Welcome to Quito

Independencia Square, Quito Old Town

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So I finally arrived in Quito (altitude of 2850m) a couple of days later than originally anticipated (merely due to my own dizziness!). I checked into the Iguana Lodge - a nice family-run hostel which was basically the only place I was able to book via the Internet the previous evening. Anyway, they had no record of my booking & so ended up having to give me the only remaining available room which turned out to be a double with en-suite bathroom, whilst I'd only paid for a single without bathroom - hurrah!

Once I'd checked in I headed off for a quick explore of the city. I wandered from the new town over to the old town - further than I'd anticipated it would be. Then it started to pee down with rain & as I was inadequately dressed for such weather I pretty much ran all the way back to the lodge - & ended up feeling freezing cold for the rest of the evening!! I vowed to go shopping the next day & purchase a proper coat :o) I didn't do too much for the rest of that evening since I'd been warned about the dangers of wandering around alone after dark. So after dinner I settled down to watch some movies on my TV. I had to have the volume up quite loud to drown out the music from the local salsa-discotech (very popular in these parts).

Quito Old Town - Panecillo in the distance

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Early the next morning I was awoken by some building work which was going on about a metre from my head. Nice. So, I decided to get up & go & do some exploring, following the brekkie that was included in my room price. It was a strange mix of fried tomato & egg, dry toast, an unidentifiable  fruit juice & a cup of hot milk. As such, I left most of it!

I spent the morning doing some shopping in the new town, before heading over to the old town in the afternoon for a spot of sightseeing & market-shopping. I was surprised to see literally hundreds of police lining the streets of the old town. I know I'd be warned that Quito wasn't  the safest place on earth, but this was ridiculous. Mind you, it made me feel very safe indeedy!! (I later found out it was connected with anticipated  national protests). I had a spot of traditional lunch in a local cafe & then went for a wander around the tightly parked old town market, before heading back to the new town to move lodgings.

View of Quito from Hotel Rio Amazonas

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Saturday night was the first night of my Full Ecuador tour, & we were to be staying in a really plush hotel called Rio Amazonas (just around the corner from the Iguana Lodge). I went to meet up with my tour group at 5pm, only to discover that they weren't my group at all, & that my group was meeting up a couple of hours later. When the time came I discovered that there were going to be only 5 of us on the trip. I could only hope that we'd all get on well! 4 of us went for dinner together that evening to get better acquainted... Adrian & Ali from NZ & Janice, also from NZ. The other member of our group was a young Swiss girl called Monica. We just went to the hotel restaurant where we were plunged into darkness several times due to some fault with the electricity/lighting. Nice!