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Published: January 21st 2009
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Quito
Since we are so far behind in our blog publishing, we have decided to combine two destinations for this entry and the next.
As stated in the previous entry, we spent a couple of days in Quito, went to the Galápagos and returned for a further three days. Quito is an old city that originally formed part of the Incan Empire. It is now the capital of Ecuador and while it is on the equator, it is quite cold because of its altitude. It´s a charming place, filled with colonial buildings and such, but one of the more dangerous cities in South America.
We stayed in a very popular hostel that would have been very ordinary if not for the upstairs terrace and restaurant overlooking Quito. The hostel, Secret Garden, is a fun place to stay, but be warned: It is incredibly disorganised as it is run by a bunch of volunteers. Every second day one needs to move rooms to accommodate guest movements. It is, however, a fantastic place to meet many new people and the food is very good, albeit expensive in relation to the rest of Ecuador.
On arrival in Quito, we stayed in
a different hostel, as Secret Garden was full. The only reason this is being mentioned is because yet another unfortunate event occurred for LM. This was the first of a chain of unfortunate events over the next week, as detailed in the previous entry.
Before we explain the incident, let us explain something about toilets in South America: One is at all times not allowed to put any toilet paper or any other object but human waste into the toilet, unless you want to flood the entire bathroom. All bathrooms have a separate bin provided for toilet paper. This is due to the ancient sewerage systems in South America. Not always the most hygienic system, but we have gotten used to it.
LM decided, despite the warnings, to use a little paper to prevent some splash-back. This backfired badly and left LM with the task attempting to unblock the loo with a bamboo reed, used as decoration in the room. After many minutes of unsuccessful attempts and cursing, Bernhard found a plunger and the toilet was unblocked. Yummy!
The rest of our time at Secret Garden was spent drinking copious amounts of beer and not much more.
This was partially the result of Quito being known as a terribly dangerous city and secondly because of terrible weather. Talking of bad experiences, the evening before we had to leave for the Galápagos, we stayed in a dorm room as a result of no space. At four in the morning, a drunken pair of people came home from drinking somewhere. Everyone was woken up. They then proceeded to climb up onto the bed above LM (bunk beds) and do naughty stuff to one another for the next 45 minutes, right next to Bernhard! LM was kept awake by the rocking bed, and Bernhard by the swaying duvet next to his nose.
We were both not impressed. The Dutch girl who was keeping us awake also left with us on our flight to Galápagos the next morning, red in the face, apologising and with a massive hangover, we think.
After Galápagos, we decided to be better tourists and take part in some tourist activities like sightseeing. We visited the famous Mitad del Mundo and the Basilica del Voto Nacional.
Mitad del Mundo is situated outside of Quito and is a big complex and monument supposedly built on
the equator line. There is a small museum inside the monument. Many tourists visit Mitad del Mundo to take incredibly stupid photos of themselves straddling the equator line. As a result of GPS technology people found that Mitad del Mundo was built 240m off mark. Ironically, this does not deter 1000s of tourists (including us) to visit this place. We also took some bloody stupid photos.
After this, we went to the real equator line, where they do a bunch of bogus effects of the Coriolis force. These include balancing an egg on a nail and demonstrating the effect of water emptying out of a basin. They carry the basin 1m to the north and the basin empties swirling to one side, while 1m to the south it swirls to another. All very entertaining parlour tricks.
We visited a crater 5km north of Mitad del Mundo called Pululahua. This is an ancient volcanic crater filled with farms. The day was interesting, but not breathtaking.
We went to the Basilica on another day with Darran and Josh, our two Australian friends. The Gothic basilica was built over several decades starting in 1926 and is very impressive. The highlight
was climbing up the basilicas towers. One ascend by climbing many levels into the clock tower until one reaches the very top, resulting in spectacular views of Quito. Bernhard nearly chickened out due to vertigo, but since everyone else went up, he followed suit and was happy doing it.
Josh had to return to London to work, so we bade him farewell.
Cotopaxi
After Quito, we left for Cotopaxi, with a bunch of friends from Colombia and Izzie from the Galápagos. Here we stayed in the other Secret Garden, a lovely farm house. They provide lovely dinners and a fantastic, rustic ambiance. However, the downside is that the water flow is not very reliable, so warm showering is not always possible and the alluring baths in the honeymoon suites where we stayed are only there to taunt one. The other thing is that the owners have two young kids and they tend to be very whiny much of the time.
The owner, Tarquin, is very knowledgeable and helpful providing information about Volcan Cotopaxi, which we were planning to climb. LM, Bernhard, Izzie and Darran wanted to climb the volcano, the second highest peak in Ecuador (5897m). We
had fit climbing gear in Quito. Preparation includes a hike up to the climbers refuge at 4800m two days prior to ascent. This was quite a nice excursion and all of us felt quite good at that altitude. We were ready to ascend in two days time. While at base camp, we could not go up to the glacier just above the snowline (5000m) wearing our normal shoes because of rainy conditions. We managed to look at it from below the snowline at 4800m. On the way back, we passed a whole bunch of extremely drunk locals on (or attempting to be on) their horses. This was really amusing. Another bloke fell asleep in front of the steering wheel in the middle of nowhere on a road. We had to wake him up to move out of the way. It was clear what Saturday afternoons are for in Ecuador.
Unfortunately, we both got ill the next day with bad colds. These progressively worsened over the next few days and caused us to abort our climb. We were very disappointed with this. LM had her birthday two days later, which was spent recuperating in bed and feeling miserable. At least
the Secret Garden staff baked a nice cake for us all.
Our view of Cotopaxi was obscured for most of the time while we were there as a result of rain and fog, so we have no nice photos.
Since our plans had changed, we decided to leave with our group and two new friends from Ireland, Aoibhean (impossible Gaelic spelling, but pronounced Even) and Simon, to Baños.
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Tal
non-member comment
Hey young dudes!
I really digged Ecuador, you guys must be having a blast! keep on rocking in the free world, Tal