Equador...pretty much overrated.

I am actually sure it is a very nice place but in the course of the first 24 hours we were in town these things happened:

1. Man with bat in coat recruited a friend and followed us for a number of blocks in the middle of the night.
2. Man sleeping in doorway is covered in blood from a wound that apprears to have been sustained in the neck.
3. Man comes up behind me, wraps giant arm around me, lifts me in air, robs me.
4. Whisky shots are $7.00.

All of this, minus the whisky, also occured within 200 yards of the hostel. Actually I'm pretty sure it's just Quito that's not real great. We left after the first day to take a trip into the Amazon and it was amazing. Piranha fishing, canoing, swimming, hiking, bird watching, visiting indingenous villages, hallucinogenic drug taking, etc. It was a great four days. We saw more spiders as big as my hand than I would ever care to see again. Also more giant, climbing, scurrying, flying, glowing, flashing, buzzing bugs than I would ever care to see again. In addition to the extensive insect population we saw river dolphins, caiman (alligators), an anaconda, 6 species of monkeys, more different types of colorful birds than I can remember, of course piranha, and other fish, and a cat that got fleas all over me. During the piranha fishing I caught a small fish, 3 inches maybe, and since it was already bloody putting it back meant a death sentance so I figured I would use it as bait. I hooked the fish right through the middle of the spine to secure it and dropped it in the water. 3 seconds later I had a bite so I pulled the hook out to see what I caught. I caught nothing. However the back half on the fish was gone as was most of its head. After a small shudder of fear I put the fist back in the water; 3 seconds later another bite. Pulled the hook up again; fish gone. After a while I put some more bait on my hook and had a real nice bite, thinking it was finally time for me to catch a piranha instead of a guppy I pull real fast on the pole and pull up something that I'm pretty sure my schooling told me went extinct a few million years ago. It was close to a foot long with a row of razor sharp teeth, but still not a piranha...I'm trying to get the hook out of it's mouth, obviously quite close to the razor teeth, while it's flopping around in Dean's grasp. Slightly fearful for the future of my fingers I am totally concentrated on removing this hook when out of nowhere.....SMACK! Sweet piranha on face action. Aj had caught a nice sized piranha and in his haste to get it out of the water and into the boat the best way was apparently to take it along a straight trajectory to the side of my face. So with the mouth of on carniverous fish dangerously close to my fingers and one more than dangerously close to my face I can't help but think that maybe Quito isn't that bad. Well, all's well that ends well, and I didn't get bit. We went hiking the next day with our guide, George, and he let us swing on a vine through the trees. It was lots of fun but AJ and I both became very intimately more aware of the meaning behind the lyrics for the George of the Jungle song. You really do need to look out for that tree. (And don't worry, there is video footage.) Those are just a few of the many highlights of the last few days, more later. Roberto!