Arriving in Quito was a relief despite the fact that it took some 15 hours to get there. At one point in the morning, when Cusco airport had been shut for several hours and my flight looked no closer to taking off, I thought I was certain to miss my connection in Lima. Luckily the flight out of Lima was delayed as a knock-on effect of the Cusco delays and I was delighted when the girl at the airport told me it was delayed until 3.30 pm.
I didn't have much time to celebrate my arrival that night because I had to get an early night before a 8.15 am flight from Quito to the Galapagos Islands (a trip that would have been doomed if my flight from Lima hadn' t been delayed). On return from the Galapagos Islands I had two days in which to see Quito because I wanted to move swiftly on to Colombia.
I didn't see too much of the city on the first day because I met a bunch of Irish guys at breakfast who asked me if I was ready for an all-day drinking session and pointed out that it was St Patrick's day. As I had no fixed plans for the day I joined them for a trip over to Quito's new town. This area has most of the city's bars and restaurants etc; although we only really saw the inside of one Irish bar. It was a good day (and evening) out.
Day two was a bit more cultural as I took a stroll around the old town, where my hostel was located. It is filled with old, colonial architecture, narrow, winding streets and hills. Oh, and a lot of congested traffic. The main square is surrounded by government buildings and commercial centres. At one part of the old town there is a hill with a large statue of the Virgin Mary on it, but I was too lazy to climb up to it.
The second evening I was in a restaurant in the commercial centre when I saw this guy who was so drunk he couldn't pick up his umbrella. He also stumbled into my table while talking on his mobile. My table was on the second floor balcony that overlooked the courtyard below and this balcony became the scene for the drunk guy's funniest antics. At first this smartly-dressed man was arguing over his bill in the bar and theen there was a lot of thumping and crashing from inside the bar, which made everyone eating look round at each other.
Security, and then the police, were called to escort the guy from the premises but at first he refused to move. He started claiming they were trying to rob him and asked the police the immortal question: "Do you know who I am?". This police didn't know and this angered the guy who got to his feet and, with his index finger of his right hand pointing to the sky, shouted "These police are trying to rob me and they don't know who I am!". He then followed this by informing us all that "I am Pablo (somebody) of the Armed Forces". This impressed nobody and eventually he was led away; concluding the strange little episode.
Before this eventful meal, I took a ride on the 'teleferiQo'. This is a cable car that runs up one of the hills that overlooks the city. It takes you to an altitude of 4100 metres and from there you can get a great view over both the city and the mountain range behind. There is a selection of bars and restaurants and some hilltop trails you can walk along. It is also possible to rent horses; although I don't know how they feel about having to carry people at such an altitude.
That concludes my short description of Quito. I have only a few photos due to concerns about robbery and lack of time. Those I do have can be found at the following link...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30300&l=69bc6&id=603086503
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