Feeling a bit groggy this morning. Woke up, wide awake at about 4am so I drugged myself back to sleep and was still feeling it at 7:30 when I awoke. Regardless, I went down for breakfast - the hotel gave us vouchers for food at their partner restaurant next door. I ate, then gathered my things to move from this hotel to my new one. One of my group offered to help me, so together, we brought all my things about 8 blocks to the Vieja Cuba hotel. It was a really nice little place with a gated yard and an old fashion feel. I brought my stuff to my room, then took advantage of my second breakfast of the day! It was huge - scrambled eggs, toast, cereal, pineapple. I was definitely full now. I made my way back to the original hotel with Meagan, then when she had to get ready, I made my way over to a nearby coffee shop to chill until others from my group woke up. They had good wifi, so I was able to call my grandma to wish her a happy birthday. Later on, another one of my group, Jules, woke up and we went on a bit of a city adventure. She wanted to get photos developed, so we first went on a city hunt to find a place. When we finally found one, it was a little shop with a really nice old man that helped a lot and was able to print them all in 45 mins. Next, it was about time for lunch, so I recommended a nearby bakery that was good before. Since I didn't have a map, we had to always return to the main square so that i could get my bearings. We had empanadas and milkshakes which was great. Next, we went to check out a big outdoor market a few blocks away from the hotel. It must have had 100 little shops, selling handicrafts, clothing, souvinirs, etc. For me, there wasn't much that I would buy, since i've seen similar stuff this whole trip, but it was neat to look. Just had to make sure to stuff my phone in my money belt since tight places like these are notorious for theft. I'm hoping that i'm getting all these events in order - we did a lot of walking so perhaps one event came before another but it doesn't matter too much. We eventually went back to the photo place and this nice guy even gave a discount to Jules for ordering so many photos. We returned to the hotel again to drop these off, but after, we were trying to find more things to do in walking distance. The receptionist of the hotel recommended seeing a nearby park so with an hour or so before we said we'd meet up with the other two from the group, we made tracks down the road. When arriving at the park, it was neat, and pretty big, however beside it was a really large, interesting building that we decided to check out. Turned out, it was a big museum with free entrance. We checked out the exhibit, which was on ancient cultures of this region. They had lots of artifacts and models in the first room. When we checked out the models, this cute little girl would come up to us and point out little details on them. I think she must have been a kid of one of the security guards, but who knows - she was our unofficial tour guide. It must be boring for her though - it was a saturday and the museum was literally empty. I guess it must not be very popular in Ecuador. The next exhibit displayed gold artifacts. No english here, but i was able to read the spanish for the most part. Last section was on the arrival of the spanish and christianity. We left a little late from here but it was a cool find. We met our other two members at the bar who said we must be adapting to ecuadorian time (being late). We had a drink here, then moved on to dinner at the popular Crepes and Waffles restaurant. I asked the hotel to find it on the map, then i guided us there. Turns out, it's only a couple blocks away from my new hotel. It was a hard decision what to have since I still wasn't too hungry (a 5pm dinner was pretty early for what we're used to), but I decided on a "special waffle" (4 sauses, whipped cream and ice cream on top). More like a dessert but it was way too tempting to pass up. Walking back, we could tell that saturday night was starting - the streets were lining up with people and the music had already begun. Made my way back to Nü House hotel and hung out for about a half hour until the bus filled with the rest of our group (who went to otavalo today) had returned. We spent our last hour with most of this group in the lobby. The HLD bus returned for them at 8 to take them to the airport, and after a bunch of goodbyes, less than ten of us remained. I hung out for a bit with them, but decided to make my way back to the hotel before it got too late and dangerous. I got comfortable in my new room - had a nice shower and found out that i actually had an internet router in my room! I'm really liking it here - a good place to finish off the trip. I facetimed home to join my grandma's birthday celebration for a bit, the found some english on tv (X-men) before falling asleep
Crepes and Waffles
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