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Published: November 19th 2007
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Basilica Towers
The view across to the other tower Arriving in Quito We arrived at Quito airport late at night and had to queue for ages through immigration, however, this meant our bags were sitting waiting for us on the carousel. I was pleasantly surprised that the security guys checked our bag tickets against our luggage tags, to ensure we weren't pinching someone else's bags, which we thought was a good idea. Why don't all airports do this? Jase was a bit skeptical about our pick-up which I had arranged directly with the hostel where we were staying. But we were both impressed that a smiley Carlita and her brother were waiting for us in arrivals, and took us to the Hostal La Iguana Ferreisen in their smart 4x4. We were ushered into our cosy little room, complete with TV, which Jase initially got excited about until he realised it was all in Spanish. Unfortunately, our neighbours had their TV on til 2.30am and it was so noisy Jase had to knock on their door and ask them to turn it down.
A walk in the park When we got up, our English speaking friends had disappeared so we were left struggling to order breakfast with our dreadful Spanish.
Carolina Park
Anyone for a run? Not at that altitude thanks! Our family run hotel was right by Carolina Park, so we walked out in the sunshine towards the shops. We both noticed a slight tightening of our chests as we marched through the park, due to the effects of altitude. Quito is almost 10,000 ft above sea level so you can really feel the effects when you first arrive and move around. We managed to find a friendly chap in a mobile phone store that sold us a dodgy second-hand phone so we could call and text home, as our usual mobile wouldn't work. The handset used to belong to Paulita and still had all her contacts and Spanish text messages. Bizarrely, a lady phoned and started speaking to Rach in Spanish, to which Rach replied "Perdon, no hablo Espanol" and the lady asked in perfect English whether she could book an appointment with the doctor!! Aye???
Old City We decided to visit the Old City and caught a taxi, which was cheap but took forever to negiotate the traffic congested streets. We tried to arrange a tour of the historical centre and the tourist info lady suggested we return in the morning. We mooched around Plaza de Indepencia
Inglesia Compania de Jesus
One of the many colonial churches in Quito and then San Francisco square, admiring the colonial architecture, when it proceeded to pour down! Turns out heavy rainstorms in the afternoon are a regular occurence in Quito at this time of year. We ducked out of the rain in Centro Cultural Metropolitano and looked at some ancient books in the library. We bought some brolies off a little old lady and flagged a taxi down, back to Carolina Park.
That evening we treated ourselves to dinner at Il Risotto, a nice sounding Italian restaurant we found in our Footprint guidebook. It turned out to be a really posh place (but still reasonably priced for us, as food is so cheap here) and we were surrounded by snooty looking people as we sat at the table in our jeans and Converse. Jase hadn't even bothered to shave or gel his hair, the scruffy bugger! Anyway, it was worth it for delicious lasagne and tiramisu (nearly as potent as Maria's!).
Artisan's Parade The next morning we managed to say "desayuno" for brekkie but still got stuck with the word for scrambled eggs! We walked to the Trole (trolley bus/tram) to go to Old City but the woman was bellowing
in Spanish at people trying to enter the station so we chickened out and caught a taxi. Big mistake! We got stuck in traffic for ages and had to walk part of the way because we were just stationary. We were still too late for the tour but the reason for all the traffic was a huge parade in the Plaza, but proved to be very entertaining. It was a procession by the artisan's of the city, and the plaza was packed with people and school children. Lots of adults and children were dressed in traditional costume and some were dancing in the streets. There was also a big brass band so it was noisy and lots of fun. A large crowd had taken advantage of the event to protest in front of the Presidential Palace about workers' rights and corruption or something. After the crowds dispersed we visited the church and museum of San Francisco, which was full of slightly scary Catholic art, with lots of graphic pictures and sculptures of Jesus suffering and bleeding a lot. We couldn't read the Spanish plaques, so we walked up the hill, puffing a bit in the thin air, to the Basilica.
Plaza de Indepencia
Statue representing freedom from Spain This was built during the 20th Century but it still had pretty stained glass windows and the tower boasted a fantastic view of the city. We travelled up the first section of the tower in an elevator, which seemed a bit like cheating, but you do go rather high. We walked up some steps and then spiral staircases to the clock tower, where Rach remained, chickening out of the final winding staircases and little ladders, which Jase braved for the highest view from the bell tower.
Shortly after leaving the Basilica it started to pee down, so we caught the Trole back to Carolina. Even under the brollie we were getting soaked trundling back to the hostel, so we dived into a hairdressers, so Jase could get his barnet trimmed. The nice chap in the hairdressers didn't speak a word of English and we didn't speak any Spanish, but somehow Jase managed to get a great hair cut and lots of pampering, a bit different to his British barber experiences! We dashed back to the hostel and darted into our room, to find the roof had sprung a huge leak and the floor was covered in a massive pool
Dancing Girls
School girls dancing in the parade of water. Fortunately we had locked all our gear in the wardrobe, so nothing got wet and we just had to change rooms! We had an early night with the hilarious Spanish soaps on TV. We couldn't understand a word, but enjoyed the over the top acting, big 80s hairdos and excessive make-up. We had an early night in anticipation of tomorrow's trip to Galapagos!
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Debra
non-member comment
school uniform
I was going to put that I thought we had it bad with our school uniforms (green, white and grey) but actually the school girls look okay in those hideous golden dresses, must be their tan skin colour. I'm glad we didn't have that colour at Chenet though!