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Published: October 16th 2010
We bade farewell to Lima and hopped on our 12.50 flight to Quito, Ecuador, not really knowing to expect. The reason for this is that only 2 weeks ago Ecuador´s capital, Quito, was placed under martial law after the President allegedly was held hostage by the local police in protest against some of their entitlements being removed. He had to be rescued by 500 armed soldiers. Travel warnings were broadcast basically advising tourists not to visit, but what the hell, I had already booked the our flights, we were in South America and we have good travel insurance. My biggest concern was altitude sickness, so we decided to roll the dice.
The flight only took one hour and 50 minutes and was full of locals and a large contingent of tourists, however Dom and I were clearly the youngest visitors....by a long way. The oldies were primarily Americans using Quito as a stop off before heading to the Galapogas Islands. I had to laugh at them, because at one point the queue to the only toilet stretched along half the aisle of the plane and it consisted of only the old Americans, all crossing their legs and cursing that the persons using the toilet were taking so long.
As Quito is over 2000m above sea level and is the second highest capital in the world after La Paz Bolivia ( yes we are going there too) Altitude sickness is a very real possibility. It can be very random and doesn´t matter if you are young or old, fit or unfit, if you are suspectable to it, then you may well get it. We were told by our Doctor in Australia, drink heaps of water, get plenty of rest and abstain from alcohol and you should limit your chances of getting it.
With that advice in mind Dom and I agreed that we would have a nice meal, abstain from alcohol, drink only water and have an early night.......thats not quite how it turned out.
The owner of our hotel, kindly invited us out with him to the opening of a brand new restaurant in town. We accepted his invatation and questioned the dress code, due to the fact we have only packed casual clothes. Not a problem said the owner. We met the owner as arranged in the lobby, along with a Swedish explorer named Adam, and two Spanish journalists, Margarita and Pablo. The owner provided us with a driver and a bus and off we all went to the restaurant.
When we got there we all felt a little under dressed as it was being graced by Quito´s glitterati. All the beautiful people were there and we got introduced to each of them, us in our jeans and casual shirts and them in their black gowns or black suits and white shirts, no tie required. Prior to our meals we hung with a group of Norwegians, named Ole, Tomas, Bjorn and Anders who were simiarly under dressed. I think with those names they would have made a fantastic Scandinavian boy band.
We were escorted to our table and we had the best table in the house. It was a special room with raised floors so that we could watch the chefs prepare the meals through a huge floor to ceiling window. The chef said he would look after us with tasting platters of his own creations....and did he ever. We counted at least 9 tastings, including, unlimited bread rolls, chorizos, fish ( yes I even ate it), Argentinain steak, Cerviche , Empanada´s , chocolate mousse and stuff I have now forgotten. These tastings were tastefully decorated, and it was very much 5 star service and presentation. We were served beautiful Argentinian wines. How could we say no, especially with the food presented as it was, so we decided to have one, and hoped it wouldn´t impact on our chances of getting altitude sickness. However one turned into two, then three. Imported Arentinian Malbec wines are fantastic. Then we finished off with a champagne. I wasn´t sure if I had enough cash on me and hoped they accepted credit card. The cost of the bill......absolutely nothing as it was opening night. All of us couldn´t believe our luck.
We staggered into our chauffer driven bus and Lazlo, the hotel owner, suggested we go down town to the exclusive opening of a brand new night club. Why not. There, we met the owner Mauricio, who shared with us he had previously owned over 17 restaurants and nightclubs in the U.S. He gave us free drinks, I´ll have a scotch thanks!!! Ok I might have another one. More food was served up on platters including some brilliant custard and jam pastries. We were introduced to many more famous people, one being Sebastian, one of Ecuadors most famous movie producers. He was sporting the biggest and best pony tail and told us he ALMOST made a movie with Harrison Ford. Everyone at the club was involved with movies and photography or the Arts in some form, so it was a given that I fitted in very well with my media experience in Australia. Everyone we met was very friendly and easy to talk to in drunken broken english.
Dom and I finally made it back to our hotel by 2.00am having been seduced by Quito and her endless supply of wonderful free alcohol. Luckily we only awoke with a slight hangover as opposed to any altitude sickness and we haven´t had any symptoms develop throughout the day......fingers crossed.
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Matt Barker
Matthew Barker
underdressed?
please tell me you wore your braces on this big night out!! i'll never forget that wonderful night at the Kardinya Tavern, no one can every accuse you of being underdressed! all this eating and drinking sounds great.....any signs of 'Quito Belly'? (aka Bali Belly) Me