Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Date: 26th September - 29th September 2006
Quito Part 1: Hey everyone, well we have finally made it to South America we arrived at about 7pm local time and got a taxi straight to out hostel "The Secret Garden", the altitude didn´t hit us quite as hard as we thought although I did have a kind of tension headache for the first few days (Quito is 2,850 metres above sea level).The taxi took about 20 mins and only cost $10 for the three of us which was good, but everyone drives like nutters over here so we did feel a bit scared in the ride to the hostel. When we arrived the taxi driver rung the door bell it didn´t look like a big hostel from the outside but it was once you´re inside, although it is quite thin there are a number of levels to it (with quite a sheer drop if you fell over the balcony... yikes) anyway we put our bags into our room (which was a 6 bed dorm although only one of the beds was filled.) We then went right to the top level which sounded buzzing, when we got up there we were greeted with a cool little bar that has a breathtaking view of the old town of Quito. We had a couple of drinks that night and chatted to some people round a cool little fire in a wheel barrow, Rusty and I were drinking these well nice Pilsner beers in a pint bottle, one of the girls we met did however tell us to be careful after 9 as her friends had seen someone being mugged (however we saw none of this during our stay.) Before we hit the sack we met our room mate called Rich who was from Austria, he was sound but came across a bit mad. We asked him why he was using his sleeping bag and he told us that the duvet was too hot and gave him nightmares he he!
The next day we got up early and got a taxi up to the Teleferiqo cable car which takes you right up into the Andes to the height of 4,100 metres above sea level. It was sweet but the cable car did go up at a hairy angle which Rusty felt particularly uncomfortable with cause of his dislike with heights, and to add to this we were sat in cable car no 13 haha! At the top we took a walk along this cliff path with another spectacular view of the city, Rusty was fine now his feet were on solid ground but my head was a bit fuzzy due to the altitude. Mel was fine but I guess its because she is dizzy already hehe!(Na its coz blokes are more wimpy hehe). After that we went back down into the old town and we took the self guided tour that the hostel had provided us with. This started with the Basilica catherdral, this was absolute madness, you pay 2 bucks to get in and you can basically walk wherever you like! We walked across this old rickety bridge in the roof and up a dodgy ladder (man you could film a well good horror movie in this place!) We also went up these spiral stairs and almost right up into the belfry, we could have gone right to the top with the bells but it just didnt seem safe and there is no one around, only signs saying ´take care´, in the States this place would be a Laywers dream hehe.The highest we got to was where we were standing directly behind the clocks which was really high! After that the tour took us to some other Churches/Catherdrals one was full of gold and the San Francisco one has shops in the catercombs underneath which is quite cool, Mel bought a bangle in there. We also visited a couple of Plaza´s (including the Plaza Grande, the biggest one where we could see the Presidents Palace, which was surrounded by armed guards!). At one of the plazas we got surrounded by young kids wanting to polish our shoes for money, we felt bad but just had to say no and walk away. The streets were crowded and there are lots of buses that go around with people jumping on and off as their moving!!That night we stayed at the hostel for an Ecuadorian night that they were having, it had a little band playing local music and also served a meal of local dishes (which was well nice sausage and potato cake things), we also bought one of the bands cds as the music was pretty good and nice to chill to music of the Andes! It was a cool hostel and good they had entertainment like this on coz it saved us from risking walking the streets at night after the stories we had heard. The Roof terrace of this hostel was a good place to hang out as all the backpackers stayed up here so we did meet alot of different people and the drinks were cheap, and the view was amazing!
The day after that we were up early again as we had signed up for a hike up the volcano Gua gua Pichincha (the first bit is pronounced waa waa.) There was 8 of us on the trip, an older couple from Tazmania called Marlene and Heinz who were really nice and have given us their address so we can stay with them if we make it to Taz. There was also Giddon and Maggie from New Zeland who were travelling together and Simone from Australia who we had met and talked into coming on the trek the night before.
We had just over an hours drive from the city up these dusty old roads and we were all chatting the whole way until we arrived at the car park which was at 4,000 metres. From here we had part one of the hike up to the refuge. This was hard going you have to take like 5 steps and take a breath but we made it and Rusty finally got to use in his words "that damn walking stick I have been carrying around!" At the refuge which is basically a small little building we had a rest and refilled our water bottles, we were all also given this bannana which was we all agreed to be the best bannana we have ever tasted (think this was a combination of them being genuinely really nice, fresh and the fact that we were knackered from part 1 of the hike.) The next bit was even steeper and was really hard going but we all managed to reach the top which is a crazy height of 4,800 meters. It was freezing up there we had all gone from basically shorts and t shirts in 27 C Quito to 3 layers up here; so the bread roll and hot soup our guide gave us went down a treat! From up here we took in the breathtaking view looking down at the Crater of the volcano through the clouds, the mountains that surrounded us and tiny little Quito in the distance. The trek down was much easier and we all felt a fantastic sense of achievement at the bottom. We had dinner at the hostel again and talked over our experience with the group. Dinner was Thai green chicken curry which was gorgeous and well deserved after our hike haha. We also met two people from our 9 week tour that we were starting in 2 days, Vanessa and Mandy from South Africa, which was quite nice. That night there was also some Salsa dancing lessons on the roof terrace, which me and Mel had a go at and picked up a few moves hehe. The next morning we checked out of the Secret Garden and put our bags in the store room. We had arranged to meet up with Simone again so went upstairs and had breakfast with her. After this we had decided to go on a mission to the Equator line known as ´Mitad Del Mundo´. We had been given this route from the Hostel although this wasn´t as clear as the city one and so we had to get a taxi to the bus station as every bus that passed said it didn´t go to the one we needed, this was only a buck so it didnt matter. From there we had 3 more bus changes before we got to the Pululaha volcano crater. This was cool as you look right down into an Extinct volcanoes crater which is now being used as farming land and housing! There wasn´t much else here though prob coz it was off season and no one around to give us a tour so we didn´t spend long here. We also stopped by a museum (The Templo de Arte Ortega) which was full of Artwork of South America and Mel was tempted on buying some more jewelry from the shop!! After that we made the trip back to the equator line. There is actually 2 points to see, the equator line and the "real" equator line which is scientifically proven. The first one was discovered by the French in the 1700´s and it 200 hundred metres out, this however was pretty close considering it was over 300 years ago! at this one there is just a huge monument and some shops, the real interesting stuff is at the Museo Int Nan.
This place is so cool we took a tour around which was over and hour and only cost 3 bucks. We learnt about the ancient people who lived there. The chief was burried in a pot in a fetal postion for his birth into his new life and his wife, whether alive or not is burried with him, of course if his wife dies first he just gets a new one, the girls thought this was a bit unfair hehe ;)Coz it was guys!!! After that we did some experiments around the actual equator line. They have a sink that can be moved so you see the water going down clockwise south of the line and anti clockwise north of the line and also amazingly that on the line it goes straight down. She also told us that in the Southern hemisphere they suffer from cyclones as there is more water than land (which turn clockwise), and the northern hemisphere suffers from tornados as there is more land that water (which turn anticlockwise). After that we balance an egg on a nail hehe and did some strength tests. On the equator you can not stop anyone pushing your arms down as you have no resistance, (Mel: I loved the fact I could push Rustys arms down like I was stronger than him haha). The last bit of the tour was a bit more about the native indians, we saw the womens tent which was a place where only women went and basically all get drunk in it hehe and that the indians are only allowed to have sex outside their houses! Finally we had a go on a blow pipe with a dart, you feel like you are blowing really hard but it doesn´t seem to go very far!
The trip home was quite hectic as the bus driver drove off as Mel was still getting on (Mel: It was really scary I was hanging on tight as Matt pulled me in!!) After that it was so packed I had my leg on the side and it got trapped in the door which caused a bit of a panic but no harmn done thank goodness. Once we got back we said goodbye to Simone and the people who worked at the hostel, collected our bags and got a taxi to the Majestic hotel in the new town where we were to meet our tour group the next day. We bumped into 2 more people from the tour Pete (NZ) and Julia (Aus) and checked in. We also did a little exploring of the town which is no where near as nice as the old town, it is crowded and full of dirty busess which poured out black smog but this is much worse in the evenings, the air was worse than in the London Underground!!
- comments