My Trip to Quito

ER in Quito – By Robin Fillner – SALUD Program Guest blogger traveling in Quito.
I left Quito Thursday morning at 6:30am. I was a little reluctant but excited to get home and see my husband. We are having our first anniversary today as a matter of fact. Due to the time difference, I got up at 4:30am, while he strangely decided to keep sleeping.
I arrived in Houston from Quito, where I had to spend the night in a hotel. I could have stayed overnight in the airport and saved 69$. This is definitely something I would have done had I been traveling with friends, due to peer pressure and out of fear of looking too cush or something, or about 5 years ago before I became a nurse and had enough savings to not work for awhile. So now, at the ripe age of 32 and with a little money cushion, I decided to splurge. The Super 8 where I stayed sucked. I had no soap, and there were people arguing at the front desk about something missing from their room. Definitely experiencing a case of the post-travel blues, I locked myself in my room and phoned some friends. Sixty-nine dollars for a crappy hotel room with nowhere to eat but Sonic Burger, Jack in the Box, and Waffle House. Houston was unbearably hot, flat, and the airport just god-awful generic looking. (In Quito, there would have been a little hostel for 5$ with tons of little menu del dia shops (a healthy meal for .75 cents to 1.75$ and probably salsa or reggae playing from a CD/DVD store next door.)
After taking a shower I changed into a skirt and T-shirt. I wore the same skirt that 4 weeks prior I angrily took off and shoved deep in my drawer in Isabel's guestroom due to the ridiculous amount of hoots and whistles I received from machismo men. I am so grateful that I can wear my skirt in the US and not get called out by it. I am also grateful for the rights women have attained in the US. It really is a big deal. Even while working at the hospital in Quito, the men would say, "Hello lovely," and it just made me cringe. Men in latin countries feel that their heightened social status over women is their right, and calling out to women makes them feel powerful and noticed. It happened to me a lot in Ecuador whenever I was not with a man and I was walking in the street. But then I met so many men that I couldn't imagine acting that way.
Now that I'm back a lot of people asked me if I ever felt unsafe. I was definitely nervous going there mostly because almost everyone I knew, with the exception of my friends that travel, had something negative to say about traveling to South America. But, once I got settled in I wasn't worried about anything. I always took safety precautions, like not walking alone on dark streets late at night or not leaving money sticking out of my pockets, but those are things that I would do in the US. I met some students at the school that had traveled through Columbia, where I think I would be a little nervous traveling, and they said that all the violence is with the mafia. That they pretty much keep to themselves. When I arrived in Houston and turned on the TV, I was bombarded with news about 6 women whose rape/murders have been linked to a serial killer. Didn't see that in Ecuador!
There are definitely political factions that rise up… In Quito, there was a peace march that the police decided to throw tear gas at, some of which wafted into the school. Aside from a little coughing, there was no violence or injury on our part. Life is definitely different there and it makes me appreciate the stability we have here, but I think when traveling you can't have any expectations and you have to feel confident. That's what keeps you safe. If I was going to rob someone I would choose someone who looked weak.
On the Park & Ride shuttle back to the airport the next morning I met a Zimbabwean man, traveling from Athens back to Galveston where he lives. He was a musician. Because he looks like a terrorist from Athens he was detained at the airport for 12 hours and then just let free – just like that. "Oh, sorry, wrong man," he said of the police's apology. Then, on the plane to Hawaii I met an American man that is retired and has been living in Naples for 11 years. He still doesn't know Italian! He calls himself a leisurologist and gave me a business card. Fantastic. Now I'm inspired.