En Cuenca

My first sleep in Ecuador was awesome. I stayed in a place called Dream Kapture which was in a little suburb about 5 km from the airport. The people were very friendly and the room was clean.. It was 20 buks which seemed like kind of a rip but again, they offered a clean secure place so who am I to bitch about it. I was just happy to be behind 10´ concrete walls whith electric fencing on top and broken glass sticking out of the top. They had a large green metal door and anytime someone banged on it to get in you could sense the tension of the employees. I dout that its usually like this in Guayaquil but with the current political situation, everyone is a litte on edge.
I set my alarm on my ipod for 7 am to catch a taxi that Thomas had aranged. (Tom is a 65 yr old man who was staying at the same hostel. He is from Califorina and just moved to ecuador to retire) I awoke to the sound of someone banging on my door, rolled over, looked at the clock. 745am. Damnit.. Tom told me through the door that he and the taxi were waiting for me.. haha. somethings dont change no matter what country your in.. I was already packed so it was easy to put my clothes on and make it out in 1 min. We made it to the Airport (4 dollars!)and boarded on time. I met a man named Roberto and his wife who were on their way for a short weekend vacation in Cuenca. He was an Ecuadorian and she was taiwanese.. Random i thought, but they explained that they met in an ESL school in flordia or carolina or somthing.. Such nice people, they gave me their mobile number and said that if i needed anything at all to not hesiate to call. So apperantly i have two translators i can call if need.. Cati and Roberto.. haha..
The flight to cuenca was an easy 25 mins from takeoff to landing and the landing was pretty cool. it was kinda like landing in castlegar, but in a bigger plane. The plane does this sweepiing 90 degree turn over the mountains and comes down fast and hard in an open valley. Cuenca is 2500m or so.The cab to the hostel was 2 dollers between me and tom and i tryed to speak spanish with the cabbie. Ive noticed that cabbies really dont want to talk in this country.. Maybe my spanish is just too awful.. but i think its more them then me.The hostel im staying in is a 3 story building with old paintings on the wall and two massive locked doors to go through before your even in the lobby.. There seems to be lots of security in Ecuador.. A lot of theft i suppose.. Im not too sure. My dorm room is 6 buks a night..not too shabby. I have the place to my self at the moment. I spent my day wandering around and trying to orient myself with the city.Its super beautiful with Massive catherdrals and colianl buildiungs with narrow cobblestone oneway roads.I found a pizza place and had pepsi and cheese pizza for dinner. Ha Ha.. Its not as good as North American pizza im sad to say. After dinner i went to bed but i couldnt sleep. It was a sat night and there is a university close to where im staying so i thought id check out the scene. I found a place a few blocks from my hostel. It was tiny with a little bar and 4 tables. There was a group of Lesbian and gay guys at one table and some older worker type people at the other. I got to know the owner, Blanca and her Bf who was argentinian, Marcus. One beer turned into like 5 (its not very strong though) and before i knew it, it was 5 am.. haha. The owner, her buddy fernando, and Her friend Aliçe said they were going to some place to eat and offered for me to come. kind of a mistake.. haha we drove in a cab for like30 mins to some other random town and went to this open air market.. each floor was selling something dofferent. Veggies on the bottom right. chicken beside that.. beef on the next..( i watched an old women with an ax hack a cow carcas up..) and we went to the top which was pork.. im talking like 30 stalls each with their own whole roasted pig.. I told them i was vegitarian and they were super accomadation. The plates arived with a salad like pile of stuff... Mine with out pork though. It was mashed potatos, this big ass corn that was white and cooked, onions and some spicy sauce. Oh.. and more beer.. seriously.. i dont know how i get my self into these situations.. I was a little worries about getting back to my place but after we finshed we quickly got in a cab and we were back..
This morning i woke up with a mild hangover and had water and yogurt. Super yummy. There are bakerys everywhere and icecrem places.. apperantly the people of ecuador have a major sweet tooth. Tomorrow im going to meet with Catis friend pablo who lives here and im also going to check out the climbing wall. Ill post pics. Hopefully ill meet some climbing partners and get out there. Im itching to climb.