Real Life Captured #33: Quito Ecuador Part Five (16 photos)
Quito, the Andean city high in the sky at 2,000 meters above sea level is not only an exciting place to be, it's full of life and full of culture! I just love this city! You can't walk a single block without seeing something unique and authentic to Andean Kichwa culture. If it's not a woman with a baby wrapped in a blanket and pinned to her back selling apples then maybe it's just someone getting their shoes shined while reading the paper.
My steemit friends, this is what I love about traveling. Where I'm from in Albany New York, life revolved around sitting in traffic, going to the mall, and getting drunk on the weekends. What is normal in one country is sometimes totally abnormal in another. After traveling and living out of a back pack for almost my entire adult life, normal really is non conceptual to me anymore. "Normal" is relative to your surroundings, culture, country, down to your specific location.
When you visit other countries and other cultures you experience life in a whole other way. You experience a new normal. If I were to walk down the street in the states selling apples like this woman in the photo; I very well may get arrested. But here, this is everyday real life; captured! Now let's have one last look at what normal is like for the people of Quito Ecuador!
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With over 10 years of travel experience I answer travel and international lifestyle questions. Leave a question in the comments and I may make a Steemit post just for you!
That's quite stunning 2.000+ meter about sea level. Great update.
Thanks for stopping by. We have some friends in common. I gonna check out your page more often. :) Heading there now. Thanks for the lovely comment and Happy New Year! -Dan
Never Heard of this before @world-travel-pro, thank you for sharing with us and it seems a quite and simple beautiful city to me. a big thumbs up and resteem from my side...
Thanks Raja. That's really nice of you. Glad you enjoy my blog, and think enough of this post to resteem it. Thank you and Happy New Year! -Dan
This is wonderful, each country with their differences, you have said it all the word "normal" is relative to one's geographical location but no matter the differences there are still things, events that are normal everywhere no matter the location, for instance no country of the has more than 24hrs in a day(on a lighter mood anyway). Thanks for sharing your experience, it's so much appreciated and less I forget HAPPY NEW YEAR
Thanks for the very nice comment. Yes many things cross cultures and unite us all! Happy New Year my new steemit friend! Hope to see you again soon! -Dan
Ecuador has been on my bucket list since I heard about the first time; I was 13 and had to do a presentation in school about a country. Your photos have just made me wanna go even more! Hopefully this dream will become a reality by 2020! Thanks for sharing, man :-)
What a lovely comment. Thank you so much. Here is a special photo of some llamas from way up in the Andes just for you! Happy New Year my new steemit friend! Sincerely, Dan "World Travel Pro!"
Haha, they look awesome! Thank you :-)
Happy new year to you as well!
https://steemit.com/growth/@cutminajn/understanding-plants-and-plant-characteristics-1153ac4670189
These photos really make me want to go back to South America! I just had to thing about this one time in Colombia when I actually bought some potato chips off a street vendor, he had three different kinds of chips and so many different spices! Visiting markets (places like Quito seem to be a market basically anywhere!) is upon my favorite thing to do when traveling, compared to that Western cities seem so boring :D
You and I have so much in Common. I've got a feeling our paths will cross one day. Maybe at a market in some strange foreign land. Exploring markets is my favorite thing to do while traveling as well. Yes, Colombia I spent a few weeks in that country "last year" sounds weir to say that lol. I remember they are slicing frying and make fresh chips on the streets in every city in that country. Really fresh and tasty. Yes cities and markets in the non-western world are so full of life and exciting, part of me starting this blog was to bring this to my mostly western based viewers.
I will be traveling in Asia starting in August this year, I can't wait to get to a non-western country and to some amazing markets again! Maybe we will meet there, who knows?
Have you ever been to Bolivia? In La Paz (or actually El Alto) they habe one of the most amazing markets I have ever visited; I actually did a post about this market some weeks ago if you would like to check it out: https://steemit.com/marketfriday/@jpphotography/20171222t113523917z-post
Just took a peak, since it's expired. I'll give you a little extra up-vote here. Getting out of the west and doing some exploration will be fun!
Thanks! It bugs me a bit that it is not possible to receive a payout for posts older than 7 days on Steemit since I often find interesting steemit posts on Google, but upvoting them would be worthless.
I know what you mean, just how it is here to keep the payment flowing. at a reasonable time frame.
great stuff...and in North America it seems so unknown!
Interesting! Subscription to your blog!
Thank you! So happy you enjoy! Much more to come :)
ok, I have to ask, why Ecuador right now? You could have gone anywhere, why there?
Ha ha. Good question Gringa. I had some CD's in the banks here come due a few weeks ago.....So I had to be here to sign some papers, in Quito up in the cold Andes. I wanted to hunker down for the holidays in nice weather and have access to the services of a city while I catch up on my blog, so I took an overnight bus to the coastal city of Guayaquil. Traveling during the holidays I try to avoid. Too busy and hotels raise their prices. So it's a good time for me to hang here and just catch up on my blog and back log a bunch of post so I can travel and not be stuck to my computer writing all day.
I actually moved here semi permanently a few years ago to get a permanent residency outside of the US (I'm sure your dad would like that...lol) and to gain access to their insured 9.5% interest in the banks. Where in the US....well, you know what you get there for interest.
Ecuador is really visa and foreigner friendly as well. Safe, good culture, and they grow some of the best quality food in the world! You know how important that is! lol It's also incredibly affordable. I have a very nice hotel in a good area. AC, flat screen TV, room service, even refrigerator in my room, and a three min walk from the boardwalk....$12 per night after some "travel pro" negotiating!
Thanks for stopping by Miss Gringalicious! Happy New Year! Your Friend, Dan :)
"$12 per night after some "travel pro" negotiating!" Now there's a post right there!
Ok, I understand the motivation now. And, getting posts ready while in future travel, excellent idea. So, where to next?
Oh Gringa. The posts are endless. I've got like 100 waiting to be created if not more. Everything from cooking a two inch thick rib-eye steak in my hotel room, to a video of me ducking behind a baby carriage to avoiding getting hit by flaming debris as the Ecuadorians use mini sticks of dynamite, highly explosive fireworks, and burn tires in the street to celebrate new years last night! Caught it all on film. You've got to see this, will post it tomorrow morning. Certainly not a place for the lovely and elegant Gringalicious to be. I had to step over a few passed out drunk Ecuadorians to catch the action! lol
If I even get out of here, I'm planning on hitting up Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chili, and Argentina, and maybe Rio De Janiero Brazil that will take me into May. But I promised myself not to leave here until I've got all these posts back logged and I just cut and paste post when I need to, and keep up my steemit presence with three posts a day while I travel. So I may be here in my hotel room for another two weeks, just writing posts all day. I've got SO Many Photos, ideas, and just interesting things to share it's overwhelming. Wait until you see some of the markets here in Ecuador. Meat hanging from hooks, huge whole pigs roasted with old kichwa indian women ripping off chunks of pig flesh to be served and so much more. Like going back in time. Such an intense culture.
You have any travel plans for next year or anything special you're looking forward to?
Wow! Ecuador is still developing just like Nigeria. Street hawking is a normal here too but No one will polish your shoes if you're still wearing them.
Good to know. Thanks for your comment and Happy New Year! -Dan