Quito Kid

It's Thursday and over the course of three days a great deal of tripplanning has been altered. On Monday I took a plane from Bogota to Medellin and had a few hour layover before taking another flight to Quito, Ecuador. The final destination was supposed to be in Guayaquil with hopes of enrolling in a Spanish school in Montañita later in the journey. After doing some research and following a gut feeling I decided to not finish the day's trip and left the Quito airport with my backpack and booked a hostel very last minute. It was a risky choice but the taxi driver from the airport was a really informative and friendly guy which provided a great deal of positive reinforcement.

I now have been in the city for three days and have been enjoying a stay at the Vibes Backpackers located in the heart of New Town. The staff is friendly and I am the token American in a place filled with Germans, Kiwis, and various members of the European Union. This particular area of the city is filled with hostels and does a good job of catering to a diverse set of travelers. The prices for food and rent are considerably cheaper than Colombia which is a very nice bonus. Cars are more relaxed and the massive Pinchincha volcano looms above the city.

Yesterday I registered for Spanish classes at a language school called Simon Bolivar and will be doing intensive private lessons for at least the next three weeks. My teacher is named Zulma and she is pretty nice so it should hopefully be a good experience. In addition to Spanish I also just enrolled in a salsa dancing school to try and get more immersed in the local culture. Dancing and language learning are two major reasons for the trip and it feels good to have found a city that offers both as a reasonable price. A tentative idea is to stay here for three weeks but this could end up being longer or shorter. Only time will tell but until then life as student should be fun. More updates to follow but I hope all is well!