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Published: September 3rd 2018
After a VERY early start at 1:30 we left Santiago, the good thing was we got to see the Bellavista area in full swing. First flight to Lima and then, an hour later, on to Quito in Ecuador.
We were treated to a fiery sunrise on the Lima flight and then some fantastic scenery on the way to Quito. The mountains are amazingly steep with zigzag tracks up to villages with terraced gardens. There are lakes and braided rivers down the valleys. The plateaus are well cultivated and you can easily see the fields neatly laid out. I did ponder whether this is the sort of country we will be walking over in a couple of weeks time...
Quito itself spans across ravines and plateaus - kind of like Hawea and Wanaka but on steroids. It is much much larger than I expected Population of about 2.2 million and quite sprawling. No hotel transfer again but we have it down to a fine art now and taxis here as well regulated. The Hotel Eugenia is rather pretty with painted walls - all white and flowers, it feels vaguely colonial. However it isn’t in the best of areas and advice
is to be home by dark. We walked down the road to the Plaza Fuch which has a colourful sign stating Fuch Yeah - sums up the nieghbourhood really.
However we did find a charming crafts shop run by a Canadian lady who told us all about the crafts, feed us chocolate, gave us a hand massage, and of course sold us something! We went in search of an authentic restaurant, got lost but saved by a couple of policemen who walked us to the restaurant door and 2ntef their photos taken with us.
We declined the hamster for dinner but the lamb and chicken were great. For dining entertainment we watched the local cigarette sellers and a nice lady in very tight jeans set up for the evening and then scuttled home before witching hour.
Quito is at 2,850m so I am not sure whether I am tired from the weird hours we have been keeping or it is the implact of altitude. So, another early night and tomorrow we have a tour planned and hope to see a different side of Quito.
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Tingting Huang
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Wow! what a tiring adventure! 3 countries in 8 hours, but it's well worthy! I'm sure you've your homework on dos and donts at high altitude. We went up to 4750m altitude last year (5500m in west tibet years ago ). My hubby was very sick in both trips. We ended up cutting our journey short. Slow your pace??? Looking forward to more photos. Take care