Quito and Otavalo - Equador....Part 1

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The journey into South America has begun....

Quito has a nice cosy airport which was a welcome disembarkation point after our 1 nighter on the carpet tiles of Miami Airport. At least we knew that we were heading off to a decent shower and bed in an hour or so.

Hostel Chicago in the old town has doubles with shower going for USD15 a pop. Must be the age, but dorm rooms, unless no other choice, are not an option. Although San slept for a few hours on the floor in our overnighter in the Miami airport with the clock announcement going every 15 minutes and lift music playing incessantly, the tossing and turning of other people in dorm rooms seems more intrusive. Read on another person's blog about sleeping in airports... had us in stitches.

The first few days were pure administration. Including Richy's saga with uploading music onto his newly bought ipod. Thankfully, after much traipsing around the Mariscal area (new town Quito, where South American Explorers and most of the travel agents sit), we finally land spaces to a first class diving liveaboard to Galapagos for 10 days. Sooooo lucky! However this meant leaving Ecuador later than planned by about 8 days. Subsequently we are not going to make it back to UK for Christmas but 27th December instead. The good news to all the folks back in UK is that we get another week (3 weeks now instead of 2) to catch up. San also managed to get her Bolivian visa - oh to be Malaysian ;0)

Big travel tip: book such a specific (diving oriented) type trip way before you want to go. Spaces for normal cruises are easy but not for pure diving liveaboards under the dates you prefer. The way its heading soon Galapagos diving will only be a place for the rich and famous.

Saturday 11th we managed our first sightseeing foray to the old town filled with narrow streets and old colonial buildings. This place has so many churches that it makes you wonder how they fit the commercial buildings in! Pictures of this will be posted at a later date as the camera has been left in Quito

On the weekend we made a plan with Natalie & Lawrie (a Kiwi/Ozzie combo) whom we met in Chicago hostel, to go to Otavalo as an alternative plan to Baños - a quaint spa town surrounded by volcanos. Baños was perportedly on strike in protest for not receiving adequte compensation during the evacuation after volcanic activity a year ago.

Otavalo is a 2.5hr, 2USD per person bus ride from Quito. We were dropped on the main highway and trugged into town to find Hotel Riveria Sucre - number 1 on the lonely planet list and got a discount for our SAE membership of a few bucks. The cozy but cold place was made good by a log fire in the evening, super friendly Adrianna and team and home cooked beef stew that we knocked up for 1/2 a dollar a head - soooo cheap in Equador to self cater. Adrianna even let us try some beetles that they had started preparing a day earlier. left to soak in water overnight before frying them up and eating it with roasted maize.

Amongst the rain showers we managed trips to the Peguche waterfall and the Laguna at Cuicocha (3.068 m above sea level.) The walk around the crater rim was a great experience with a world of alien plants. Later that day, we headed to the colourful and vibrant Otavalo market.

We returned back to Quito during a nice sunny day on 16th November and spent the morning of the 17th on top of the volcano that over looks Quito - Guagua Pichincha.
This involved a taxi to the Teleferico then up from about 3000m to 3800m via cable car. The rest of the way to the top (about 4160m) was by foot plus lots of huffing and puffing. Sights of Quito below were stunning and made us think of how vulnerable this city is if Pichincha was to let all hell loose again.

Well we are now poised with tickets in hand for Galapagos islands - fly 8am tomorrow morning with a bit of luck. Both can't wait.

Here's a few pictures to go on with. The rest will be posted after Galapagos.

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