My First Week in Ecuador - A Pictorial

Here´s a pictorial of my first week in my new country. I am amazed at a number of things such as how beautiful it is, how nice its people are, the diversity of it´s climates and at how few stares I am getting on the streets because I´m a gringo (maybe because the people are so nice).

One of the first things you notice on the flight into Quito is how close to the ground you are as you land. The airport is literally in the middle of the city and there are buildings right up until the runway. It´s a little unnerving if you didn´t know this (I didn´t know it but I wasn´t unnerved simply because I have nerves of steel and nothing scares me). This is a picture of an airplane from my street.



Of course, since Ecuador is a Spanish-speaking country, I´ve been spending some time studying the new language in my free time.



As with any new culture and environment, there are many new things to get used to, such as how dogs are above humans on the food chain.



Along the way, I´ve become a die-hard fan of Liga, the 2nd best soccer team in the world (after the South Korean National Team of course). This is a picture of my friend Pablo and me at the Liga/Boca (crappy Argentine team) game.



For my first weekend, I was invited to Cotopaxi National Park. We made camp at a place called Hacienda San Agustin de Callo (a not too shabby place).



A view of the courtyard from my room.



The first thing we did was to go on a hike to an area that had a great view of Cotopaxi.



Here, I´ve made it pretty clear where exactly Cotopaxi is located. Should you need further assistance, please click here.



While on the hike, we ran into some strange characters. See if you can figure out who the ass is (hint: the ass is looking at the non-ass).



Also along the way, I got so hungry that I couldn´t contain myself. I wasn´t sure if the berry was safe to eat, but at least the guide seemed to approve.



After the hike and some mountain biking, we went back to the hacienda to enjoy some nice scenery.









The next day, we went horsebackriding through a scenic route.





After the ride (and some urging and convincing), I consented to take up some Ultimate Fighting, Ecuadorian-style. Let´s just say only one of us made it out alive.



In my downtime I spent my time reading some books. I´ve taken a liking to Ayn Rand so on the first night I read The Fountainhead and then towards the end of the trip, Atlas Shrugged.



I only hope that the rest of my stay in Ecuador is as fun and as extraordinary as the past week has been.



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