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Basilica Voto National - Quito
View of the Virgin that stands above Quito from between the treacherous twin clock towers of the church! Its only been a few days and already we have crammed in so much. The flight over, as you can imagine, was a sweaty long affair culminating in a 12hr flight from Madrid to Quito. Surprisingly the children on board were well behaved for the most part which i wish i could say for the dog........ Yes thats correct the dog! Since when did our four legged friends start joining their owners in a portable cage in the cabin? Luckily we will have nothing but fond memories of the flight due to everything else being over shadowed by the person sitting several rows behind us who spent the entire flight downing a litre of what appeared to be whisky and then becoming violently sick and an announcement was made "Do we have any doctors on board". Open the door and throw them out!!!!!! Well at least there was entertainment.
Quito itself is a strange mix of brand new modern, restored colonial and falling down concrete buildings, with all the hustle and bustle of any capital city. It was a welcome relief to find the director of the language school along with Manuel (it turns out our spanish tutor for
Basilica Voto National - Quito
Huge stained glass window at back of church - wow! next week is straight out of Fawlty Towers) waiting to pick us up and take us to our hostel. And what a hostel it is! Nothing but praise The Secret Garden. The rooms are clean and big there is hot water all day, the food is amazing and all this with a view to die for has certainly set a high standard for the rest of the trip. The hostel is in the Old town and our view stretches from the Virgin of Quito that overlooks the city right out into valleys and mountains. At night when all the churches and palace is lit up it really is impressive with 4000m mountains as a backdrop.
On our first day out and about we took things easy round the old town and with the faithful lonely planet guide in hand we first visited the Basilica del Voto Nacional. It has two amazing twin clock towers that you can climb right to the top of and look out over the city. There is an indiana style rope bridge that runs across the top of the church taking you to the spire at the other end which you can also climb. Its
The Secret Garden - Quito
View from the balcony of our hostal over Old Town Quito with the mountain that we scaled (or attempted to) in the background! all a little daunting and they just let you get on with it all for $2. Just shows what you can do if you scrap all the health and safety laws!
This place has enough churches and cathedrals for one each so the next day we very stupidly decided to try and scale the 4680m summit of Rucu Pichincha which overlooks the city. We didnt really heed the advice of wait a few days until you acclimatise and hence got to about 100m from the top and had to turn back! However most of the decision to turn back was due to myself being so scared of the shear drop in front of me along the path. Closer to the top you had to scramble over boulders and scree and just brought back memories of the church safety in that no one knew or cared that you were up there and therefore you wouldnt be missed!
Its now Sunday and we are heading off to Alandaluz on the west coast in line with Isla de Plata (poor mans Galapagos which we will get to visit) to learn some espanol! We have been getting by on Spanglish so far and in this big city it hasnt really been a problem but as we venture into more remote areas it just wont do! Hope to have some photos to download for you all to see soon but having trouble with this computer at mo so will wait until next week.
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randy
non-member comment
nice one guys, sounds amazing..raining in london sux!snash it out raggo - andy