Who knew it could be so nice

My back was starting to peel for only the 2nd time in my life and that meant it was time to take a break from the beach. I had found some stuff I wanted to get done in Quito anyways so I figured I might as well head there a little early and wait for my sister. Samira decided she wasn´t going to be able to make it to Ecuador after all, something about work and school. It all sounded very responsible, I couldn´t really relate. But Asma was still coming down.

There´s a 10 year age difference between me and my sister Asma. But now that she´s 18 and I´m 28 (at least for a few more weeks) it doesn´t seem quite as great as when I was graduating college and heading off to Microsoft and she was listening to the Spice Girls. But I still have no idea what we´re going to do together for 3 weeks.

I actually kind of pity her. I don´t know too many people that can stand seeing me every day for 3 weeks. I think I drove Ellick crazy being constantly around him in Rio for two weeks. But we´re family and we´ll manage, I suppose. Plus I think its cool that my little sister and I will be hanging out by ourselves together for what might be the first time ever.

I bid farewell to Maxima and her husband, who might actually be the nicest people in the world, and hopped on the bus to Quito. By the way, if you ever find yourself in Puerto Lopez and need a good hostel to stay in look them up at http://www.hotelmaxima.net. They provided great information, and managed to perfectly walk the line between providing too much motherly nurturing and geniune friendship. The mosquito nets worked good enough and they´ll even let you borrow their boogy boards or bike for they day, no worries.

I´m still working on buying a new cell phone and USB flash card. I´m torn between being my normal cheap bastardly self or getting the uber-cool new Motorola Razor I think I´ve fallen in love with. But I have managed to find a Spanish school and a some salsa classes. Neither of this was very hard as Quito is apparently the number one gringo capital of the world. And La Mariscol, where I´m staying, is literally crawling with all sorts of stuff catering to all sorts of tourists.

And while I normally hate the idea of being around so many damn foriegners I must admit it´s nice to be able to go to a restaurant and order Phad Thai and have it be pretty damn good. And I haven´t had to walk over a single passed out bum on the street, shoo-away any street kids or hop over any open sewers. And I must admit, while there are obviously a ton of travellers here I haven´t seen a single heckler refering to me as ¨my friend¨ and after being in Havana, Lima and Cusco this seems absolutely unbelievable. I know, I know, I just need to venture out a bit and I´m sure I´ll find it.

But so far Quito seems quite lovely. I suppose the world is always wonderful when you refuse to step out of your little bubble. I´ve spent a lot of time in the last few months intentionally popping my bubbles for no other reason than because it seemed like the right thing to do. Right now I think I´ll just stay blissfully naive about Quito and assume life is full of nice restaurants and clean hotels. At least for a little while longer.