Ecuador family trip

Hello, my name is Daniela I am psychology student at Icesi University, I am very sociable and interested in the study of the human behavior.
Among my likes are to travel, to read, to sleep, to enjoy food, and my biggest pleasure are landscapes. Once every week I try to leave the city, to near places or miradors that allow me to appreciate the mountains, the valley and my beautiful city in the distance, remembering how small we humans are and magnificent and immense that is earth.

This blog narrates my experience in Ecuador, a trip made by car, in company of my mom and my boyfriend, summarily I will expose our stay in Quito, Atacames and Tonsupa. I was in Ecuador from December 21 to January 3 of 2015. I chose this trip to write about in my blog, because it brings back great memories I shared with family that I hadn't seen in almost  5 years, I also met part of a country that even though is very conservative it is greatly amusing and diverse in culture. 

Quito (21 at December 27) 

When entering Quito, we had to arrive at my cousin's house as a surprise for my family although  I hadn't been to this house for 5 years so I couldn't remember how to get there, and it was my responsibility to arrive in time. However like we would say in Colombia "preguntando se llega", although this was a hard task because sometimes when quiteños recognized my Colombian accent they would be unfriendly or mean when answering, later on I found out that the trick was that if you are woman you should ask men and they'll probably respond formaly, and if you are man you should ask women and they'll probably respond with kindly, finally at the end we got there.

My family took as to see touristic places with historical content, like the Street “La Ronda”, The Square of the Independence or Central Square, "El Panecillo", La mitad del Mundo etc.

 

The most enjoyable place to visit was street La Ronda, a colonial street, with great gastronomic and artistic content. My family and I went at night, we walked across the street and we went to art galleries and two restaurants. In the galleries we learned about the history of Quito and discovered that although my family has lived there for 15 years they are unaware of the history of Ecuador. Then we entered the first restaurant and ate pinchos, choclo con queso y fritada together with local beer that was very cheap.  People accustom to dance in restaurants and we were not the exception, only we were a little bored just dancing cumbias and asked for salsa instead,  and with this the entire restaurant found out that we were from Colombia.

 

Then we went to another restaurant with the purpose of eating empanadas de viento which were the best part of the trip, las empanadas are too delicious.

 

Another day, we went to the hill of the Panecillo which has a sculpture of the Virgin Mary and it was made in aluminum, according to the virgin's description that is in the biblical Book of the apocalypse. Why so? It was the artist's approach there is not bigger explanation. An important tip is that usually Quito it’s cold at night in the Panecillo, so you should go very well covered because it's much colder. In this place there were handicraft stalls and hot drinks, the most common drink is the canelazo which is an infusion of cinnamon and agua de panela and naranjilla (lulo) with liquor.

We visit other places but I will continue with the rest of the trip.

Tonsupa (28 at December 30) 

Tonsupa is a beach near Atacames, very quiet and family oriented but with a luxurious atmosphere. We came to Tonsupa at night and stayed in the apartment of a family friend. This beach is small and accommodation and food are expensive, my family and I didn't enjoy it as much. 

Atacames (30 December at 2 January)

Now we arrived to Atacames 30 and immediately felt coastal environment by adding the end of the year. Hosting was in rented cabins that cost 45 dollars per night for person. Food cost $ 1 dollar, the food was very complete. Also this place is the paradise of beer, a pint of local beer costs $ 1 dollar. On the edge of the beach there are small rustic bars but with very good music.  You can buy 5 beers for $ 6 dollars and in these places you can sit down and t dance with disco lights.

We celebrate New Years in one of these places, at 12 pm o'clock there were fireworks on the beach and everyone moved on to the beach, then we were allowed to drink on the beach, to dance and to enter the sea. When people heard our Colombian accents they gave us free beer and wanted to dance and to share with us. We danced on the beach until 4 am because the police arrive requesting the evacuation of the beach being very friendly, and everyone went to their hotels without any problem. 

On January first I went with my family to seek breakfast, someone screamed at us in the distance if we had woken up with chuchaqui. I said no because I didn’t understand what  chuchaqui was and I also couldn't remember who was the gentleman who asked us, my cousin acted as if she had not heard. At breakfast I asked her what chuchaqui was, and my family told me that it meant hangover. Now that I think about it if I had known what it  meant I would've answered yes.