I’d like to say something more about Ecuador. I don’t know how I do this, but every country I go I make friends! Those are the people who change my mind about the country and my treatment to it.

You know, Ecuador is not the mountain Quito, Amazon, or even Galapagos islands… My Ecuador is Ilya and Ksusha, and their cats :)))

Ecuador started from Quito. I landed in the airport located in the downtown. I’ve never seen an airplane landing between houses before! The city is surrounded with mountains. Later I realized that Quito airport is the second most difficult one in the world and time to time pilots “drop” airplanes there. The most popular “droppers” are Cubans, that’s why Cuban airlines are forbidden there :) I’ve to admit I’ve never seen mountains of that scale. The city is located 3000 meters above the sea level. Sometimes you can see clouds under your feet. The water boils here under 100 Celsius degrees. Thankfully to Quito I understood the way climate is affected by height! I’ve already said before about being frozen on equator… It’s more or less pleasant to be in Quito before noon when the sun is shining and you can live somehow :) Usually it starts raining after the noon so after that you can live only inside with a heater :)))

Local people here are Indian Quechua. I’ve never seen so many Indians before:) There are two official languages in the country: Spanish and Quechua. By the way, the Spanish language used here is the academic one. That’s why it was easy for me to communicate here comparing with Cuba. I was completely disappointed with the local girls. That’s why I changed my mind and went to Galapagos islands to take shots of animals. Reason for that are the mountains. People here are shorty and emm… discordant :) It’s difficult to breath on the height so their bodies adapted to the circumstance… It seems also that Quito is a quiet place… However, on the first day my cab driver took a whole circle around one of the blocks and brought me directly to the hotel door. He also waited until the security guy opened door for me and let me in. He said that it was too dangerous there even for 5 meters…
Ecuadorians are very polite and pleasant people. It was kinda weird to feel respect after some time in Cuba :). In Cuba huge black guys can slap you to your back so that you almost fall off your legs just to call you “amigo” :) But that’s not the case with Ecuador. On the first days I went to a restaurant where I was served with a waiter who was a small senor (at least I called him that way). It was very hilarious since he was so short and so serious. He treated me like I was a duke or something. I even felt awkward for my destructed jeans :) 

I also liked the fact that their official currency is USD. That’s really convenient :). After the recent oil prices fall the country announced default. So currently this is the cheapest country I’ve visited since I started my journey. The first days I spent in a $25/night hotel and I have to say that those room was something like President’s suite compared to $30/night 2x2 meters room in Cuba. Oh, there also was wi-fi!!! I even forgot that technological advance :) The Snickers and Milky Way chocolate bars were like heaven :) The only weird thing was that I bought them in a drug store :))

I met two Russians in Quito: Ilya and his girlfriend Ksusha. They invited me to live with them for a while. Well, I have to remind you that I thought I would never ever come back to Quito. However, that thought completely changed after I met those two people! I loved that city (well, only before noon) :)))
Dear Ksusha and Ilya, thank you for Quito! I express my special gratitude for meat dumplings (pelmeni) and dumplings (vareniki) :))))