Chocolate, Cruises, & Colonial Churches

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First full day in Ecuador started off with breakfast in the courtyard of Casa Helbling. $2.80 gets you great bread, tea or coffee, jam (guava and blackbery) butter, and fresh squeezed fruit juice... Eggs and cheese are about two or three extra.

Nice place to eat breakfast, surrounded by lots of potted flowering plants, and a giant tree in the middle, sticking up through a hole in the roof, with some birds hopping around on the roof.

It's a nice place to stay, in general. Helpful staff, very clean, with a small library of books, lounge, kitchen, laundry, safe, and rooftop terrace. While we were there they were in the midst of repainting everything, so looked good! Only complaint was the gas tank running out during our stay... Cold showers!

Most of the first day was spent looking at travel agencies for a good deal on a Galapagos cruise. Tiring work, but pays to shop around. Toook a break for some excellent hot chocolate and cake near our hotel... Ecuador reportedly has some of the best chocolate in the world, and it certainly is good! Worked for a chocolate company for a few months last winter, so know a bit about the good stuff.

After a bit of confusion with one travel agency offering the boat on one date, but not the itinerary we wanted, we ended up going with Sangay Tours, which came well recommended.

8 days, 7 nights (that time includes flights and transfers so more like 7 days for $1275, on the Guantanamera (like the song?), itinerary A, from May 6-13. Doesn't include flight to Galapagos or the $110 national park and migratory control fees, but that's okay.

Prices vary, so buyer beware! The second place we went, Gulliver's Travels (tempted to make a Gullible/Gulliver joke here) quoted us $2400 for the EXACT same thing, yikes! Almost twice as much.

Wandered around the new town a bit, but not much too see. New buildings full of clothing shops, travel agencies, bars, hostels, and restaurants mostly... Meh.

Lots of little tiny fruit and junk food shops, with great tropical fruit. Some odd ones, like 'tree tomatoes', but some more familiar stuff. I've eaten a huge amount of rambutans in the past few days, and when passionfruits and 6 for $1 US, why not? Dinner was typical Ecuadorian, in a tacky hole the the wall place with the 'decor' consisting of faded yellow paint and sparkly beaded pineapples hanging from the ceiling. Guava juice, fried fish, plaintain and ice, with a bit of lime juice drenched tomato and iceberg lettuce as a 'salad'. Didn't eat much of the salad.

Breakfast today was a very good chocolate croissant, with thicks chunks of chocolate inside, and tea. Never a huge breakfast eater so that eas enough for me... My cousin had fried plaintain balls with cheese, eggs, and peanut sauce, too much for me, though.

Today we payed for the tour, and moved to old town historical district for Hostel La Posada Colonial, in a 100+ year old former home of a vice president of Ecuador.

Taxi had to detour around a massive student protest about fee increases. Sounds like back home!

We got the top floor room, with a patio that has an amazing view of the city. Great view! A sudden thunderstorm forced us to hole ip in our toom fir abit, but cleared up for us to walk around in the late afternoon, after I finally got a hot shower!

The architecture in the old town is simply STUNNING. Almost every building we wandered past deserved a picture, and then a few more for all the details. Great churches, and lots of square for people watching. more indigenous people in this neighbour, which was nice.

Dinner was a pile of prawn fried rice for $4.00... A plate practically bigger than my head, and I swear at least 30 prawns in there! Came with free guava-blackberry juice, which helped cut the saltiness.

Then it was back to the hostel where we hammered out a plan for the rest of the trip. Stayin in Quito tomorrow, then on to Banos and a rainforest tour. Then back to Quito for a dayteip to the market town of Otavalo, then the GALAPAGOS! Then Cuenca for 2 nights, flying back to Quito, 2 days in Mindo, then back to Quito and home to Montral for my cousin, on to Honduras for me.

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Comments

[elain]

well done...
keep the posts coming. There's nothing like a good travel blog when one is stuck at home. Sounds like the second hostel is the one to stay at in Quito. I have no tips, because i was only in the Galapagos, not the mainland.