The Beginning and end - Quito

QUITO is a remarkable city. We arrived in the capital city via Miami just after midnight on Tuesday 20th march 2001, and being so tired after virtually a day travelling, it was difficult to gain a first impression of the place, especially in darkness. One thing i did notice was the air, at over 2800 metres above sea level it was thinner, but although it wasn't difficult to breathe it reminded me of the warnings saying not to do too much in the first couple of days. As with Cuba, we had booked accommodation for the first couple of nights, and a cab to get us there, because we didn't fancy trying to find somewhere to stay at that time at night. I also noticed the gates leading out of the airport, as i recognised them from the film we went to see especially a week before travelling, Proof of Life, starring Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan which is set in Ecuador.

The hostal we had chosen is called Posada del Maple, (see links) set in the new part of town, amongst the other backpacker places. It's fantastic, i'd highly recommend it, although there are slighlty cheaper places. But you get a decent breakfast, good rooms with/without a bathroom and friendly staff. We liked this place - we kept coming back to it, because quito was the central base we kept coming back to before venturing off to another part of the country. The hostal will also store some of your luggage if you don't want to take it all to the jungle, for example. The first morning we had breakfast there a tiny hummingbird flew down to the plants just above us, I'd never seen one close up before - it was a shame none of us had a camera at the time.

Walking through the new town the next day we were amazed at the scale of the mountains set around the city. It was busy along the main streets, there were a few but not many tourists, and we noticed an alarming number of beggars. Most were young women, usually with babies; indigenous people who just sit on the pavement and stick their hands out with a desperate expression on thaeir faces as you walk past. The government is trying to dissuade begging so it is best not to give them anything. Some kids literally grabbed our arms and demanded money, they were only about waist height, we just had to firmly say no to them.

There are a great deal of good places to eat in the tourist part of quito, all situated in one area. Amazonas street is the busiest area - packed with restaurants, cafes and the many tourist offices that are handy for planning your trip. We weren't members of the South American Explorers club but we did go to the headquarters anyway to get some useful information. Foodwise there are many pizza places (including pizza hut), a mongolian barbecue, Thai restaurants, and loads and loads of internet cafe's. Apart from the jungle, it is very easy to email people in Ecuador, and very cheap, around a dollar for an hour. In fact the whole country is cheap - accomodation is usually about $6 each a night, and a meal won't set you back much. We went to Pool 6 a few times, to play some pool on tables which weren't actually too slopey. I even met a guy in there who went to my school and used to come into the fish and chip shop i used to work in which was pretty strange.

Poor Sarah

We decided to go to Old Quito the next day, and on the advice of a fellow brit in our hostal travelled on the Trolé service, a tram costing just $0.15. However it's jam-packed, and Sarah is not feeling too well and struggles to stop herself vomiting. We finally get out of the tram, check that we haven't been pick-pocketed (a common problem apparently) and head to the main cathedral, next to the Plaza de Independencia, a busy square which is also home to the Presidential Palace, and it was strangely packed with armed police. We wondered if there was going to be trouble... and there was - whilst me and dave were in the cathedral, lisa and sarah had found a place to sit down away from the shoe-shine boys, and sarah threw up. We thought this would make her better, but there was more sickness to come back at the hostal, and dave also felt dodgy. There are a number of cool cathedrals and churches in the city, they're easy to find with a guide book, such as San Francisco.

We took a cab for $10 to take us to the Virgin of Quito, a statue that overlooks the city, which is featured on the end credits of Proof of Life. Perhaps we paid too much for the cab, but it was worth it - the views over the city are immense. Dave took a set of panaramic pictures which he now has on his wall, and the city looks fantastic from up there. It's a shame that Quito is almost constantly cloudy, because we may have been able to see the Cotopaxi volcanoe. There's also a museum about how they made the statue, up which you can climb to the rim of the statue for the best views. Apparently its safer to take a cab and not walk up there because of reports of muggings on the way. After returning to the city, the girls made their way home because sarah felt so ill, whilst me and dave went to a museum and saw a little more of the old town.

When we got back to the hostal the girls were asleep, but later sarah was violently ill, both ends, was it altitude sickness? Who knows - we took it easy enough, perhaps she just ate something dodgy.

The middle of the world

Leaving poor sarah back in bed, the next day we take a bus to 'Mitad del Mundo', about an hour or so away. The bus is very rickety and hot, but only cost us $1.02 between us. These buses are funny things, people get on and off at random, and vendors constantly come on trying to sell ice cream, sweets jewellery etc. Silly me didn't realise you had to give the sample sweet back, and ate it. Everyone laughed at me. There are different types of buses in quito - red or blue. One of them is about half the price of the other, but judging by the smog coming out of the rear it's probably wise to spend 15 cents and travel in (relative) luxury.

This place is a monument to the equator, giving cheesy photo opportunities with one foot in each hemisphere. Kind of like the Greenwich line, but of greater significance and and an altoghether different setting. Its a nice place, we had a decent lunch and the museums are interesting. Unfortunately we were disappointed to find that the toilets flushed the same way either side of the magic yellow line, but dave pointed out that this is because the geographical equator is slightly different to the magnetic equator.

Most impressive of all however is the scale model of Quito at the place. Make sure you see it if you're there. It took the guy 8 years to make, its very detailed and even has a sunset/sunrise effect with lights coming on in each building at night. The guy has 7 other models on the go, there's also a model of Guayaquil and loads of impressive boat models and paintings. We chatted to the artist for quite a while, he was a genuinely nice guy - i felt guilty about not tipping him, but we did pay to get in and didn't actually have much money on us at the time.

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