from A to B

Directions are difficult to follow. They are even more difficult to follow when you do not follow them. We decided to go to this hiking town with this American guy (actually we told this guy we would go with him to the hiking town even though he did not invite us), so our next step was to get there.



We took a cab to the train station in the south of Quito (which reminded me sooo much of La Paz). Apparently the south part of Quito is the poor part of Quito and gringos should not go there. I probably should not have been in La Paz at all then. hmm



So we arrive at the train station and the American, lets call him Ken, says we are supposed to get a bus going South (according to the instructions he was given).

"Which town are we going to?" I asked.

"Uh...michincha i think" So I went around to all the buses that would be heading south of Quito (buses to Riobamba, Baños, etc.) and asked them if they stopped in Michincha. None of them had heard of this place. Finally, I asked to see the instructions that Ken was given. We were not going to Michincha... we were going to Machachi.



So we began looking for a bus to Machachi. Sonja and I basically dragged this American guy (who did not speak Spanish) all over the Quito without telling him what we were doing. We were following the directions that people gave us...but he did not understand a word. We ended up taking a bus to another bus station (which took about 20 minutes because it drove through every street in southern Quito) and then a bus to Machachi which also went through ever street in southern Quito...AGAIN!

I learned pretty quickly that it is very difficult to ask Ecuadoreans for directions...to a bus. Busses do not alwasy stop at bus stops or bus stations. They will often stop in the middle of a street or a middle of a roundabout. ANYWHERE. Because of this, everyone would point in a general direction and say "over there." We would walk about 10 steps in the "there" direction and ask someone else who would proceed to point us in another direction.


On the bus to Machachi we realised that we should have just gone back to all the buses heading south and asked them if they stopped in Machachi...the town that actually existed. They would have then gone south and dropped us off at Machachi. We could have taken only one bus which would have gone directly to Machachi. That option, on the other hand, would not have given us a tour of south Quito.