Just as an FYI, don't get less than five hours of sleep when you have to work a 10-hour day. I fantasized about taking a nap yesterday but totally whiffed on it and then ended up missing my 10:30 bedtime later on. Needless to say, I'm running on fumes right now and there isn't enough coffee in my office to keep me running much past 3pm...
ANYWAY. On to more interesting things than the back of my eyelids. You may have noticed in the last post where I mentioned we are taking a two week trip to Ecuador in order to kind of scope out the area. Well, that's happening in three more days. We leave Atlanta this Thursday at 6:30pm and we'll arrive in Quito (the capital of Ecuador) around 11:30pm.
In case you were curious, flights to Ecuador aren't as expensive as you might think. Depending on time of year and where you leave from, they can run from about $1000 to $1400 total round-trip for two tickets. Ours ended up being a little more pricey than normal because we had specific criteria. I have to work Thursday morning, so we had to have a flight leaving in the afternoon/early evening. John gets nervous about flight connections, ESPECIALLY international connections, so we wanted a direct flight. We wanted to be home early on Thanksgiving so that we could spend at least a little time with our families, so we needed a flight returning before 8am.
All of this added up to about $500 more than what we would have paid had we bought plane tickets like we normally do -"What's cheapest?"
The plan is to fly into Quito and acclimatize for a few days. Quito sits at over 9000 ft above sea level, making it the highest national capital city in the world. So, acclimatizing is a necessity, especially since Simpsonville, SC sits around 860 ft above sea level. Holy popping-ears Batman! Note to self: bring gum.
Quito has over 2.2 million people living in it and is, as I mentioned earlier, the capital of Ecuador. It's actually quite a modern city and has many of the first-world amenities that we're used to, so we're anticipating that it will be a great jumping-off point for us. One interesting little factoid about Quito is that it's one of the longest continually occupied cities in the Americas, and I think it's the longest continually occupied capital. Talk about history.
We plan to be in Quito for a few days getting to know the city as well as visiting the surrounding areas to the north. A few cities we hope to visit include Cotacachi, Otavalo and Ibarra. At roughly 90 miles away, Ibarra is the furthest of those cities from Quito. These cities are known for their local markets, where they specialize in leather and woolen goods as well as a variety of local produce.
After a few days in the north, we plan to take the main highway south towards a city called Cuenca. On the way we hope to check out Ambato and Banos. For the enquiring amongst you, we plan on using public transportation to get around. Buses and taxis are ubiquitous all over Ecuador and they are cheap, which is the song of my people.
Cuenca is considered the cultural capital of Ecuador, and it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With a lively arts scene and markets galore, 'El Centro' is kind of the heartbeat of the city. Think Downtown Greenville, but bigger. It has a population of about 330,000, which puts Greenville City to shame with its 60,000.
We plan on staying in what are called 'hostals.' It's not a hostel, although those are available. This is more like a smaller version of a bed and breakfast. Many Ecuadorians open their homes and rent out extra rooms to travelers, creating an extra source of income for themselves and allowing people like John and myself to see the country from a local POV. Currently, we've book two hostals - one in Quito for when we arrive, and one in Cuenca. Everything in between will be an adventure, which is sort of panic-inducing as well as exhilarating. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this aspect of it, so I'll let you know as we go along how well it works out (or doesn't).
So that's where we're at for now. We plan on updating the blog with LOTS of pictures while we're gone, and John might even get on here before we leave to tell you how excited he is to be taking pictures with a GoPro Hero3+ and the whole saga about getting one that actually, you know, WORKS.
If you have any other burning questions about WHY we're doing this, take a look at the first post. If you still have a plethora of questions after that, feel free to ask in the comments or hit me up on Facebook. We're more than happy to talk your ear off about all the thoughts that have gone through our little brains as we came to this decision about changing our life.
Have a Happy Monday!
V
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