Last days in Quito

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So begins the last stop in our 3 month trip. We arrived in Quito at a bus terminal we weren´t expecting to be dropped off at, leaving us to wonder exactly where we were. Thankfully a information kiosk was available, open, and able to point us to the public transit system that would take us into town. We chose to spend our time in Old Town Quito because 1) it seemed way cooler and 2) safer. Forty minutes later we pushed and shoved our way off the bus and arrived at parada Santa Domingo from where we began the exhausting hostel search. An hour and a half later I was on the brink of a meltdown, Matt was Grumpy McGee, we were sweaty and exhausted yet still we had no hostel. Everything we looked at was either really expensive or really disgusting and there seemed to be no middle ground. After traveling for an extended period hostel hunting has become one of the somewhat-dreaded activities that a new city brings and Quito was no exception. We resigned ourselves to walking back across town to the first hostel we had checked out (depressing) when we decided to look at one more, Hostel Mediodia which translates to Hostel Noon. Winner! It was cheap, a little charming, had an enormous room with enormous windows and was reasonably clean. Plus, it had a table and we rounded up two chairs which makes Matt so happy. A pizza dinner then we were back to the hostel to relax and make our plans for day 2.

No so early we started our Lonely Planet suggested walking tour of Old Town. We started with fruit cups from the restuarant next door followed by a larger breakfast further down the street. At this point our spanish is certainly adequate enough to get us from the beginning to the end of a meal with minimal confusion between ourselves and the waiter. This breakfast, however, left the cashier thinking that we were idiots and us thinking that the cashier was an idiot. Matt gave him a $5 bill for the $2 breakfast and he gave us back $5 in change. After a couple minutes of language barrier/general confusion most people would have just walked away having scored a free breakfast, but we had our honest hats on today so continued to try to give him back the money. The woman who came over to try to remedy the situation tried to explain the coins & bills to us but, ladies and gentlemen, Ecuador uses American money as it´s currency and believe it or not we´ve been counting money ever since the tooth fairy stuck two dimes under the pillow. We persisted and eventually won out (or lost) and left paying the $2 we owed.

Onwards to Palacio del Gobierno (Governers Palace) and La Compania del Jesus. The latter is one of the most ornate churches in Equador with green-and-gold domes and seven tons of gold gilded into the walls, ceilings and alters inside. Then to Plaza and Monastery of San Franciscon which is Ecuador's oldest church with spectacular mountain views. Historic Juan de Dios Morales Street and La Ronda followed and was filled with many cafes and restuarants though all were strangely closed at the time. Plaza de Santa Domingo , Simon Bolivar monument, Parque La Alameda and the Quito Observatory rounded out the tour. Unfortunatley I felt less than stellar in the afternoon and finished out the day relaxing in the hostel. Matt kept himself occupied continuing the Galapagos portion of the blog 😊

Day 3 we had planned to go to the nearby town of Otavalo to explore the famous indigenous market but we learned that it was only worth the trip on Saturdays and Sundays. Since it was less exciting to visit during the week we nixed the plan and headed to New Town Quito (Marsical) to get our souvenir fix. We have avoided buying many ssouvenirs earlier in the trip because everything we buy ends up in our packs and makes carrying them even less enjoyable. As Matt likes to say, ´watch your ounces and the pounds take care of themselves´. As a side note, Matt hates hates hates shopping so I think he had an ulterior motive to the ounces/pounds thing. Anyhow, we spent the day wandering the tourist-filled streets and buying memorabilia. We walked back to Old Town in the afternoon and stopped at one of Quito´s oldest icecream parlors, San Augustine, though neither of us were overly impressed.

Our last day! Somewhat a repeat of yesterday, even the Greek lunch. We put our barganing skills to the test and walked away from the Artisans Market with some cool stuff. Unfortunately our shopping high was followed by a bus ride low when Matt´s pocket got slashed by a chica malo in attempt to steal his wallet. Thankfully the attempt was unsuccessful (he noticed right away becuase his leg got knicked) though all that would have been lost was about $5. Still, we leave Quito with a bit of a bad taste in our mouths, bummer.

Next stop.. Philadelphia USA!

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