My first full day in Quito

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So here I am at the Secret Garden Hostel. So far things are going well. Internet is fairly abundant and the water temp is luke warm, sometimes if your lucky it warms up a bit more.

Today I we went out to get breakfast that was an adventure, we went to a place called Fruitas Morentos * I think, for some reason the name is escaping me. We had ensalade con frutas y frutas con crema. So basically fruit salad with whip cream and starberries with whip cream and a nice sauce. Oh and fresh orange juice. While we were eating there was a guard with a giant gun behind us. I think he was keeeping the order.
Interestingly enough, we chose a spot that was frequented more by locals than foreigners so you can guess how many stares we got.

After we walked to the park across the street, there is paddleboating and canoeing which we will do upon returning from volunteering. We also saw armed security guards and various business men. We walked up this spiral tower and you could see the whole city.

Afterwards we continued walking through the park, we saw more guards and then took our picture with the presidente that gave Ecuador freedom. Well, it was his statue.
We walked around the city and found ourselves approaching the Balisica. That was really neat.

So we walked up the plaza to the balisica and hovered outside a bit, because we weren't sure if could go in or not. I also didn't know the Spanish translation (i'm working on that*. So we saw this mass of girls come and then they went inside so we did too. Wow, it was amazing.

Vaulted celings with painted glass, various areas for praying and lighting candles for various saints. They were very beautiful.

We walked around and took pictures, it was a mix of stone and wood. I will add pictures so that you can get a true sense.

Afterwards we left and walked around the back and found our way into a little courtyard, there we wandered and took more pictures. The mass of girls were there. We saw them buying tickets, we were curious. Turns out you can buy tickets to climb to the tower of the balisica. So we did.

Level after level, was breathtaking views of the surrounding Quito. The multi-coloured homes dotting the hills and the buses trying not to run people over. The city was in motion but from up there it was peaceful and motionless.

Upwards we climbed...

Finally we came to this incredible suspension bridge that was suspended over the valuted ceiling but a closed off vaulted celing so you can't fall through. It was pretty shaky, we calmoured across that and ended up at this dinky metal ladder leading to the outside world. We climbed.

Once outside, it was a panoramic view of the entire city. I could't believe it. So beautiful, even more than the taking pictures from the hill, which we thought was plenty high. But lone and behold there was another ladder. This one was a bit more daunting, I circled a bit and then decided to go. When would I be here again?

So...up I climb holding on for dear life and taking in the view. Again even better than the last one.

We ended up at the final part of the tower that was hollowed out where you could see everything from a birds eye view.

There were childing playing, young people playing volleyball, and people walking their dogs. On the other side there were buses and cars and people going about daily life.

We eventually climbed down after loads of pictures. I met an Australian who is staying at my hostel. She's really nice and she's by herself, I think we may become buddies because now I am by myself.

Tomorrow I think we decided to go to the market.

So after we climbed down all the ladders and crossed the shaky bridge we ended up back on solid ground. To our left was a lovely gift shop. We bought some postcards and then just as I was paying I saw this super cute squirrel incense burner. For all of you that know I love squirrels I HAD to get it. My total was $3 US for the squirrel and postcards.

I was happy.

Now we have gotten a bit tired and the desire to sleep is taking over. We decide to find our own way home, haha good luck.

We ended up quite far from ... so we taxied.

The air quality is very poor here, and the exhaust could suffocate anyone who had the unfortuante event of being stuck behind one. Plumes of black spat at us and tested our breathing.

So we came back to the hostel, after failed attempts to talk to the policia who have no english skills and many a cat calls from randoms.

Jen grabbed her stuff and headed to volunteering and I am here writing this. I am going to get some food hopefully it is really close to here. Maybe catch some zzzz and then find out what the locals are up to. By locals I mean the people here in my hostel, which interestingly enough happend to be predominantly Australian.

So that's that, hope everyone is well and having a good time.

Chat soon.

Meggs

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Comments

[Graeme Waymark]

Whooo !
Make the most of it; travel is to me my three kids and their mom, the best teacher any of us could have ever had. Learning another language and/or immersing oneself in another's culture is probably the greatest expression of confidence and courage! Way to go Meggs! Step - grumps graeme.