The whole week before I was set to fly out, Heidi and I hadn't talked at all. All we knew was she was getting her retreat on and when she was done, we were meeting in Quito. The night before I left, I had a friend ask if I would bring some things down to a family. He had served his mission down there and he was very close with them. Of course I'll do it, I would love to meet them. He said they would be happy to pick me up from the airport and give me a bed for the night. Considering Heidi and I had not planned anything....sure why not. Heidi was coming into the city with a friend and they had booked a hostel. So I bailed on the hostel and went away with my new Ecuadorian family. Let me tell you, they speak zero English. And I speak barely passed high school Spanish. So you can imagine how many confused looks they were giving me. We get to their house and they start asking about my life and I sincerely tried to explain the Luge thing but sometimes you just gotta act like it never happened. And to be honest, a cute little family who lives in the heart of Quito could care less about the Winter Olympics in Russia. So as soon as I connected to wifi I get a hoard of texts from Heidi.
I send her the address and tell her to get here early before the family heads out for the day. So next morning I go wait on the street for her taxi. I had no idea if she was gonna make it, just casually meeting up at a house in a country we have never been in. Welcome to how we travel. Next thing I know I see this beautiful thing. You can see the separation anxiety in her face.
First thing I ask when she gets out, "doood is your Spanish better than mine? it better be". As the confident older sister she answers of course. The Padre comes out to greet her and Heidi starts speaking English. No Heid they don't speak a lick. Reality check. We are in Ecuador and we both barely passed Spanish.
Their little girl, Valentina, goes to roller blading camp. Brink status. Turns out they had extra blades. We strap them on and head to the street only until Mama called us in for lunch. Valentina and Heidi decided to keep the blades on cause they shred like that.
Which guys apparently blading is a thing in Quito. My kinda city. I had my days. Proof
Their little girl, Valentina, goes to roller blading camp. Brink status. Turns out they had extra blades. We strap them on and head to the street only until Mama called us in for lunch. Valentina and Heidi decided to keep the blades on cause they shred like that.
Which guys apparently blading is a thing in Quito. My kinda city. I had my days. Proof
Ok pretty sure those were the zip off pants. Its chill, dont look to much into it.
We went to skate at a park after lunch and everyone was cruisin around. Pads and everything. We were teaching Valentina some of our tricks we did as a kid, and when I say tricks I mean trick and I mean going through each other's legs. We are just two basic white girls, you know we aren't throwin anything special.
Blading also doesn't just stick to the cities, we headed to a town in the mountains called Banos that afternoon and look what we saw at dinner. These kids are the definition of cool.