Quito- How not to Spend Your First Day

Turtles and Dolphins instead of Gargoyles and Angels
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When I flew into Quito with my friend K, I had only taken family vacations to other countries, and followed the Rick Steves’ books so that we might never find a foreign treasure on our own.

Our flight was delayed about three hours from storm over Dallas , Texas . The taxi driver we had requested was still waiting, and I remember vividly walking down the short concourse with that precious yellow immigration form, saving the memory of these first moments. Although this would be disproved during my departure from the same airport, I remember thinking it was small, makeshift, like the Missoula , Montana airport before 1996. Sorry if that’s too specific. Here’s an explanation: there was no metal detector back then, just a guy smelling your thermos and asking you whether you really were there to hike. Anyway, this airport was seriously deserted at 12:30 am .

La Basilica de Voto Nacional
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Along the drive, we passed through areas of Quito that I would never see. We had read that much of the city could be dangerous, and at this hour, it was abandoned, so it looked worse than it was. Not that I ever explored that area of the city- a three dollar cab ride from the airport to the border of the old city. I remember the quiet catching of breath and anxious thrill of realizing how stuck I was in a marvelous new country. That type of freedom is exactly the type I seek. But for that moment, I was still naïve and saucer-eyed. We gave a fabulous tip to the driver (not only for waiting but on account of our confusion over cultural translations of the American dollar, the currency in Ecuador) when we arrived at l’Auberge Inn, excitedly practiced rudimentary Spanish with the night hostel clerk, and got our key.

Plaza Grande - Old Town
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We climbed the stairs to our modest room (bunk bed and separate bathroom with nice toilet and very hot water in the shower) and set up camp. That October night was surprisingly cool for the Equatorial region (or so I thought), and I grabbed a few of the thick, musty Andean wool blankets from a chest of drawers. The largest moth I ever saw emerged from the folds and flew to the doorjamb, where it perched and waited for me to open the door and push it out. I guess I should reiterate: the largest moth I’d ever seen. This thing was the size of a small rodent, just skinny. It was a great reminder of our new environs- not only another language, but hundreds of new species, many of which are only found in the singular ecosystems that exist throughout the exquisite countryside.

The next day was not as enchanting as we had hoped. Some excerpts from my email home:

"So far we´ve spent almost a day in Quito , the smoggiest city I’ve ever breathed in. Everyone has been very nice and helping us with our Spanish. The city is developed yet underdeveloped, and we both decided that it wasn´t for us. Tomorrow we´re catching a bus southeast to Baños, where the air is temperate and the hot baths are relatively cheap soaks. Highlights of Quito in a Day:

The Basilica del Voto Nacional is a beautiful somewhat aged church from early 20th century adorned with jutting turtles and iguanas instead of gargoyles, perched up by the Jesus stained glass. Inside I was delighted to see that in nooks along the aisles, were small Mary and Jesus dolls, the former of a Barbie-like plastic variety. We were hounded in the square below by children and missionaries selling postcards, but I guess there’s just no way to fit in. K is so good, she smiles and humors the children, I think they’re trying to scam me and ignore them. I guess we’re both half-right.

The Plaza Grande is gringocity, but we felt most comfortable trying out our Spanish with the understanding waiters at a cafe recommended in our tour book.

That day at lunch, in the touristy part of Old Town near all the churches, I had my first quimbolito, a yummy snack of cornmeal, egg, cheese, raisins, and sugar, rolled up and baked in a banana leaf."

Looking back, I am just so grateful that we had enough time to get accustomed to Spanish and traveling, so that we could return. The second visit to Quito was so different!

What I left out of the email home was this guy, Justin, we tried desperately to befriend at the hostel. He had just traveled through Egypt and seemed to be the most adventurous man I’d ever run into. There are so many habits and experiments for backpackers, we were clueless. I had done the research of reading up on lonely planet online and reading the tourbooks, but, well, when we met Justin in the morning, ready to explore, we were bringing our bags because we thought there was nowhere safe to keep them. He laughed, told us to put them in our room already, and decided not to accept our invitation to explore with us. That night, I met Justin at the pizza place downstairs and scolded him for going out after dark (which the tourbook listed as unsafe). How did I ever grow such a shell?! I thank K for her patience with me.

The next morning, before we prepared to get on our first bus headed to Baños (Spanish for baths) in the middle of the country, we enjoyed the typical breakfast and said goodbye to Justin. Over bread and jam with scrambled eggs and coffee, we decided that we (although possibly just I) were overanalyzing. Taking the caveats of the tourbooks with a grain of salt meant we could see the country as more open and less daunting, and see far more than we could if we kept our guards up so much. How did all these other backpackers do, it anyway? By being a heck of a lot chiller than lonely planet officially recommends, that’s how. (I’m sorry, lp, I love you.) I was so shy, wow, especially without any Spanish (I was a great nerd in high school and took Latin, which does mean I have a knack for roots and grasping syntax, but none for understanding cab drivers). Anyway, we put the most important stuff in our daypacks and thought we’d seen the last of Quito .