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Published: December 9th 2008
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Heading back down
On my way down from the first tower on a basic wire ladder... Greetings from Ecuador!
Just wanted to quickly write something, as it might be the last chance I get to before we leave Ecuador for home on Saturday. It´s hard to believe that this trip is almost over, yet at the same time, SO much has happened in the past month that it seems like we've been gone more than a month!
We were in Cuenca yesterday, a BEAUTIFUL colonial city in the western part of Ecuador. We were quite excited to arrive, given the crazy bus ride that we briefly described yesterday. We enjoyed a full day of awesome food, walking through the streets, buying pretty jewelry, and taking pictures of all the spectacular buildings. Oh, and we saw a random parade for a virgen saint doll being pulled on a car. You know, that happens sometimes in Latin America.... We boarded our last night bus ride of the trip (woo hoo!), an 8 hour trek to Quito. We arrived this morning and were excited to be here, yet anxious to get into our hostel and take a quick nap. Arriving at 6am after 8 hours on a bus makes one antsy for a real bed.
The entire day until now has mainly been walking around and just soaking up the sights and sounds of the city. We´ve also eaten entirely well, which seems to be the theme of this trip anyway. Breakfast was at this highly recommended fruit place, where we eat had a cup of coffee, a luscious bowl of fruit covered with whip cream and fruit sauce, and a fried plantain ball, filled with cheesey goodness. Mmmm. We´re fans of all things fried and filled with cheese!! Our next task was to hunt down some nuns in a monastery who are known for making sweets, then passing them through a revolving window so they can´t be seen. We each purchased one of the hollowed out lemon sweets (no nuns were sighted). They were ok in my opinion, nothing more spectacular. Then on to the large Gothic basilica, where we proceeded to climb mucho steps, all the way up one of the towers. That was our first large climb which we thought was pretty cool, but hardly compared to our next one, the one up the bell tower, past the bells, and into the bellfry. Now, the conditions for this were interesting, as it was mainly just steep ladders and the occasional wooden plank. Not the type of tourist attraction one sees in the US. Too many potential lawsuits. But here, oh no....no worries. Just don´t fall. It was kinda like the climb up La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but made a little less sketchy. Awesome views of the city made the climb and our $2 entrance fee well worth it. Quito is a large city tucked into rolling mountains, so having a 360 degree view was awesome. We awarded our awesome climbing skills with a long-awaited chocolate Magnum bar. Oh sweet goodness.
We then walked from Old Town to the more modern area to meet up with my friend Aaron for lunch. Almost didn´t recognize him, as his face was covered with hair! (haha, you know I had to mention that again Aaron....!) We had a great lunch and a fun time catching up. Seems like he´s really been enjoying his semester here and was eager to share all his tips about great restaurants, cafes, and sights to visit. We´ll be meeting up with him again here in an hour for some Indian food and then later drinks with his friends, so we continue to eat our way through this city! :-)
We'll do some more things around the city tomorrow morning and then head out of town to Baños, a city three hours away that is known for its plethora of activities and its thermal baths. We'll probably spend a night there and then come back here Thursday night, do a quick day trip out of town on Friday and then early Saturday morning we´re on our way to the airport. We fly to Panama City for our layover, where we will beg and beg to see if my flight can be bumped up. As of right now, Anne and I are scheduled to fly out of Panama 24 hours apart. She´ll go Saturday night, then I´m to follow on Sunday. This error is thanks to the woman who booked my ticket for the wrong day. The plan is to fake cry and see if they´ll let me go on the Sat. night flight too. Because clearly it makes no sense for us to have tickets one day apart. But if it doesn´t work, I´ll have 36 hours to explore Panama City, which would be fun too.
So I figure I´ll blog about the rest of this week once I´m back home and then I´ll have lots of time to put up some pictures, too. Hope everyone is having a nice week!! Thanks for reading! See some of you soon!
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anonymous
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Do you think you could bring me a Magnum bar??? seriously i need to find away to get those into the US!!