la liga

i realized that i´ve never shared the amazing experience of going to a soccer game here in ecuador. i´ve been lucky enough to go to a few games of la liga, the most important team in ecuador... and some say in all of south america. now everyone thinks that football and basketball games in the u.s. can get intense, but you haven´t seen anything until you go to a liga game. getting to the stadium is an adventure in itself because you get to climb onto a bus with hundreds of other excited liga fans, squished like sardines. then, you arrive to the beautiful and glowing casa blanca... thousands outside buying tickets, jerseys, singing, drinking... all excited for the possible victory of their beloved team. once you´ve entered, there are a few different places you can sit, depending on how brave you are. there´s the calmer section that is like any other sporting event. however, there´s also the section for those true, crazy, fans. the whole game you spend screaming your lungs out to the cheers that all of quito knows so well. you play with fireworks, dance on the fence and hope to not get trampled by the rest of the fans. and the whole time you´re surrounded by security who are just there to make sure we don´t mob the field after we win :) no matter where you sit though, you feel the excitment, the true love of the ecuadorians for their team. one other bonus: the food. let me tell you, once you´ve had a hot dog in ecuador, you´ll never be able to eat one any other way. ingredients: the dog itself, mustard, ketchup, onions, relish, mayo and potato chips. SO GOOD. combine all these things, and you get one unforgettable experience. soy de la UUUUUUUUUUUU.

middle of the world and some mountain climbing

¡mitad del mundo!

pretty cool to know i walked the line at 0 latitude and 0 longitude, not many people can say they've done that! altough, there's some debate about where the actual location is, so who really knows. anyway, to start the story.... it was a lovely sunday morning, and nicolas and i decided that we had to do something fun. so he proposed going to pululahua, a geological reserve near mitad del mundo, about 30min south of quito. what i thought was going to be just a nice overlook and a nice hike turned out to be a scramble down the side of a mountain for 30min to get to the center of the... crater. it was hilarious, and beautiful once we got there. no one else around, just a little hotel and a couple 'stores' that sold essentials for the campers. after wandering and photographing for a little while we decided to start the trek back up. 50 minutes and lots of breaks later we finally returned to the top and headed for the middle of the world. first we went to this awesome museum that told the history of the peoples that lived there, how they used to shrink the heads of their peoples when they died, and the history of mitad del mundo. there were a bunch of tricks that they had us do as well to try and prove it was the middle of the world... like walk in a straight line with our eyes closed, balance an egg on a nail, etc... it all seemed quite legit, but who really knows? :) after the museum we made our way to the monument to take pictures and walk around. it was pretty amazing to think i was in the middle of the world, but it was definitly a tourist trap! lots of little stores selling stuff, lots of little places to eat. but impressive nontheless. lots of pictures on facebook, like always :) a very informative, and fun, day in ecuador.