because of the monument and the line of the equator. Pretty touristy but still really fun and cool. After that we went to the teleferico of Quito. Really nice facility. Actually nice to take one because meridas famous longest teleferico has been broken for 4 years. The teleferico brough us all the way up to 4000 meters which is really high. Amazing views of the city, because quito is really long and narrow because it is located in a valley. When we got to the top, we were literally in a cloud and we could feel the moisture. We walked around a bit, but not too long because the elevation makes it so much more difficuly. Came back down and some dinner downtown in a place called the coffee tree. Had a really good roast beef sandwhich and listened to live salsa music. After we decided to chill and smoke some hooka at a bar. We were all so tired from the past couple days that we went home, ate some amazing food, and talked about what are plans our for the next couple days. Tomorrow we are going to see the old town of quito, full of churches and plazas, and then head to the adventure capital of ecuador called banos.
Well that is all for now. Unfortunately no pictures yet, but will try soon!