Quito - End of the Road

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The final destination of my trip was to be Quito, but before arriving I had a few days to “kill” in the Galapagos Islands! Never the tallest of orders!

I had left my tour on the “Free Enterprise” feeling genuinely saddened. Usually when I’ve left a tour I’ve been buzzing and ready to move onto the next adventure, but on this occasion I was particularly melancholy. I think it was partly because my tour of the islands was so unique and incredible, as well as the realisation that the end of my time on the “Free Enterprise” really did mark the beginning of the end of my travels.

It was hardly doom and gloom though, as I was still privileged enough to be out there on the Galapagos Islands and, as a treat, me and four of the guys I had met onboard went for a meal at the, (possibly), poshest restaurant in town, Angermeyer Point, which was located a short water taxi ride away on the edge of the harbour. We got there early and snared the best table in the house with brilliant views out into the bay on a brightly lit moonlit night. It was a top meal, and, from a selfish point of view, that ability to once in a while treat yourself to the kind of luxury you could never afford back home will be something I will probably miss about leaving the non-western world behind!

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t all that good for my last couple of days on the islands, with overcast skies and the odd bit of drizzle being the main order of the day. I was still able to visit Tortuga Bay, the inclement weather meaning that the beach was pretty turbulent with big waves crashing down, but I thought that this added to the appeal - making it fell more rugged. The incredibly fine sand made walking along the beach barefoot a pleasure, and I spent both of my free afternoons just relaxing on the beach with a book and some music.

Before leaving the islands I was also able to sample a Ceviche Camaron (Prawn ceviche). The northern parts of Peru and Ecuador are famed for their local delicacy, which involves raw seafood being marinated in lime or lemon juice. The acids in the marinade supposedly “cook” the seafood meaning that when its served up its not actually raw. I had sampled this once before in Loja and been left disappointed, but it was a different story this time around. The prawns were absolutely delicious and I’m glad that I gave ceviche another try as it was certainly a unique, and very tasty, culinary experience.


My wonderful time on the Galapogas islands had sadly come to an end, but I was able to pick up the slightly cheesy souvenir of a Galapogas Islands passport stamp just before departing! I made my flights to the mainland without a problem, although I did arrive in the middle of rush hour at 5p.m. on a Friday! When procuring a taxi, I was quoted $6 for the fare to the hostel I have picked out. However, ever eager to test out my Spanish, I spend a fair while convincing the taxista to put me on the meter like he would any other passenger. We roll up to the hostel and, possibly due to our seemingly less than direct route to the hostel, the fare reads $5.80! Top negotiating - really snared myself a discount!

Predictably my blasé attitude to booking in advance meant that the “Secret Garden” - apparently “the” hostel in Quito - was completely full. I’m not really all that disappointed as it means I can try a find myself a friendly little guesthouse and indulge in some double bed en-suite pleasure, rather than a dorm bed, for the same price! The search for accommodation doesn’t go completely smoothly though, as I spy a couple leaving a friendly looking establishment which advertises its rates as only $5. I roll up and enquire about availability only to be politely informed that $5 dollars will get me the room for 2 hours and perhaps the guest house down the street is actually more what I’m looking for….ooops!

Quito is divided into two parts - Old Quito and New Quito - whose dominant features are pretty much self-explanatory. My hostel was based on the fringe of Old Quito, and I went for a wander around that evening, visiting the two main squares of Plaza de la Independencia and Plaza San Francisco. Being that this was the final weekend of my travels, I was starting to splash the cash a little bit, and when it came to dinner I couldn’t decide between the salad, the calzone and a regular pizza, so I decided just to order all three and see which was tastiest - the final throes of luxury before heading back home!

I’d like to say that my final days in South America were spent cramming in the culture, but mainly I spent my time shopping. I picked up suits, shoes, “genuine” levis (which have unsurprisingly fallen apart since my return home), DVDs, CDs and an Ecuador footy shirt. In between all the shopping, I did manage to visit La Basilica - the largest cathedral in Quito - which was impressive, and I was able to climb to the absolute top of the highest of the towers via a series of stairs and ladders that were continually decreasing in size. Health and Safety issues elsewhere in the world might well have prevented this, as the final few ladders seemed to be more rust than ladder, but it was a lot of fun, as the view over old Quito in the late afternoon sun was very pleasant.

The evening saw me head over to New Quito, which seemed very quiet, quite sterile and disappointingly westernised with “shopping mall” type developments scattered around. It looked like my final night was going to be a quiet one, until I popped along the La Reina Victoria, an English pub, for a cheeky drink; only to find that the guys I met at the language school in Sucre, Tom and Tim, were working there. Suffice to say we caught up over a few drinks, and then a few more, and dawn was breaking by the time we eventually staggered back to Tom’s apartment! I was absolutely knackered by the end of the night, but it was a very cool way to spend my final night in South America.

I wasn’t feeling tip-top when I made it back to the hostel, where I manage to get a whole blissful hour of shut-eye before having to get up, pack my bags (which proved surprisingly easy given the amount of stuff I had purchased, and stuff down some breakfast. Nick, (an Aussie guy staying at the same hostel), and I followed some very erratic directions from the hostel owner to try and get the correct bus to “La Mitad Del Mundo”, the monument and complex located on the Equator about 30 km north of Quito. It takes an absolute age in true South American style, but the weather was finally bathing me in glorious sunshine, and the monument on the Equator was quite impressive - even though GPS readings have now shown that it is in the wrong place by a couple of hundred yards!

We wandered around the twee tourist town that has sprung up around the complex, before seeking out the Museo Etnográfico Mitad del Mundo, a small museum located on the “true” equator, which contained exhibits of indigenous Ecuadorian culture as well as a set of little experiments which could apparently only be performed at the equator. In one, the plug was taken out from a basin of still water and the water just drained straight down without any vortex being created - in theory due to the absence of any Coriolis effect. However, dredging up my distant memories of college physics, the Coriolis effect is relevant for things that are rather larger, like the direction in which a hurricane rotates, rather than a plain old bathtub. Whatever the relevance or accuracy of these experiments, there were good fun to participate before having to dash back towards the centre, pick-up my bags and, sadly, grab myself a taxi to the airport.

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