First Day.... Culture Blast

 Arrived in Quito

Well I am glad to say we did arrive. Our flight left from ATL at 6:17pm practically on the dot. Huge thanks to Carl Stanley for hooking us up with a ride, I don't even want to know what it would cost to have left a car there for two weeks. I don't get nervous on flights but I do find it easier to sleep if I have an adult beverage before hand. I am not encouraging drinking but certain times call for certain responsible measures to ensure I don't let myself succumb to anxiety. Yes I slept well. Had a chance to watch parts of two movies on the plane: Lucy and Godzilla. Don't recommend paying to see either. Our plane ride was 5 hours and we landed in Quito at 11:30pm. That's when I had my very first experience with a lovely group called Customs.

Going through Customs actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The only bad part was the line to get to them. After standing in line for about an hour the Customs process only took like 10 minutes. Neither Vic nor I got the complimentary random search of all your stuff so we pretty much just walked through. Hahaha I had never been through Customs and I was pretty sure they searched everyone's bags, so I am walking through literally trying to hand my bag to every cop I passed. Thankfully, Vic was like," John come on, no one wants to see your bag." Which made me happy and sad at the same time.

We walked right through and immediately saw the man holding a sign with our names on it. I looked at him and smiled and pointed to myself. (Didn't know if he spoke English at all).  And he didn't, but his son did. They loaded us up in his van and we were off to their house which was about an hour out. Carlos and Carlos; Padre y hijo. They are super friendly and most helpful. His wife's name is Yolanda and they have like 8 rooms in this house. We got settled in and went to sleep, it was like 1:45am.

Woke up this morning to an awesome egg, bread, fruit, and coffee breakfast. We got ourselves ready and headed out. Early that morning was 45 degrees but it warmed up to 65 degrees by 9am. Its not ideal to drive a car here unless you know how to drive like the locals. Which is with one arm, blindfolded, full throttled, and an automatic horn for sane people trying walk across the road. Drivers here are RIDICULOUS. I'm worried even on the sidewalk. We walked around the old city area which was great. We found this huge beautiful building that we immediately realized was the basilica. Its massive and is exactly what you have in your mind as a Cathedral. One great aspect is that you can keep going higher and higher. If this place was in the US you would have to pay a ton and sign a waiver saying you wouldn't sue if you got hurt. Not here though. You could go as high up as you wanted. It got pretty dicey when the stairs your climbing are almost vertical and they're tiny to step on. But both Vic and I were able to get some pretty cool footage. Check it out:

 

 

The first day we planned to take time to get acclimated to the elevation level. We're up at close to 9000 ft above sea level and the air is a little more thin than we're used to. Some of these roads are inclined pretty steep. You might be able to tell by the ground in the picture. After the Cathedral we walked around for a while and found a place to eat.

The culture here is a good bit different from that of the States. At about noon the places shut their doors and take a break till around 4pm. Not all of them, but a good portion. Enough to notice a lot of closed places. Its called Siesta. Our work day is typical at 8-5:00 Mon-Fri. Theirs is 8-12:00 and then 4-9:00, which personally I think is fantastic. You get 4 hours to have lunch, see your family, read, etc. and then you go back work till evening. You get a chance to invest in people at the prime time of your day, instead of being completely worn out when you get home. Your spouse and kids get to see you full of life and that will have a positive impact on all parties.

We needed to get off our feet for a while so we came back to rest for bit and then we'll head back out. Thank you for taking time to keep up with us. To my family, friends, and church body we love the lot of ya! And know that God continues to sovereignly work out His plan, with us sojourners being able to enjoy the wonders of His grace. And enjoy Him forever we will.