Intros And The City On The Top Of The World
Welcome to our blog, Out There.
We'd like to jump right into where we are and what we're doing, but first, intros! This blog is brought to you by myself, Marine, and Nick. I am a Canadian, and my other half is a Brit (but really a wannabe-Canadian). We met on a mountain in British Columbia almost two years ago and have been spending every last penny and minute between school and work trying to get out and experience what our planet has to offer us.
After two ski seasons in a row, we were both trying to decide on a plan for something a bit different this winter, and feeling frankly overwhelmed by the options... we were toying with the idea of going to South America, but nothing was set in stone until a chance meeting on an empty beach in Nova Scotia.
Nick had been out surfing on his own and as he was hopping out, he ran into Jordan. They got to chatting and Jordan mentioned that he had been living in Ecuador for the past 15 years and that his wife and her brother owned a surf and Spanish school called Outdoor Ecuador in a town on the coast. He said that we should come by if, and when, we were in South America. We jumped on the chance as we both love to surf, and arranged to volunteer with them for a month and a half.
After a summer of work, we had enough saved up to travel cheaply for a few months, so we bought our tickets to Quito without a second thought. It took a ridiculously long travel time of 25 hours, one lost bag, a missed flight and a detour to Mexico City (tacos consumed), we arrived in Quito, Ecuador.
Our delays wound up being a blessing in disguise because we were able to land in Quito in the daytime, giving us a jaw-dropping view of the volcano Cotopaxi, among others. We spent 4 days in Quito, two in the more modern downtown centre, and two in the historic centre, which we can't recommend enough.
We spent our days walking up and down the many hills of Quito very slowly and with great difficulty.... Altitude can knock your socks off if you're not acclimatized! At 2850 m (or 9350ft) is is the second-highest capital city in the world after La Paz, Bolivia.
When we're not skiing, we spend most of our time at sea level, so the acclimatization was expected but still felt... We kept forgetting how high up we were, and wondering why a flight of stairs made us feel like chain-smokers trying to climb Everest.
We enjoyed the churches, monuments, and amazing colonial-style Spanish architecture in the old town, and the sleek and sometimes mind-bendingly built skyscrapers of the new town. For just $2 each, we got to climb to the tops of the spires of beautiful Basilica del Voto National. We were treated with an amazing view of the whole city and of the Virgin of El Panecillo, a massive metal statue that sits on top of a hill in the middle of the old town. And food. Lots of good, cheap food. In Ecuador, most restaurants have a set lunch meal every day, which normally costs between $2.00-$3.00 USD for a big bowl of soup, a main of rice, some sort of meat, (or fish on the coast) and beans, and a cup of juice and dessert. It's a great way to keep costs down and is always filling.
We left Quito just as we were getting used to the thin air and began the long, winding journey to the coast. This trip took 8 hours and is fondly remembered by me as feeling incredibly carsick the entire time. Meanwhile, Nick happily read books and watched movies as I sat next to him, sweating and keeping a plastic bag within reach (which thankfully went unused). But we were on the road, and headed towards our second and most anticipated stop of the trip, the Spanish school in Olon!
Find out what the coastal Olon is like in our next post!
We'd like to jump right into where we are and what we're doing, but first, intros! This blog is brought to you by myself, Marine, and Nick. I am a Canadian, and my other half is a Brit (but really a wannabe-Canadian). We met on a mountain in British Columbia almost two years ago and have been spending every last penny and minute between school and work trying to get out and experience what our planet has to offer us.
After two ski seasons in a row, we were both trying to decide on a plan for something a bit different this winter, and feeling frankly overwhelmed by the options... we were toying with the idea of going to South America, but nothing was set in stone until a chance meeting on an empty beach in Nova Scotia.
Nick had been out surfing on his own and as he was hopping out, he ran into Jordan. They got to chatting and Jordan mentioned that he had been living in Ecuador for the past 15 years and that his wife and her brother owned a surf and Spanish school called Outdoor Ecuador in a town on the coast. He said that we should come by if, and when, we were in South America. We jumped on the chance as we both love to surf, and arranged to volunteer with them for a month and a half.
After a summer of work, we had enough saved up to travel cheaply for a few months, so we bought our tickets to Quito without a second thought. It took a ridiculously long travel time of 25 hours, one lost bag, a missed flight and a detour to Mexico City (tacos consumed), we arrived in Quito, Ecuador.
We spent our days walking up and down the many hills of Quito very slowly and with great difficulty.... Altitude can knock your socks off if you're not acclimatized! At 2850 m (or 9350ft) is is the second-highest capital city in the world after La Paz, Bolivia.
When we're not skiing, we spend most of our time at sea level, so the acclimatization was expected but still felt... We kept forgetting how high up we were, and wondering why a flight of stairs made us feel like chain-smokers trying to climb Everest.
We enjoyed the churches, monuments, and amazing colonial-style Spanish architecture in the old town, and the sleek and sometimes mind-bendingly built skyscrapers of the new town. For just $2 each, we got to climb to the tops of the spires of beautiful Basilica del Voto National. We were treated with an amazing view of the whole city and of the Virgin of El Panecillo, a massive metal statue that sits on top of a hill in the middle of the old town. And food. Lots of good, cheap food. In Ecuador, most restaurants have a set lunch meal every day, which normally costs between $2.00-$3.00 USD for a big bowl of soup, a main of rice, some sort of meat, (or fish on the coast) and beans, and a cup of juice and dessert. It's a great way to keep costs down and is always filling.
We left Quito just as we were getting used to the thin air and began the long, winding journey to the coast. This trip took 8 hours and is fondly remembered by me as feeling incredibly carsick the entire time. Meanwhile, Nick happily read books and watched movies as I sat next to him, sweating and keeping a plastic bag within reach (which thankfully went unused). But we were on the road, and headed towards our second and most anticipated stop of the trip, the Spanish school in Olon!
Find out what the coastal Olon is like in our next post!
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