Quito - round 2

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Upon arriving back at altitude, it was revealed that Paul’s previous stomach illness hadn’t cured itself in the Amazon and so we laid low for another day. More planning was done for our intended Galapagos adventure and we managed to find a good deal. After a minor recovery from Paul we headed for a day trip out of Quito to the Equatorial town of Mitad Del Mundo (middle of the world). Well at least that’s what it was reported as until fairly recently when GPS placed the true equator about 100m down the road. We knew it was a bit of a tourist trap but couldn’t help ourselves and posed on both the old (fake) and new (real) equator, tried to balance eggs on nails, walk heel-to-toe along the equator and generally played the good tourist role before ending back to Quito for the evening at the local microbrewery.

The following day we ventured up the TeleferiQo (cable car) to view Quito from above and challenge ourselves with a walk at altitude – something in the form of training for the Inca trail next month. The city of Quito sits at an altitude of 2850m and the teleferiQo takes you up to approximately 4150m. We then meandered our way a further 500m with a few stops along the way to appreciate the view and take photos as well as catch our breath and drink water to avoid the stomach and headache that come with altitude. We were very fortunate that the mist cleared away from the peak allowing us nice vistas over the city and our walking path – it made for a lovely experience for the highest Courtney had ever been.



As it was the last Thursday of November, which is American Thanksgiving, and since many of the hostel staff had lived in America at some point, they put on a $5pp dinner for anyone who wanted to join in giving thanks. Like we said, Community Hostel really lives up to their name! We were lucky enough to have Amelia and Dan (friends from high school) arriving that afternoon so signed us all up for the feast. Turkey, pie and swapping travel stories with old friends was a perfect evening, one we are both very thankful for.

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