Quito, Ecuador: Part Uno

We arrived in Quito on the 26th of February. We checked in at our hostel, L’Auberge Inn. The hostel was pretty nice and had hot water! Halleluiah! The one down side was that our room was freezing cold, as was everything else in the city. Quito is a really beautiful city, although it was about 50-60 degrees the whole time we were there, and usually rainy in the afternoons. Quite a change from the 80’s we’ve been accustomed to. In Ecuador they use the US dollar, which was odd but a nice remembrance of home. Plus, we didn’t have to worry about the conversion rate.

We woke up early on the 27th and took a cab to El Panicello aka The Little Loaf. At the top was a really beautiful statue of the Virgin made of some silvery material. She was holding a dragon with a chain. We also got some really nice views of the city and the surrounding mountains. Afterwards, our cab driver dropped us off in the Old Town. There we wandered around Plaza Grande and got something to eat. After lunch we went to the Monastery of Santa Catalina. A guide showed us around and to our surprise took us to the roof of the building. We had to climb up some teeny tiny stairs, manoeuvre under the church bell and then finally hop up onto the roof, where we had some good views of Old Town. According to our Lonely Planet, the roof of the monastery has the strangest view in Quito. It was strange and scary, because there was no kind of security or fencing on the roof, so we could have easily slipped off. After a shaky walk down we wandered to Santo Domingo, and stayed there for a bit. Next we made our way back to our hostel. Along the way we stopped at the Basilica del Voto Nacional, which is known for having the deadliest view in Quito. The church had three towers, two of which you could climb. We went to the shortest one first, and had to cross a rickety old plank to get to it. We climbed some steep ladders and finally made it to the top, where we had to catch our breath. It was pretty scary, although not as scary as we expected. We went to the other tower thinking it wouldn’t be too bad, but boy were we wrong! This second tower was much higher, so it took longer to get to the top. We kept thinking we had reached the top, but there was still more to go. When we were unable to climb anymore, the floor was just some small support beams and thick chicken wire. We noticed that we were able to go out onto the ledge, which is about a 2 by 2 foot area on the very edge of the church. We carefully made our way onto it, and we were sufficiently freaked out! After taking a few pictures, we hurried back inside and made our way back down to firm ground. That night we decided to go to the local cinema and see a movie, 27 Bodas. A cab to and from the theatre, and two movie tickets only cost us $13. You can barely buy one ticket for that price back home!

On the 28th we got up somewhat early and took a bus into Old Town, where we then caught another bus to Mitad del Mundo, otherwise known as the equator. It’s located about an hour outside of the city of Quito. Other than the equator line and a monument, there was also several stores and restaurants. After taking pictures of us straddling the northern and southern hemispheres, we had lunch and a few beers. That was about all there was to see there, so we took a bus back to the city. That night we went to Quito’s Finn McCool’s! We had found a flyer for it the previous day, so we had to make sure we stopped in and have a few pints. The place was alright, but a few too many gringos for our tastes so we went to a nearby club, Matrioshka. We paid $10 each for cover, which got us unlimited drinks for the whole night! The place was pretty dead, but we met a really nice Ecuadorian, Cesar who we talked to all night. They had no tequila, so we kept taking whiskey shots all night. Oh god, why?! We loved the DJ, because he would play anything we wanted. We danced until closing around 2amish. As the bar was closing us, Cesar and the bartender all ended up going to this after hours place. We hopped in Cesar’s car and drove a few minutes to the club. At this point the night got a little fuzzy. We’re pretty sure we were the life of the party; dancing, drinking and talking to everyone! We are so cool!

We woke up the following morning, confused as to exactly how we got home. We may have taken a cab, or possibly Cesar gave us a ride. After two months of being in South America, this is the most drunk we’ve gotten thus far; which is quite a feat for us. This day we were definitely paying for the night before. We donned our hoodies and sunglasses and ate at the restaurant below our hostel. The rest of the day we pretty much lounged around the hostel, trying to get well enough for that night. We got ready and left the hostel around 11pm. We first went to a place called No Bar, which was described to us as a college bar with beer bonging and dancing on the tables. Well, it was a bar. But all we saw were old people dancing to 80s and 90s music. The music was good, but the people weren’t our cup of tea, so we left. We went to another club that had techno and salsa music and stayed there until close. For after hours we went to some place that had taco in its name. We got there and not too many people had arrived yet, but the music was good so we danced. We stayed for about an hour and then got home around 330am.

Saturday morning we were a little hungover again, but not as bad the night before. We checked out at 12pm and made our way to the hotel where our Galapagos Islands tour was to start. Our hotel was the nicest thing we’d seen in months! We each had our own double sized bed, a fridge, a flat screen TV with cable, a 180 view of the city, and hot showers. We were in heaven! We refused to leave our room, so we ordered room service. Twice. At 6pm we had a quick welcome meeting with our group. Afterwards we went right back to our room for some more quality time with the TV.

We woke up early on Sunday morning, as we had to leave our beloved hotel at 7am to get to the airport to catch our flight to the Galapagos!