Quito, the views are unbelievable

Well, we arrived in Ecuador, and although I hadn't really seen any of it yet, I decided I absolutely loved it.  No questions.  I was quite surprised by the little that I had seen actually.  I had been expecting a similar scene to Mexico, with run-down buildings and incredible poverty, but the city seemed really modern.

We checked in to the coolest hostel yet.  The rooms were really cute and quaint, and the terrace restaurant/bar at the top had the most amazing views out over the city.  It was dark when we got there, so all we could see were lights and mountains - it looked good though!  There were loads of other travellers there, including a fella from Dublin, and a guy called Sam from Lurgan!  We had a few beers to celebrate Mikey's birthday, and when it shut at 11, we headed to bed.

The next day we got up for some of the $3 all-you-can-eat breakfast, then headed into the old town.  To be honest, outside Cathedrals and museums there´s not a lot to see, but the town itself is really pretty.  And very hilly.  You really notice the altitude when hiking up hills that laugh in the face of San Francisco.  We headed up to the Basilica, a really beautiful church, where you can actually climb the whole way up to the top of the steeples.  It´s really cool, if a little hairy on some of the ladders, but totally worth it for the amazing views of Quito.  We stopped and had a coffee in the cafe just below the bell tower, and admired the vista.

Back in town, we wandered a little more, and then had a bit of lunch.  After a while on the internet, we headed back to the hostel, and started to celebrate my birthday!  We sat up on the terrace chatting other hostellers, and then had the dinner there.  That all went fine until the guys decided to sing Happy Birthday to me in front of everyone.  We headed out with a few others in tow - Sam, Tony from Galway, the two South African girls, and some others - and went to a bar in the New Town.  We met Dave and Louisa in there, who told us about a club we should go to, called No Bar.  We headed in there - I got in for free, the others paid $4 in and got a free drink.  The club was grand, just a standard house music kind of place.  There were some girls dancing on one of the bars, and the lads were trying to get me up there - myself, Sam and Tony were practising our 1 2 3s just in case!  They got down after a while though, and the boys were absolutely disguisted when they saw their replacement.  Four guys, dressed as police officers in PVC trousers appeared, and started dancing and stripping.  The boys decided we should leave soon after.

The next day we got up quite late, and headed into the old town for some food, to a restaurant that we had seen in the guide book.  It turned out to be one of the poshest places in the old town, so we felt a bit stupid sitting there in our civies, slightly hungover.  The plan then was to head back, put on some warmer clothes, and head up to the cable car.  By the time we got back though, everyone decided that it was a bit late, so we didn't go.  We're such rubbish travellers.  We had a few drinks on the terrace, and headed out for a few games of pool.  It was a quiet enough affair.

On Saturday we attempted to get up early (it kinda worked), and the four of us and our new friend Madeleine from the States headed off to Otavalo, where there was a big market.  It was about 2 and a half hours away, and the bus journey was mad.  We got a taxi to the bus terminal, but we didn't actually get on the bus there - you just stand at the roundabout outside, and hop on when the bus goes past.  It stops loads along the way, but not just to pick up passangers.  Every 10 or 15 mins someone would hop on the bus, selling anything from water to ice cream to sweets, and then hop off again a little futher down the road.  It was pretty cool.  The road was entirely through the mountains, and provided views to rival the grand canyon.  The first half was really barren and sandy, and then all of a sudden became really lush and green for the second half.

The market itself was all over the town, with hundreds of stalls with clothes, ponchos, crafts, jewellery, and everything else you could think of.

Mozzie bite status: None so far, so fingers crossed.

Click here for all the Quito (and around) photos.