First full day in quito

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hola

ill start off by describing the city a bit more. there are lots of neighborhoods.. obviously.. but most tourists really frequent only two of them- the old town and the new town. the old town is exactly what you would expect- lots of old, beautiful spanish churches in buildings. but it used to be a pretty unsafe so a lot of the tourists stayed in the ´new town´and still do to this day. this is the part of town with all the banks, internet cafes, hostels, bars and clubs, etc. pretty much anything a tourist would need. however, a few years back old town quito was declared a unesco world heritage site, so the city really tried to get its act together and cleaned the place up and put in a strong police force.. so its actually a really safe area now in comparison to the new town, where it is said that a lot of the tourists are targeted for petty crimes.

our hostel is in the old town because we really wanted to be around the the sites and culture as opposed to the night lift. which meant today that we had to make the trek over to the new town to get to the bank and exchange some cheques. surprisingly, i wasnt as sketched out walking around the city as i thought i would be. i was definetly still nervous-- im nervous in US cities, but i never felt threatened. we grabbed lunch out in the new town (also called gringolandia, or gringoland.. for obvious reasons) at a little cafe and headed back to our hostel.

right now, i can´t be happier that we chose the hostel that we did, because it is POURING. but thats ok because we´ve been sitting up on the roof (which has a cover) just looked at the view and the mountains and drinking tea, reading, etc. its absolutely beautiful, so luckily we didn´t choose a hostel over in the new town, or else we´d be pretty bored stuck inside due to the rain, and we wouldn´t have the view.

we are putting in to have dinner and the hostel again tonight. i think they may be having salsa lessons here in a little bit so we may check those out. will probably call it a night after that because we´ve got to leave here before 7 to get to the airport to catch our flight.

our hostel now has internet access, but once we get to the island we wont have it on the reserve. our next chance to catch up will probably be this weekend when we go into the main town so we will write about it then. until then, take care!

m and r

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Comments

[Sandy]

Hope your have a grand time
So sweet of you to create this travel log. I hope you're having a great time. I will visit it often. Your Dad did not tell me how long you were gone for and what you will be doing upon your return. Let me know and I hope to see you next time you're in No. VA. Love Aunt Sandy

[Sue B]

Keep the prose coming.....
Mindy... You have a way of writing that a. paints a wonderful picture of what you are experiencing and b. makes one wish they were experiencing it too..... keep it flowing, girl!

[Pat Corcoran]

You'll have a great experience!
Hi Ryan. I hope you remember me. I was your mother's roommate at Geneseo. I was in the Galapagos Islands a number of years ago. Definitely go to as many of the islands as you can and do some snorkeling. The water was the coldest I've ever been in, and I've traveled a lot, but you get used to it and the sights are fantastic! I'm glad your mother let me know about your blog. Have fun! Pat