Sunday, June 03, 2001

Right now, I'm in the unstereotypically cool and hip internet cafe Papaya.net surrounded by the most beautiful people in Quito...all of them pounding away at their keyboards, hotmail prominently displayed on their screens, and drinking $.90 cappucinos.

We just got back into Quito this afternoon after spending a few days in Banos. Banos is a beautiful little village nestled at the bottom of a volcano and surrounded by mountains and trees. Prior to that, we had been in Puerto Lopez for a week...and several points in between. At this point, it seems trivial to go over the details of what we've done and seen. I'm so hopelessly behind in updating that it's impossible to catch up. However, I've dug reading others' travelogues so much prior to taking this trip that I think the proper thing to do is rework this, write out the details, and then re-release it. Look for the repackage coming soon!!!

We're scheduled to fly out of Quito tomorrow and return to Lima, however we found out today that tama (the ecuadorian airline) has cancelled our tickets. I guess paying for the damn things isn't enough anymore...at least not in the third world. Anyway, assuming we can convince those spider monkeys to give us the seats on the flight we've already paid for tomorrow morning, we be in Lima for a couple days and then in Texas, USA early Thursday morning. The third world has certainly given me a new appreciation for the subtler things the U.S. has to offer...such as plumbing, driving regulations, and the stunning competence of even the lowliest fast-food employee...which is certainly a stark contrast to many of the professionals in the third world. I will miss the salsa music and the cheap taxis...and I'll certainly miss seeing something completely new and incredible every day. Sigh...too bad I couldn't milk my former dotcom employer for more of that investor money like many of my colleaques did.

ciao