Quito, Ecuador, our "home base" for the next two months

Craft Market, New Town
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First visit:  January 14-17, 2009

Denny and I left Santiago, Chile for Quito, Ecuador, Wednesday evening, January 14, on LanPeru.  We stopped briefly in Lima and then flew on to Quito.  We were SUPPOSED to arrive at 2:55, be met at the airport and driven to our hostal, the Folklore.  However, in the midst of our landing the pilot pulled up and we soared off, scaring us almost to death!  He then came on the speaker to explain that the fog was too dense and we would circle for a half hour -- as long as we could, safely, before flying to Guayaquil instead.  Hopefully our pick up person would be made aware of the plane's troubles and plans.  Thirty minutes later the fog situation had not cleared so we flew to Guayaquil and landed.  The pilot suggested we try to get some sleep as we would not be allowed to exit the plane and would try again for Quito later "if conditions allowed."  We weren't too upset because our plane on Saturday to the Galapagos also went through Guayaquil, so we could stay and catch it from there if need be.  However, about 6 AM the pilot awoke us to say we would now be leaving for Quito and in a half hour, we were there, landed, and not met.  By 7:30 though we arrived at the Folklore, checked in, ate breakfast and went to bed!

We feel lucky to have stumbled upon this city adventure!

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Quito will be our home base for the next two months as we go and come on various adventures, spending a few days here in between to rest up and wash clothes.  It is a beautiful city, high in the Andes, at 9400 feet.  It is a very old city first built by the Shyris Culture in the first Millenium AD, conquered by the Incas in 1480 and then destroyed during the Spanish conquest.  The capital city was then re-built on the ruins in 1535.  Today there is both a "new" and an "old" town area to explore with many historical buildings, beautiful churches and museums.  It became a Unesco World Heritage site in 1979.  With a population of 1.5 million, it is quite a huge city now complete with suburbs, and ringed by both extinct and active volcanoes.  The last eruption was in 1999.

Folklore Entrance
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Friday we had recovered well enough to take a walk through Mariscal, the "new town" area, visit the South American Explorer's (SAE) headquarters, and enjoy a pizza and beer at Tomato's.  It was nice to be in a comfortable old home, exchange some books and talk with locals about where to go and what to see.  We will use SAE more on our return visits.  Following their recommendation we set off to find an Indian restaurant for dinner but we were too early and ended up at a pizza place we had walked by, Tomato's.  They make their pizza right by the open air windows -- one can buy a piece or a pie -- can stay and eat or order through the window and walk on.  The music was lively and the crowd suggested to us that it would taste as good as it smelled.  While there the skies opened up and a deluge poured forth.  We enjoyed our "schop" (mug of beer on tap).  Later, as we were walking home, the night crowd was gathering and there was a festive mood with lots of loud music coming from bars with karoke.  We resisted though as we were leaving for the airport to fly to the Galapagos at 5:30 AM.

The Basilica del Voto Nacional
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Second visit:  January 24-28, 2009

Returning from the Galapagos, we once again stayed at the Folklore Hostal.  Bernardo had kept our excess baggage and it felt like coming home.  Saturday was rainy and cold so we burrowed in and recovered from our early morning trip from the Islands.  What a change in the weather and temperature!!  I began uploading pictures for this site.

Sunday we met Steve and Vivien, a couple who would have been on the Parranda with us had it not caught fire and sunk four days prior to our arrival.  They were placed on the Alta, a sailing ship, while we went to the Evolution.  Meeting up at the airport once again we echanged stories and looked at one another's pictures while flying back to Quito.  We then agreed to meet at 10 AM Sunday to explore the "Old Town" of Quito together.

Views from the Basilica Tower
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We first went to the Basilica del Voto Nacional, reverently viewed the chapel and spectacular stained glass windows while mass was being held and then purchased a $2 ticket to take a tour.  Was this ever a fun surprise!  We went up two of the three towers -- all the way to the tops!  First there were stairs and then a wooden walkway and then ladders (and more ladders).  The views at the top were breathtaking!  Clouds covered the tops of the mountains making the volcanoes seem almost to be erupting.  The winged virgin was at eye level.  It was both scary and exhilarating!  In one of the twin towers there is a Tea House and a gift shop as well plus a history and pictorial representation of the 50 years it took to build the church (including accidents and deaths).  We feel lucky to have stumbled upon this city adventure!

Climbing the Basilica Towers
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Later we walked through the closed off streets and people watched.  Quito closes the streets leading up to their main plazas on Sundays.  We stopped at an outdoor cafe, the Tianguez, for a light lunch of empanadas and cervezas.  It was fun to share this adventure with Steve and Vivien, a pilot and flight attendant for British Airways.  We hope they will come to the Tree House one day soon!

Third visit:  February 2 & 3, 2009

Arriving back in Quito once again, we stayed a few days to rest up from our Otavalo trip, get clean clothes and re-pack for our trip south to the Black Sheep Inn on the Quilotoa Loop and Banos.  We changed hostals for variety and easier access to our favorite restaurants.  Quito is a fun place to be but we hear way too many stories about thieves and so we are very cautious and always are back to the hostal by dark.

Back again:  February 10-12, 2009

Being well read really paid off for us at the south bus station, Terrestre, in Quito as we were departing for Latacunga and the Quilotoa Loop last week!  A group of people walked by us as we were walking through an underground passage early in the morning.  Denny sensed something wrong just as one person got our attention to tell us we'd been sprayed with something nasty -- and offered to help us get cleaned off.  But we'd read about this ploy and wouldn't accept any help, sprinting to the main part of the terminal with security guards and more people.  There we cleaned ourselves off...but NOT a good beginning to our trip -- atleast no losses.  Many people have told us they have lost a bag or items from outside backpack pockets in this type pf scam.

These few days in Quito we concentrated on re-packing for going to Los Cedros.  We went to the huge Santa Clara market and to the north bus station, Ofelia, to orient ourselves and purchase tickets a day early to get our preferred seats and not have to worry about unfamliliar areas the day of leave taking (always a good plan, we have found).  The Santa Clara Market area, several blocks of wares, has huge grocery, furniture and appliance stores, a full block of fresh produce, meats and fish stalls, and is surrounded by smaller specialty shops.  We bought our rubber boots for the rainforest.  Denny got black but mine are yellow!

Friday, the 13th (no worries), we set off for the market and purchased the foodstuffs on Jose's list for Los Cedros.  It was fun to go to the Supermaxi, Camari and Deli to pick things up -- LOTS of many different kinds of beans, what does that suggest?  Camari is a GREAT store!  We bought grain sacks on the street and packed things for travel, grabbed a cab, stopped by the Traveller's Inn for our backpacks and headed to the bus station.  Ofelia is a smaller station and less threatening.  It serves the northern regions of Ecuador with rural routes.  No encounters of the terrifying kind this time, thank goodness!

And again:  March 14

And finally to fly back to Santiago: March 30