Quito, Ecuador

Houston Lori and Ian ready for trip
see all photos »

2008-12-30

Little did Lori and Ian know that their entrance into Quito would take 2 hours. Their plane arrived late into Quito and two other planes arrived at the same time. Customs only had 5 lanes open out of 10. It was the longest customs wait that Lori and Ian had ever experienced. They breathed a sight of relief when they finally cleared customs and their luggage was waiting at close to 1 am. They easily found a taxi outside the airport and were at the hotel within 15 minutes. The dinner service on the plane had just been sandwiches and much to Ian’s disgust included cheese, so Lori and Ian were hungry when they arrived at Hotel Rio Amazonas. Luckily, there was a 24 hour restaurant in the hotel. After a hamburger and some local soup, the pair were feeling tired and quickly went to sleep. Unfortunately, Ian was still suffering from his cold and started coughing in the middle of the night. Between that and all the loud music from outside, they didn’t have a peaceful sleep, but slept well into the morning.

The first steeple they went up included a rickety wooden bridge over the top of the sanctuary of the church and several sets of steep ladders that you could see straight down through.

Quito Ian climbing inside Iglesia de la Basilica del Voto Nacional
see all photos »

Lori and Ian had some breakfast and then set out in search of a pharmacy for Ian’s cough. They managed to find some medicine, which appeared to have worked. They then set out to explore the city. They stopped at Iglesia de Santa Maria, wandered through Parque El Ejido and Alameda and then went to La Basilica del Voto National to take in the deadliest view of Quito according to the Lonely Planet book. Lori and Ian soon discovered why the view from the church had this name. The first steeple they went up included a rickety wooden bridge over the top of the sanctuary of the church and several sets of steep ladders that you could see straight down through. The second steeple that they climbed up included a spiral staircase and if you had the nerve, you could sit outside the steeple. Lori and Ian only sat in the opening that lead to this, but you will see in the photos that there were many people that went out onto the ledge. After seeing the Basicila, Lori and Ian walked into the Old Town area of Quito. They noticed as they went up and down the hills, they were slightly out of breath. Quito is at an elevation of 2850 meters. This area of Quito reminded Lori and Ian of various places they had seen in Spain in terms of the architecture and colours. They stopped in Plaza Grande to take in the pretty square that included a cathedral, Palacio Arzobispal (now houses small, quaint shops), and Palacio del Gobierno (President’s palace where the President does have some business meetings). It started to rain, so Lori and Ian decided to take a taxi back to the hotel. Ian was pretty tired from all his coughing the night before, so he took a nap and Lori spent some time trying to catch up on the journal. They went to the Texas Ranch for dinner that night. They thought it was going to be TexMex food, but soon found it to be more of a steakhouse. Ian had another burger and Lori had some chili. They had an early night to try and catch up with their sleep and to see if Ian could get over his cold.

Quito Grande Plaza
see all photos »

Additional photos - http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=ABFB123C75F&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

2008-12-31

Lori and Ian had to meet with Esteban from Gap tours in the morning, so they did not have a late lie in. In order to save some money, they had brought some yogurt, granola and milk at the store in the day before and had that for breakfast. After their meeting, they went to a grocery store to buy some sunscreen and snacks for their trip to the Galapagos Islands. They picked up some sandwiches for lunch. After lunch, they walked back into Old Town. Along the way, they took in various political effigies that were put up to be burned later that night. and saw a few more places including Plaza Santa Domingo and Church of Santa Domingo. They then took a taxi to El Panecillo (little bread loaf), which is listed as the holiest view of Quito. The hill is topped by the Virgin de Quito statue. We had some great views over Quito and had not realised how big the city was. While they were there, there was an avalanche of clouds over part of the city creating some spectacular views. As we knew it would be a late night, being new years, we went back to the hotel. Lori took a long nap while Ian napped and worked on organising the photos. Lori and Ian treated themselves to new year special dinner at the hotel that night that included a prawn crepe to start, a king prawn, turkey, carrots, fried potatoes, broccoli, Christmas rice, and a pear soaked in red wine as the main and a chocolate cake with fruit for dessert. As Lori and Ian could see the street with the effigies on them from their hotel room, they enjoyed watching the crowded streets from their rooms as well as the numerous fireworks that were being launched from the street.

Quito Iglesia de la Basilica del Voto Nacional Lori at top
see all photos »

Additional photos - http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=AE8E723C769&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

2009-01-01

The day started with a trip to the sandwich place they had had lunch at the day before. After lunch, Lori and Ian walked to parque La Carolina, which was west of their hotel in an area they had not yet explored. Lori misread the map and when they were almost there, they turned back. They circled the block and managed to find the park on the second attempt. Lori and Ian were the only tourists in the park. It was packed with families enjoying the day off work in the sunshine. Many were busy playing football (soccer) while some were paddling around a pond in boats and others were riding their bikes in a bike park. It was quiet warm and after an hour or so of wandering through the park, Lori and Ian went back to the hotel. They finished packing for the next day and went to dinner at The Taco hut. They were pleased to get their fix of Mexican food. Ian enjoyed chicken fajitas, while Lori savored her tacos of chicken, beef and chorizo.

Quito View from Iglesia de la Basilica del Voto Nacional Ian and Lori
see all photos »

Additional photos - http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=A369713C780&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

2009-01-02

The alarm went off early this morning, as Lori and Ian were picked up from their hotel at 6:15 am. They went to the airport with a family from Boston, but found out that they would not be on the same tour in the Islands as them. To read about Lori and Ian's adventures in the Galapagos Islands, please continue onto the next section.

Quito Iglesia de la Basilica del Voto Nacional Ian and Lori
see all photos »

2009-01-06

We flew back to Quito that afternoon. We checked back into Rio Amazonas. Ian still was not over his cold, so we went to a pharmacy and with some help from a man who was already there, we were able to get him some nasal decongestants and antibiotics. We want Ian to be 100% for the four day Inca trail hike in 7 days. We had a great Mexican meal at Red Hot Chili Pepper for dinner. Lori had veggie tacos and enchiladas and Ian had beef fajitas.

2009-01-07

As Ian was still trying to get over his cold and we had a late night flight to Lima, we tried to make the most of the time in our hotel room and catch up on sleep. After we woke up, we were hoping to take in one last view over Quito at teleferiQo, which was listed as the most breathtaking view in our book due to its elevation, but unfortunately, the weather was very cloudy in the hills. We went and got some sandwiches and relaxed in the room. Once we got kicked out of our rooms, we went back to the sandwich shop, which had wireless (it took us an hour and a half to get it working as they could not seem to get the right password for us) and worked for several hours on the journal, photos and catching up on emails. As we did not have access to the internet as long as we had hoped, we decided to get our things from the hotel and head to the airport. We shared a cab with another traveler who shared his storied about his trip to the Antarctica on Aurora Adventures, which sounded amazing.