Blogs from Quito, North, Ecuador, South America - page 5

Woke up this morning at 05:00 as the body clock was still on Chile time, so lay in bed for one hour before getting up to finish yesterday's blog. Internet was a bit slow but managed to get it all done before checking out. The Nice Inn was very cheap $AU45 for the night but is quite modern and clean. Only drawback was no lift and our room was on the third floor. Daisy had a great idea which was to leave our big bags downstairs and we just carried up what we needed for the night. None of the staff spoke English but with Google translate we managed to get the receptionist to book us a taxi transfer to the airport and also to add 20 soles to our bill so we could pay for ... read more

Today we checked out of our lovely hotel with cherubs and roses in the night club area and into our much posher hotel in the new part of the city. I am relaxing in the hotel provided robe and slippers with coffee percolating in the background. We spent today on - and off - the Hop on Hop off bus. The plan was to explore the old part of the city and so we did, after navigating the very busy traffic. The buses are double deckers and are a great way to see the city, with views over the traffic and into people’s backyards. We hopped off at the Basílica, a church still under construction after several centuries. Apparently a disaster will stirike when it is finished, so they keep on working on it. Then back ... read more

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 ... read more

Montag, den 11. Juni, habe ich Kolumbien verlassen und bin nach Ecuador gegangen. Verschiedene Leute hatten mir Horrorgeschichten von diesem Grenzübergang erzählt und gesagt dass dort so viele Venezuelaner die Grenze überqueren möchten, dass es Stunden oder sogar einen ganzen Tag dauern kann dort rüber zu kommen. Also hatte ich entschieden sehr früh dorthin zu gehen und hatte mir ein Taxi für 6h morgens bestellt. Allerdings kam und kam der Typ nicht und so bin ich um 6h20 losgegangen und habe mir ein anderes Taxi auf der Straße gesucht. Die Grenze ist nur um die 7km von Ipiales entfernt und so war ich dann gegen 6h30 dort, aber ich konnte kaum meinen Augen glauben bei dem Anblick der sich mir dort bot! Es waren bereits mehr als 100 Leute dort in der Warteschlange um Kolumbien zu ... read more

It was cold and raining when we woke up and went down to breakfast. The four of us sat and discussed what we would do as we had a whole day in Quito until our flight after midnight. We decided to get a taxi and go into town. It was the first time that Don and I had been into town which was about an hour’s drive from the airport. Fortunately the weather improved somewhat, but it remained cool and overcast all day. The taxi service that the hotel used was a limousine service! We piled into the immaculate car and went into town. Caroline and the taxi driver were chatting in Spanish and we added our comments in a mix of Spanish/English. The journey into town was quite staggering. The road crossed a deep ... read more