Welcome to an entire new type of adventure! The South American kind! The Ecuadorian kind! Quito style!
One 30 hour sleep in the airport till the security guard wakes you up travel day later, we arrived in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito. Immediately we felt a different presence here than in Europe. English is no longer as common. The landscape was vastly different. Green mountains and volcanoes reaching up to the sky. But it all felt comfortable. We have Google translate, we have some basic Spanish, we will be ok.
We arrived to our hostel, Secret Garden, and was greeted with a fantastic view of the city and a nice dinner at the hostel restaurant. We were missing one thing though. Cam’s bag never made it on the plane to Quito. It was still somewhere in Madrid. We had our basic toiletries with us, so it wasn’t dire. She wore some of my clothes for a few days, till her bag came back, 72 hours later. We fell asleep very quickly, after a poor airport sleep the night before, and an extra long jet lagged day behind us.
We started our first day with a walking tour of the historic centre of Quito, put on by our hostel. Our guide ,Bajo, was very friendly and excited to share with us the history of her culture. This was our first instance in learning about how proud the Ecuadorian people are of their indigenous heritage, and their independence. Most Ecuadorians are mestizos, which means mixed Spanish and Indigenous blood. But every one we have met is very happy to tell us about various indigenous legends of the volcanoes and the land.
During the walking tour, we saw La Basilica, which remains unfinished because a priest had a vision that the world would end when it was finished (or the government ran out of money). We saw a museum from an artist (Camilo Egas), who painted a lot of indigenous Ecuadorian people, other churches, and the main square (which hosted both a protest and a political rally at the time). It was a nice introduction to both Quito, and the history of Ecuador.
We went to the top of the public library and learned a traditional Ecuadorian dance, which involved good music and stomping to the beat.
We also went across the street and tried some traditional food. We tried some fresh juice ( which is very common and everywhere), humitas (like a Mexican tamale), and an empanada. After lunch, we went to the chocolate store, Yumbos, for a chocolate tasting and introduction to chocolate. Yumbos is known for having some of the best chocolate in the world as Ecuador produces some of the best cacao beans in the world. We tried 85%, 70%, and 60% chocolate and some flavored chocolate such as chili and salt, orange, and coffee. We bought 3 bars (ginger, lemongrass, and mango with salt).
In the afternoon, we doubled up on tours, and did a food tour with Edwin. Edwin is great. We were also the only ones on the tour, so it was more personalized. Throughout the tour, we got to know Edwin better, and chatted about our lives at home, his in Ecuador, and asked many questions about Ecuador as well. It was really nice having him as a guide.
We also experienced first hand the hospitality of Ecuador on this tour. At our first stop on the tour, a small sandwich shop, I went to go wash my hands. The bathroom was down a small staircase. As I walked down, I hit my head on roof. Ecuadorians are small. The country isn’t built for me. That’s what I thought as I headed to the sink. Then, CRASH. A shattering sound rang around me. Turns out, I walked right through a fluorescent light. Oh no! I quickly apologized, and said I would pay for the damages. Then the shop owner started apologizing to me, because the ceiling was too low. We traded apologies for a while longer, and everyone seemed happy. I’m definately too tall for Ecuador though.
The food was quite good too. The sandwiches were delicious. We went to a candy store and loaded up. There were some candy coated tamarinds that were lovely. We had a hot chocolate and a hot fruit drink, Colada Morala. It is a fall beverage made with berry juices, cinnamon, and other spices, which is made for the Day of the Dead Festival. It was really really good. We finally went to a restaurant for dinner, and loaded up on various soups and plates. The soup was a cow organ soup, which was actually really good. Edwin did a very good job showing us around, and his spots for food were excellent.
The tour ended with a visit to an after school program run by Mauro, a volunteer. The kids were excited to practice their English with us, and we had some conversations through Edwin, who would translate. They were excited to tell us about their school, and their sports, and loved hearing about the snow.
We decided to do a wander of the historic centre on our own the next day. The highlight of the trip was the English Bookstore. We needed some new books after we spilt water on our last ones in Spain. The owner was Mark, an English chap who has been in Ecuador over 35 years. He offered us tea and hung out with him for an hour as he gave us information about tourism and some of his life stories. We bought some books, thanked him for the company and the tea, and continued on our way. Lunch was had at Mercado Central, and we got some yummy llapingachos, a plate of fried mashed potato with eggs, meat, salad, and juice.
The afternoon was spent in Parque Itchimbia, just up the hill from the hostel. The park gave some nice views of the city. There was also a matching game, though the pattern was distinguished early, and that ruined all of the fun.
We had dinners at our hostel generally and we started taking Spanish lessons in the evenings. Miguel, a receptionist at our hostel, was our teacher. He was very patient with us, and an easy guy to get along with. We’ve been practicing some Spanish now, but we have a long way to go. We mostly understand what’s going on at restaurants, and can get places. Edwin calls it survival Spanish. We call it a good start.
Friday morning we met up with Edwin again. He took us on a bike tour to the north side of Quito. Yuri joined us, a solo traveler from Germany. He took all of our sunscreen, and liked riding ahead of Edwin so he took a lot of wrong turns. Edwin again ran a wonderful tour for us, taking us to lots of parks, including Parque bicentennial, the old Quito airport, which has been turned into a massive tarmac for bike racing. Quito is a really interesting city, with many distinct districts that we travelled through.
We ended the bike tour in La Floresta, the university district of Quito. There was a cool café showing the Barbie movie and Oppenheimer (we did not see them), and lots of street art and graffiti to liven up the neighborhood. We had lunch at Mercado La Florista, and discovered the wonders of the Ecuadorian lunch. A soup, a plate of rice, potatoes, salad and a meat, and juice all together for you to eat. The simple foods are quite delicious as well. Rice is always good, and the meats are well seasoned. The soup broths all seem to have cilantro and green onion, making them delicious. Cam also had her bag returned this day!
Next begins our various journeys to different areas around Quito. Mindo, Cotopaxi, Otavalo, Quilatoa, Banos, Riobamba, many places in Ecuador to go! The country, the food, the people, have all been wonderful to us so far. We can’t wait to see where this journey takes us here.