Blogs from North, Ecuador, South America - page 9

After spending so many months on the sun drenched beaches of SE Asia, it was a welcome change of pace to arrive in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. Despite its location on the equator, its elevation (2,850 meters / 9,350 ft above sea level) means it's quite a bit cooler than you might expect. Having to wear pants, sweaters and shoes was quite a novelty! After an exhausting overnight flight (complete with middle-of-the-night layover in Panama), we got a taxi to old town and checked into our accommodation. All of the hotels we'd checked out were really expensive for family rooms, so we decided to book into a hostel. It was the first hostel we'd stayed in on the whole trip so we were a little nervous about fitting in with all the young, cool, ... read more

I'm in Quito! My 6th continent, meaning another tick on my bucket list. My first impression of Quito was at 1am getting a taxi to my hostel, but already I can see that the people are very friendly, and remind me more of Mexico and Guatemala. I only have 2 days in Quito, so my plan is to make the most of it. The first morning I headed out to the old town for a walk around admiring the old building and people watching in the main plaza. I'm glad to see things have considerably gone back down in price compared to my recent spending - breakfast is $1-2. There are a lot of interesting vendors and little shops to look at, so I quite happily pass the morning wandering around the streets observing. Heading away ... read more

Buenos dias DK! Turen startede med et par dage i hovedstaden Quito. Vi var rimelig ramte af jetlag, så det blev ikke til den helt vilde aktivitet. Da vi landede var alt indhyllet i skyer (knap 3000m oppe) og vi kunne intet se, det samme gjorde sig gældende da vi vågnede morgenen efter, men så fik solen fat og vi kunne se omfanget af Quito. Det er en væsentlig større by end jeg troede, der bor 1.7mio mennesker, men den strækker sig 60km i dalene mellem Andesbjergene. Generelt kan man ikke sige at byggestilen er specielt charmerende, det er firkantede betonbyggerier klods op og ned af hinanden. Så vi tog en tur til den gamle by for at kigge os omkring, og det var straks noget helt andet. Super charmerende, velholdte gamle bygninger, kirker og små ... read more

QUITO Our first day was spent wandering around the old town of Quito. The old town is split up between beautiful and grand old buildings and squares and alleys that can seem quite poor. Usually however there are great little gems such as small local restaurants around these areas that are great to try out. We were meant to go on a walking tour first but sadly the tour person never showed up, so from San Blas square we headed, guideless into the main squares. Our first stop was to Plaza de la Indepencia and the cathedral where we saw how the Spanish tried all sorts to get the people of Ecuador to believe in their Catholic gods rather than their existing Inca beliefs. They even painted a picture of the last supper in the cathedral ... read more

Hello hello, This is my first time writing from South America so I might have to add photos later. All is going well so far, spent Friday visiting the historical centre of Quito with one of those free guided tours. They showed us which were the best churches to visit and took us in front of the presidential building guarded by two 'Granada' soldiers(if I remember the name right), but they are not as disciplined as the British ones cause they moved their eyes. I then went in La Compania church which is completely decorated in gold inside, 51kilos of gold so it has to be guarded with security cause people used to come in scrape the gold off it. Absolutely gorgeous but couldn't take photos in there sorry. Finished the day with a little tour ... read more