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Published: February 14th 2011
Soo, after arriving in Quito in the morning I needed to relax for 2 hours in the hotel before going on the road again. Luckily I had already a map of Quito and decided to start this first day with a nice park. Just a few blocks away from my hotel is one of the biggest parks of Quito "Parque el Ejido". Every weekend the Indigenas del Ecuador set up a market with all their handmade things which made this first day especially interesting for me, as I got directly confronted with this interesting part of the culture.
The park itself is really nice and has a lot to offer for families with children and therefore is the perfect place to make a picknic. Still there is more than enough space where it is quiet and one can hang out. In the centre sometimes some artists make their shows and overall everyone in this place is just relaxed when he comes here. However I just does not feel as I am really at 2800m above sealevel! In germany the tree line is around 1800m, but HERE 1000m higher, still everything is green, whe have huge trees and palms! Crazy world.
Due
to the flight I was exhausted and therefore went home in the afternoon and fall to sleep already at 6pm.
I got up the next day at 6am and felt absolut refreshed! (the following days i woke up not much later, independent from the time I went to bed)
This day just started perfectly. I had a nice breakfast, the sky was blue and I was on the road at 8:30 with the aim to see as much as I can.
To move around in Quito it is best to use the buses, as they are cheap, a ride costs 25cent no matter where and they come more often than every 5min. On the way to the closest busstation I discovered another really nice park. It was kept in perfect shape, absolutely clean and the city has installed a music system which makes the place to a beautiful oasis. A good start for my long day on my feet.
The old city centre is also kept in a very good shape and has some nice spots to visit. Of course it's also very touristic but I was quite early and therefore experienced most of the places very conveniently. The
architecture around here can always gives you some surprises. In almost every block there are some nice inner courtyards, but of dimensions I would have never expect and also there seems to be a small entry which in the end belongs to a mall.
Another cool thing is a regulation of the city. Every or every second sunday (not sure yet) many streets in the old city centre and in other areas of the city are blocked for cars and perfectly to make a bikeride.
After walking trough the old city centre I wanted to get an overview on the city and therefore decided to go up a hill. At this point I noticed, I am living since 1 day at 2800m. Man was I exhausted after climbing many, many stairs. But, I reached the top, and of course there has to be football field :D However the game I saw was not that exiting, sorry guys, you still need to practice.
Up here the scenery changed a lot and with it the houses of the people. Here you notice, that 40% of the people live under the existence minimum.
After this impression I decided to go to another large
park which was unfortunately on a hill on the other side of the old city centre. Which ment I had to go aaaaall the way down and up again! Still the following view and the park was absolute woth it. Here was also the place where I noticed, that Ecuadorians just love to play football/ soccer.
Somehow I made it happen not to get lost in this new city and arrived exhausted, but happy at the hotel.
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