Estoy aqui

And I almost didn´t make it. These keyboards are throwing me off, but then again, maybe it´s the thin air. But look, aren´t the apostrophes kind of weird looking? Anyways, back to my original point. Sunday evening, I start to get my documents together for Ecuador only to discover that my green card is missing. This green card is what I need to get back into the country, so it´s kind of important. After searching everywhere there was to search, I start looking for other options. Plan B - order a new green card. Yeah, this would work great except it takes a few months - year to get. Plan C - Not go to Ecuador. Ummm, no thanks. Plan D - get a stamp in my passport confirming I indeed have a green card. Yay! So that´s what I did. However, I still had to order a new one for them to place a stamp in my passport, so that cost too much money and took early part of two mornings to go down to the immigration office downtown.

I left this afternoon after making a few final phone calls - sorry if I didn´t get a chance to reach you. Today I happened to have the fortune of going through the super security line, so it took a little bit longer. I´m not sure if it was completely random that I was selected for the super security line. I think it could´ve been that my name on my passport and the name on my ticket (Yosuke vs. Yoski) were spelled differently, so they automatically thought I was a risk (OMG, he doesn´t even know how to spell his own name!) Or maybe they saw that I was going to Ecuador and thought I might be carrying illegal substances. Who knows. Anyways, got through that, boarded the plane, watched the newest Pink Panther movie starring Steve Martin (not bad, but I wouldn´t pay to see it). The girl next to me noticed my Lonely Planet book, and we started talking a bit. And then, the guy on the other side of the aisle also noticed my Lonely Planet book, and we also chatted for a bit. And then, the girl started talking to a guy in the aisle in front of us, and we were all chatting for a while before the plane touched down. Just from that small subsample, I´d say the type of people who go to Ecuador are pretty friendly and cool (of course I´m not being biased here).

Ok, sorry that was boring. Now I´ll tell you about Ecuador. My first impression of Ecuador from the sky was that it was a pretty normal looking city. The lights were arranged in grids to follow the streets, and the buildings looked pretty decent. This was no metropolis, but neither is it a third world country full of tin shacks. Got through customs ok and I instantly got several offers for a taxi ride, but Lonely Planet recommended to go out to the street to hail a cab and haggle down the price, so I somehow managed to do that. They wanted $5, and I wanted $4, so I figured I´d compromise at $4.50. I was pleasantly surprised that my limited Spanish worked. Driving through the city, I was actually quite impressed by its cleanliness. The size of the streets and buildings actually reminded me a lot of Japan. And the buildings weren´t that nice, but they weren´t too shabby either - very reminiscent of some of the older sections of towns in Japan. The cab comes to a stop, and there´s another taxi parked right in front of us with a couple people stepping out, so I figure, hey, they must be staying where I´m staying. A couple of people come out to open the gate for them while I´m paying my cabbie and getting my stuff out of the car, so I tell them ¨Wait please!¨in español of course. Haha, this is sweet. This keyboard has the ¨ñ¨ Anyways, they close the gate, and I figure, oh well, I´m sure they´re right inside, but when I peer through the hole, there´s no one there. I´m thinking crap, how do I get in here? I see no bells, no nothing to call. Then I look around, and it doesn´t even really look like a hostel. Did my cabbie drop me off in the middle of nowhere as some cruel joke? Maybe I should´ve paid him the $5 he wanted. I walk down the street. Dark alley that way. Walk back towards the original gate. Hmm, this is kinda shady. Right next door, I spot someone mopping the floor inside a restaurant, so I figure I´d ask to see if they knew where my place was. Yep, the hostel is right up stairs. Whew. So that´s where I am now. Safe. Ok, well that´s all for now, and I´m trying to save money, so I´m going to get off the internet. Until next time, hasta luego!