Spain is not the Only Other Country

I was doing a little reading a while ago and discovered that Spain isn’t the only other country. It turns out that there are multiple countries including some where, for some reason, the people also speak Spanish! So I decided to visit one of these other countries.

Ecuador, which coincidentally happens to be close to the equator, seemed like a good option. I learned today that even if a country is in almost the same time zone as Maryland, it can still take a really long time to get there. But bonus -  I spent some time in the Atlanta airport and learned that as fantastic as using an airport bathroom already is, there are ways to “enhance the restroom experience” and make it even better. They think of everything in Atlanta.

And then when I got to Quito, I was reminded how much this place isn’t Spain. For my very first experience here, I decided to splurge and spend $30 to have the hotel arrange for a driver to pick me up at the airport and take me to the hotel. When I got off the plane, no one was there so I texted the hotel. Turns out the driver totaled his car today so I was on my own. But I managed and am looking forward to this adventure.

As long as I avoid the western third of the country where the violent drug gangs operate, the eastern third where there is a lot of yellow fever, malaria and typhoid, and stay pretty much in the middle third, where the only things you need to remember is to never let anything that has touched the tap water get anywhere near your body and to avoid the hordes of pickpockets patrolling the streets. Plus, they eat guinea pigs! It’s gonna be fun!