Quito's Ark

We had a few days to settle into our apartment and into our school routine of orientation after moving in. Shannon and I got into a routine of walking to work and taking in all of the sights. On our way we pass the beautiful Mount Pichincha, a small volcano and a hell of a sight to see. We also pass a few dry cleaners, a pizza place, a few markets, and a three bakeries. They love bakeries in Quito. We also almost always see some stray street dogs. Ecuador, like many Latin American countries, has stray dogs roaming around and I suppose given the moderate climate they are able to thrive without much interference.

On our first walk through our neighborhood, we were leaving a bakery and Shannon decided when she saw a nice scruffy street dog, it would be appropriate to give him a croissant. Being a dog lover myself, part of me wanted to help the little fella, but given the possibility of rabies or other infection and the prospect of Shannon becoming a pied piper of Ecuadorian stray dogs I had to remind her that they were wild animals and it wouldn’t be wise to feed them. She looked at me square in the eye and gave the dog the pastry. There is no stopping her when she wants to do something.

When we got home a few days later, we found bird feathers in our apartment hallway. This is odd for many reasons. First, we are the only apartment on our floor. Second, there were bird feathers strewn across the tile hallway as if there was some kind of ritualistic animal sacrifice. Third, while we have a common area courtyard type thing on our floor that anyone could have access to, no one ever goes out there. Fourth, there were freaking bird feathers all across the hallway. What?! I haven’t even seen a bird in this country yet! (Although I have been told that due to the cloud forest, mountains, and Amazon, Ecuador has more bird species than all of North America and Europe combined even though it is a country the size of Nevada) We never found out what was up with the bird feathers, but hey a different culture is what we wanted.  Oh well, weird stuff happens here sometimes.

About a week later we were on our way home from school and Shannon grabbed my arm and shrieked. On the sidewalk where we were walking was a pig’s head. Let me reiterate so you don’t think there was a typo. There was a pig’s head on the sidewalk. Just the head. It looked like it may have come from a pig roast, but the side of a busy street in the middle of a city is still a weird place to see a pig’s head. Whole. Just the head. Again, it just seems like one of those unexplainable things that happens when you go from one culture to another. Things you don’t understand happen all the time. And hey, at least the stray dogs could eat without Shannon spending all of our money on croissants for Ecuador’s dogs.