Sept 6 Enroute and first night in Quito

after a bit a trek via bus, taxi, plane and one more taxi i arrived here at the hostle revolution. i was a bit skeptical upon arrival after the long drive here...

quito is much larger than i expected! its massive actually. it runs north and south through a large valley high high up in the mountains. its much cooler here than ive experienced anywhere else in ecuador.

the taxi dropped me off on a empty street with 15 feet walls bordering either side of the road and at first i did not see the hostle at at with its very subtle signage. i rang the bell and could hear footsteps climbing down the many stairs to the front door. i was greeted by matt, the aussie who runs the place with his wife.

when i got to the top of the stairs i found jessica and frank from the boat in the galapagos! what a surprise. they had come here with julie who was at the laundromat cleaning her clothes from the boat trip.

i signed in, got the tour of the 5 story building and was shown to my room. i share a room with the 4 germans. its the first time ive been in a dorm at a hostle so i am grateful that i know and trust everyone in the room :)

i unpacked my bag and before long, julie arrived. we immediatly went to the bar for happy hour and got 2 large bottles of brahma and made our way to the roof top patio to catch up. she told me all about her last 2 days on the islands and her amazing diving trip at puerta ayora.

it was not long before we were joined by another german staying at the hostle. once we chatted for a while and after a few more beers we had a crowd at our little table on the roof looking over the city. there were people at the table from belguim, australia, the states and german. it was a fun crowd and was cool to hear everyone´´s travel stories.

after we had talked for hours, we decided that we should have had dinner at some point and now it was too late and dangerous to go down to the street and find a restaurant. one of the germans asked the front desk guy to order us some pizza and in 20 minutes we had 2 hot pizzas from pizza hut on the table. im not gonna lie, it was nice to have some greasy amercian food!

later we made a cigarette run down the cobblestone street to a sketchy little shop and bought 2 packs through a hole in the gate what a laugh it was, they only had one type. ¨tropical¨ and they taste like ass.

later back at the table we gave frank and jessica a hard time for how much time they spend planning and organizing their trip and then i had to say goodnight.

im now in bed on the bottom bunk just below julie´s bed watching frank organize and re organize his stuff.
tomorrow we have a few things planned depending on the weather. maybe a gondola ride up to the top of the mountain and a trip the to center of the world.

im happy to be here at the hostel with a new adventure rolling out before me!