Blogs from Historical Center, Quito, North, Ecuador, South America

We have a saying in the UK, usually used when the powers that be suddenly step in and stop you doing something (or apply a load of rules and regulations to something) that you're capable of doing without mishap, because someone lacking in common sense may or may not injure themselves whilst carrying out said task...... 'Health and safety gone mad' After a day of wandering the city my first impression of Quito, and I’m guessing this may apply to much more of South America, is that if it was possible this city is the exact opposite of that saying, but as I can’t think of what the exact opposite to the silly saying would be I’ll settle with ‘Wozers, I can’t believe we were allowed to do that’ and also ‘Sorry Mum, I promise that ... read more

hey all, so before i get into what is probably our last blog, this one about being in the amazon jungle, a couple of bus details that i left out last time - which we think are kinda funny (though only after the fact!). on some busses, a fellow will come by and film each person onboard incase there is an accident and they need to match the face to whatever is left. yikes! in our last blog, i mentioned that the busses stop OFTEN. well on our trip to quilatoa, we had many chickens tied to the roof and each time an indigenous person would barrel down the aisle to get off (typically hitting everyone along the way in the head), they would then have their chickens taken down. the bus would start again, and ... read more

since our last post... left cuenca for the long bus ride to riabamba. as dorota was still feeling under the weather, we did not ride the rooftop train down the "devil´s nose". we did however have the worst pizza we could find :) riabamba seemed to be completely under construction and covered in dust, so we high-tailed it out of there, taking another bus ride to banos. a few words about bus rides: long, loud chaotic music, dirty diapers, sick passengers, many indigenous people, with their awesome outfits, consisting of shawls, long skirts, high heels and fedora´s. strange, but wicked. so...banos... great little town, surrounded by mountains. a bit overfull of tourist-related tour companies and bike rentals, but nice nonetheless. we rented some mountain bikes and rode down the mountain, stopping at the many waterfalls, riding ... read more

First day on the trip after a long, long flight from Australia (32 hours!). Catherine and I slept off the jet lag, meeting Bill and Wendell before breakfast. We have a pleasant hotel well situated near the touristic centre of the town. After our first cup of Ecuadorian coffee we headed off on foot to see several spectacular cathedrals, and a museum of pre-columbian art. Really quite freaky, with one memorable piece consisting of a plate supported by two legs. Here’s the thing though, the plate resembled a pig squashed flat and the legs were like the legs of a centurion. The weirder end of Art deco, but dating back to well BC. Lunch was in a very pleasant courtyard restaurant where we sampled ceviche for the first time. Brilliant. In the evening we sauntered down ... read more

Historical Quito part I... read more

Lets just start off by saying that south america goes off. First day, we got off to an early start and had an amazing breakfast at a chocolate café called kallari. After a good cup of joe and tortas y huevos con queso, decided to take advantage of a perfect day in Quito. Quito is situated in a valley, roughly 2,000m high, surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the closest of which is Volcan Pinchincha. After a gondola ride roughly 2/3 up the mountain, followed by numerous pictures, set out to conquer the volcan. Pinchincha is around 15,700 feet high. After a long trek and a steep climb, I reached the top, that of which was climabale without equipment. Cold and a little dehydrated, ran down to meet my sister who made it half way ... read more