First Day in Quito

Slept great last night, we got up around 9:30. I went to have a shower, turned on the hot water, and it was cold. So I waited. It got a bit warm, I had hope, then it got ice cold again, and my heart sank. So, I let it run some more, and finally, after about 2 minutes, hot, hot, hot water!We had breakfast, then walked to the astronomical observatory, about a block and a half from the hostal. It's the oldest astronomical observatory in South America, the telescope was installed in 1875, and it´s still used today. The guy told us that we can come back between 6:30 and 7:30 tonight and see the stars, it's open to the public.We walked through a couple of parks, looking for the South American Explorers Club, apparently a great resource for backpackers travelling through South America, and you can sometimes get discounts on tours or food or hostals or whatever. Kirsty and Lisa bought memberships ($60/year).We walked to a couple of travel agents, trying to plan out our Galapagos Islands trip. The second one we went to was on the list of travel agents that would give a discount for SAE members. We ended up booking an 8 day Galapagos Islands trip for about $1500 US, includes return flight from Quito. We´re also going to fly out two day early, so I can do some diving and we can bum around the island and see things that we won't be seeing on the trip. It's going to be AWESOME!! In the end, Lisa and Kirsty didn´t get a discount because the tour was already low season price, but she did offer us a free pick up to the airport Sept. 15, when we fly to the Galapagos.When we went to the first travel agent, Lisa and Kristy did all the talking in Spanish, so I had no clue what was going on. Every once in a while, one of them would update me on what they were talking about. At the second travel agent, we sat down and Lisa asked the girl (in Spanish) if she spoke English, and if so, we should, because I didn't speak Spanish. The travel agent chick said, in Spanish, something like 'Let's do it in Spanish, us three women can decide what to do, we don't need a man.', and they all started laughing. I knew they were laughing at me, so I started fake laughing along with them. It was funny. Then one of the other guys in the office said something like 'Women being the boss, that's the way it always is.' or somesuch thing, and everyone who spoke Spanish laughed again. Poor me!After booking the trip, we had two days left before we had to fly to the Galapagos, so we decided to head up to Otavala for two days, as there's supposed to be an awesome Saturday market there.Quito is just like any other third world city I've been in. Infrastructure in need of repair, tons of buses, horns going crazy, crazy traffic, crossing the street is taking your life into your hands, etc. I feel right at home!When we were booking the Galapagos trip, Kirsty realized that she didn't even book her bathing suit. So, we headed to a mall and she bought a bathing suit.We got back to the hostal about 6:00 and hung out and headed to the astronomical building at 6:30, but it was all closeed up. We asked the security guard, who said 'All the physicists, they all went away.' No telescope tonight.There's a Norwegian guy staying at the hostal, so he came with us. We then headed down to the main night/bar area for supper, and the Norwegian guy, Pol, started telling us about his trip. He's doing a year long trip, and making a tv series of his trip for Norwegian television. It's called 'Around the World in 80 Dates', and he has to travel around the world and go on 80 dates (with the local women) in all the countries he visits. As we were eating, this very attractive Ecuadorian chich sat at a table near us. After a few beers, he decided to chat up this girl and try to get a date with her. It was funny to watch. She was 19 (Pol is 35), and she kind of shot him down in the end, she was going to school, and was going to be leaving to visit her parents very soon, but said she may be able to go on a date Monday morning with him. So, he got her phone number, but he said he has about a 10% chance of going on a date with her, he figures. Haha.