Dias Una

Today was a day of firsts:

• First meal in South America: spanish omelette, cafe con leche y frutas (unlimited(
  
• First bus ride through the streets of Quito: think Mariokart but with less bananas
• First time I've stood in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere at the same time: we went to el Mideo del Mundo or 'the middle of the world' at the equator in Ecuador

There was another Canadian travelling via Toronto-Miami-Quito with us yesterday who told us about a woman who had a guest visiting her in Quito for the first time. He went running through the streets with dogs without acclimatizing first, then collapsed and died. So we thought we would take it easy by navigating the streets of the city to reach the equator about 150 km away, with embarassingly little knowledge of Spanish. It helped a lot that we went with our hostel roommates; another Canadian, a Swiss and a German guy, all whom are seasoned travellers and fluent in Spanish. They pretty much took over in terms of acting as travel guides for us, and in turn we kept them up to date on Grey's anatomy and Desperate Housewives.

We're staying at a great hostel in Old Quito called The Secret Garden. It's a great atmosphere, everyone's super friendly and the accomodations are clean and cheerful. Yesterday we celebrated our disaster-free arrival by consuming enormous beers and chocolate menthe shots at the bar on the top-level terrace. When I inquired about the price he said he would just put it on my tab. This is going to be interesting...

Cheers!
-V