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Its always a sad day when you have to leave a country you liked and it doesn’t get better when you are greeted by about 10 people on the bus station in
Ecuador which want to sell a bus ticket for their bus to
Quito. Haven’t been hassled in that way since I left India a few years ago. Not sure what they put in their food here but they should go easy on it. Anyway got a ticket in the end. The departure time which was promised as “now” was then also 30 minutes later and the bus took 5 1/2 hours instead the promised 4…
Quito and especially the “new town” is a gringo paradise. Everything here is set up for backpackers and tourists. There must be at least 20 backpacker hostels in this area alone, many many travel agencies, bars, restaurants and more internet places than you can poke a stick at. I think I have seen more tourists in Quito in one night than I have seen in Colombia in one month. It’s nice for a change anyway.
The first day I spent looking for a Galapagos tour which is the main reason for staying in Ecuador. You might be glad to hear that I managed to get one on short notice. Nearly to short notice as I arrived here on a Wednesday late at night and will fly to Galapagos on Sunday.
The usual thing to do when you go to the Galapagos islands is to go on a boat tour and that’s exactly what I am going to do for 8 days. After that I will stay another 7 days on the Islands before I return back to the mainland. As you can imagine it is not a cheap exercise and even the cheapest package of boat tour, flight and entry fee (USD100) comes to over USD1200. Well if you spend that much money then a couple of hundred dollars don’t make a difference I thought and booked myself into a first class boat. Ok ok the only reason why I did that was because I got a really good last minute deal. Normally a trip on this boat cost around USD1800 (yes that’s the actual priced I checked 😊 but they sold it here for USD 1050.
If you want to see pics of the boat then click
here,
here and
here
The cruise out of the way I spent the next day looking around the old part of Quito. I have to say that I didn’t expect a lot but it is in fact really nice. It’s the usual South American colonial town mix of churches, buildings with balconies and grand official buildings but Quito has something. One “highlight” is the new basilica. The construction started 1926 and it is still not finished. The basilica stands on a hill and gives you sweeping views of Quito from the church towers. The exciting thing is not the view but how you get to the top. First you take an elevator! up to third floor and from then on you climb a series of steps. The further up you go the steeper the ladder gets. Once you reached the top (and I mean the top) you can actually get out at around 70 meters and sit on the ledge of the church tower with nothing between you and the abyss. Have a look at the pic I attached. That’s what I call a view.
The next day I did a day trip to Otavalo which boasts on Saturday one of the most important markets in South Americas. Not sure how you determine how important a market is but my guidebook wouldn’t lie would it? The market is really gigantic and spreads out from the main plaza into the streets. Unfortunately its more a tourist market than the chaotic market I like. Was fun anyway.
OK and now I’m off to the Galapagos Islands. Yay.
This is where
Ecuador is
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