Day 1 (Friday 20^th September)

 

It was a sad event to start packing for our departure from Panama City, especially as we believed this would probably be the last luxury we will encounter on the trip. We did all the typical events of eating breakfast, packing and heading to the airport. Our flight was at 3:30pm but we were a bit worried about traffic, as it appears to be a general issue in Panama City (actually that pretty much goes for every country we have been to so far).

 

We landed in Quito Mariscal Sucre Airport after about 2 hours of flying. We were impressed by the airport’s modern appearance. However, while I was booking flights, etc.. a couple of months back I recalled that the airport was only opened in February 2013 which did confuse me a bit when I was doing my research. We went through passport control fairly quickly, the staff was professional and courteous. A vast difference to what we had experienced in Panama City.

 

It was roughly when we started to wait for our luggage when we first noticed it when we started feeling dizzy, our hearts were beating and it was harder to breath. Yes, we were starting to feel the altitude. Of course, Quito is the highest capital city in the world with an altitude of 2,800 meters (9,350 feet) above sea level. Luckily we did not need to move much so it was not too bad but the thin air was something that we struggled with for the next 2 or 3 days in Ecuador.

 

After exiting the airport we arranged a taxi; the taxi system is based on zones and there are no meters. We inform the driver of the address (Calle Los Rios) where we want to go to, he is not aware of the road but he think it will be fine. The driver informs you what zone and how much the fare will cost before you enter the vehicle. The fare from the airport is higher than the average, which was $25 (USD as Ecuador uses US Dollars as their currency, the only difference occurs in their coins which are still US cents but are localised). Once in the taxi we were immediately welcomed by an amazing sunset over the dry mountains.

 

We knew the taxi ride was going to be long, but us being foolish tourists we had estimated an hour ride to get to central Quito, however as mentioned before traffic is horrific. There is one road that goes up, down, round and through the windy mountains, in addition there are many other cars on the road all-trying to get home or to wherever they need to be. After an hour and 45 minutes we arrive to the outskirts of the city, the roads got even stepper and there was the appearance of small houses built on multiple levels and into the steep hillside.

 

The roads are narrow and pebbled, which does not deter our dapper driver. We arrive at the area that we believe is the address of the hotel, it just so happens to be in the busiest area in town, which is particularly popular on Friday nights as the place to go out. In every direction are restaurants, bars and people roaming the streets. We would probably be more interested in the buzz if we were not looking to get to our hotel.

 

After a lot of stressful and chaotic traffic we arrive at a street we believe to be connected to the street we are looking for, however no hotel is to be seen. We drive around in circles for ages. The driver has now been driving for close to 2 hours and we are worried that he will simply say he is dropping us off as this is the area we asked for. We were starting to think we would should abandoned hope in finding the hotel and that we should find another for the night. Luckily Izaskun is able to converse with him in Spanish, which I believe helped our cause. We pull over and ask a local restaurant owner if he is aware of the hotel. He tells Izaskun that the hotel used to be based in that very street but they had moved a couple of years ago to another area. He kindly shows us on the map where the hotel is and the taxi driver drives to the location. Eureka! We have founded the hotel. We pay the driver, a bit extra for the chaos. We are not sure if he was impressed with us but at least we managed to get to where we wanted.

 

We press the buzzer and we enter. The hotel (Mansion Del Angel) appears to be a converted government office or perhaps a large mansion. True to the name there is a general angel theme to the premises. The deco is quite odd with what to be me seems to be more of an Anglo-Saxon type of decor more than a Spanish or Latin theme. We checked-in and rested for the remainder of the day.

 

Day 2 (Saturday 21^st September)

 

The priority of the day was find and book a Galapagos tour, we woke up and ate our complimentary breakfast. It was a bit strange for us as the hotel did not appear to be busy so we had the whole breakfast room for ourselves. The food as simple but good which was a contrast from Panama.

 

After breakfast we headed to the area where we were the previous night. We asked the hotel reception how long it would take to walk to the area but they recommended for us to take a taxi. We were keen to explore the town so we ignored their advice. However, the advice that we did not ignore was to go walk around at night. The staff informed us that Quito and Ecuador in general are dangerous and that people do not walk around at night. So after our chat we headed off with a tourist map, which actually turned out very useful for the duration of our stay. We walked to the area which only took us about 20/30 minutes. The weather was nice and sunny but not humid which we welcomed having coming from rainy Mexico and humid Panama City.

 

We found a travel agent called “Galapagos Travel”. We had to wait a bit, as it appears to be one of the few places to be open over the weekend. We discussed our situation, which was that we were looking to do a 4 day boat cruise, or a maximum of 5 days if we could leave the next day. As September is the low season for Galapagos we were fortunate to find the last 2 spaces on a boat cruise called the “Majestic”. It was apparently the newest boat to be in the Galapagos which should be the most comfortable. We decided to take it but the only catch was that it only left on Monday, which meant that we would need to stay a day longer in Quito than originally planned. Not too much of an issue as it provided an opportunity to see Quito a bit.

After arranging the trip we decided to sit have some food and a beer, after which we decided to see the area a bit, along the way we bought a head-light which we thought we might need for our Machu Picchu trip. We also sat in the sun having a beer and catching a tan where we got a bit sunburnt. On the way back I was in charge of the map and hence the navigation and I accidentally turned the incorrect direction. We landed up on the other side of town. I was not in the good books with Iz but we managed to see a different side of town than we had not previously seen. It was hot and we were pretty tired and we had a longer walk now thanks to me.

After a while we got back to where we started. We sat down to rest for a while. A random Dutch man, who spoke pretty good Spanish, informed us that we should be careful, as there were a string of muggings in the area. We were confused as the people appeared to be very kind and calm and we were in a touristy and good area. It was not a particular good feeling to have to worry if there is something that we can judge or foresee. We walked through the central park looking at the locals and seeing what they do. It was a nice park with some quite different activities that you would see in a European park, for example there was a somewhat one man theater show which actually attracted a pretty large crown.

 

We slowly headed back to the hotel taking our time to explore the buildings along the way. The buildings were not spectacular but they were not slums either, the roads were also in a better condition than that what we saw in Mexico or Panama, which surprised us a bit. We did feel there was a sense of emptiness in the streets, there were not many people walking about, especially for a sunny Saturday afternoon.

 

After resting at the hotel for an hour or two we headed we decided to see if we could find some local cuisine. After searching on the Internet, we found a restaurant called “La Cuchara de San Marcos”. We ordered a taxi, as we cannot walk around at night, and headed over to the restaurant. Again, we could not find the place as it appears that houses to not have accurate house numbers but eventually we managed. The fare was only $3, which I remember thinking was extremely cheap, perhaps the locals all get around via taxis.

 

The restaurant was not quite what we expected but it was nice. It was a house with different rooms where guests could choose to eat. The other rooms housed a little shop with some locally made products and a small art gallery. Once we sat down we learn that it was actually a vegetarian restaurant but we were still curious to try the local food. We ordered a beer and some food. The beer was apparently crafted by the premises and was extremely strong, I believe it was about 7%. The food was really good but consisted of nothing that we identified as being particular exotic. At the end of the meal we were the only people left in the restaurant which was a our queue to leave as we were sure the staff were ready to go home. We ordered a taxi and returned home.

 

Day 3 (Sunday 22^nd September)

 

The extra day turned out to be a blessing, as we had not managed to see the old town centre. Quito was first declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978 along with Krakow. So Sunday was dedicated to the seeing the old town centre, again fortunately for us the centre was only about a 15 minute walk from the hotel so in the morning we ate our breakfast and headed over to the old town.

 

As we walked down we noticed many of the streets were closed off, apparently every Sunday is cycle day where people take to the streets with their bicycles, probably a good idea especially when traffic can be so overwhelming. As we proceeded, the first major attraction to see was a large cathedral simply called Basilica, which is a definitive landmark. Its spires can be seen from most parts of the town.

Proceeding further we arrived at the town centre which is the actual UNESCO site with its Spanish architecture, narrow streets and historical context. The old town is one of the best preserved colonial examples of the Spanish period of Ecuador and it can be see by its various churches and town squares. It was here in the town square that we attempted again to draw some money without much luck, again our cards were blocked and despite calling the bank (who told us that the cards were not) we were not able to get any cash. “It was a bit of a pickle”, as Izaskun would mildly put it.

We therefore we very conscience of spending cash as we were not sure when would be the next time we could get access to our money. Therefore, we simply proceeded to walk around the town looking at the sites. Luckily they were free to see. Some of the highlights of our stroll were: Iglesia de La Compania de Jesus (a Jesuit church with impressive baroque and Quiteno-colonial art) and San Francisco Church (established in 1536 and took somewhat around 400 years to complete).

 

Along the way we saw some “ladies of the night” hanging on the street corners who apparently also operate during the day. They were not nice to behold thou. After our sightseeing the places started to close down, this around 4pm now. It was a bit strange to see all the shops rushing to close despite there being tourists. I suppose it was Sunday after but still a shock for us. We started to make our way home, which was still hot so it was good to feel the rays on our skin.

 

That evening we were keen to get some food but the town was mostly closed, we did some research as to which places would be open. We determined that a small Ecuadorian restaurant near where we book our Galapagos tickets. We ordered a taxi, upon arriving we noticed it was very quiet and asked the driver if it would be open. He assured us that it would be. As we approached the door the person inside said they were closed and of course the taxi driver has speedily rushed away. We had to walk to another place that we know of but of course it was dark and we were starting to get concerned around the empty streets and all the crime advise that people had been telling us. We walked for a couple minutes until we found a small pizzeria, which we decided was the best we would be able to do without walking for ages. The pizzas were massive and good so in the end it turned out well.

 

After all the eating and drinking we headed home, via taxi again. This time it was $4 as it was a bit further than before. We packed for our Galapagos trip, which we needed to leave the hotel at 7am. We ordered the taxi at the reception and started to pack for our early adventure the next day.