A few days in the country.........

Hiking in our neighborhood

After two great weeks touring the Galapagos Islands, but with very early morning wake-up calls, we decided we needed to relax a bit, catch up on our blog, and plan the upcoming European leg of our trip.  A few weeks in the Ecuadorian country side should do the trick, we thought.

The VRBO ad read, Luxury Metro Quito Villa with Spectacular Views, in a town called La Merced. It had such a lovely ring to it, so we booked it.  The home, gardens and view were really really beautiful.  We wanted to have all of our friends over for a party, BUT, BUYER BEWARE……the ad didn’t say it was a 1½ hours away from downtown Quito by the public transit system (more on this later).  Metro Quito sounded like a suburb to us and by the map didn't look that far away, but it was.  The ad also didn't indicate that the road was unpaved for the last two km to the home.  Or, that the internet service was SLOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW and had a data capacity limit - so much for catching up on the blog.  Loading pictures was impossible.  The ad also didn’t mention the cows, goats, pigs, sheep, roosters, barking dogs, that were next door….literally.



We loved the house and privacy, we watched a couple movies, enjoyed Diego the cat and cooked for ourselves, but it wasn't the 9 days we thought it would be at all.  It was a bit frustrating and another lesson learned to look for what isn't in an ad as well as what is.

In order to get ANYWHERE from our lovely new home, we had to become familiar and use the  Ecuadorian public transit system.  We rode in the back of small pick up trucks, stood in jam packed buses and were cussed out in taxies.  We mostly laughed during these exciting adventures and only sometimes cried.


We read that the buses will pack on more people than possible, and we experienced this first hand.  Instead of collecting money from people as they board, they keep loading and loading people, to the point where absolutely no one else can board……then they board some more!  Afterwards, a guy comes shoving through the absolutely cramped isles to collect the money.  Most trips were somewhere between .25 and .40 cents, so we couldn’t complain too much.  We were THE ONLY gringos on all of these buses, but never felt threatened, or unwelcome.  We found the people to be very nice and not particularly startled by the sudden appearance of two white Norte Americano faces.  On one occasion, a cute little cocker spaniel got on the bus in the crowd of new passengers, and clearly was no one’s pet.  We watched this little guy anxiously wait for a few stops before deciding that this one was his time to depart.  No one even paid attention…Amy and I just laughed worriedly; hoping he knew his way home. 

The 9 days we spent in La Merced were not exactly as we planned, but we had a true local experience and that is exactly what we wanted, in addition to a speedy internet.  The friendly Ecuadorian people helped make it a memorial time and reminding each other that the bus trips were a fun adventure, and……Diego, the house cat.  He was our love.