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When we arrived in Quito it was around 6pm and already getting dark because the city sits at 0 degrees latitude, almost bang on the Equator hence the country being named Ecuador, meaning equator in Spanish. The air was fresh and the city was sprawling. We went to grab a taxi to head to the hostel we planned to stay at but everyone was overcharging by around 200% and refused to go on the meter! Eventually we found a guy who would go on the meter but then he drove us in circles before dropping us off. At this point we were just happy to have arrived after almost 3 days of non stop travel, so we headed into the warmth of our hostel room, which was far more hotel then hostel, on San Blas Plaza to get settled in country number 3 of our travels. The rooms at the 'hostel' were really nice and cozy. To Sal and I this place was luxury after all the dorm rooms we had been living in, we even had use of a DVD player! When I set off for travelling, in my head I was not going to watch any TV but you realise that it's nice to have little home comforts now and again so Sal and I chilled out and put on some dodgy pirate DVD's supplyed by the very friendly hostel owners. We snacked on some local made crisps with chilli sauce that we had got from the only place open due to the fact we arrived on a Sunday!
We had chosen to stay near the historic centre of the city so that we could roll out of the hotel to explore the most interesting areas of the city. Quito has a beautiful outlook onto moutains, the highest of which is Cotopaxi at 5897m, and volcanos, one of which is still a threat to the city!
When we woke up it was a bright and fresh day with the kind of feel to it that you get on crisp mornings in the English autumn when the sun is shinning. We headed for the residence of the president, Carondelet Palace, to watch the ceromony of the changing of the guards. It's a much bigger occassion than the changing of the guards at Buckinham Palace. Here they have at least 100 men in neat blue uniform, a large marching band, around 10 dressed horses and even the vice president was residing over everything. The ceromony lasted around 30 minutes and there was singing and brass bands playing throught much of it followed by the raising of one of the biggest flags I have ever seen. It was a fascinating display to watch.
While we were watching I knotice a strange looking lady in a big white feather coat and a green eye mask. I thought that she was either a little crazy or maybe it was just a traditional way to dress for this type of occassion. It turned out that she was the leader of an anti government group. As soon as the changing of the guards was finnished she started protest chants. It is always interesting to see how well loved, or not, the political parties of South American country's are. We had already encountered quite a few protest in Brazil.
Afterwards we then walked around where we saw the Monastery of San Francisco, the Plaza de la Independencia (Plaza Grande) and La Compañía de Jesús as well as many other area. With its narrow streets, restored colonial architecture and lively plazas, Quito's Centro Histórico is amazing to wander. Built centuries ago, Quito's has a lot of churches, convents, chapels and monasteries which are steeped in history. It's a bustling area, full of yelling street vendors, honking taxis and whistle-blowing policemen trying to direct traffic in the narrow, congested one-way streets. The area is very unique and there is always something interesting to look see at every turn.
The next sight we went to was one of the most impressive. The Basilica is a huge building with looming clock towers and turtles and iguana's protruding from the walls and roof. There was a walk to the very top of the Basilica where you could get a great view of the city. One section to get to the top was a bridge along the rafters. Sal was didn't like the look of the steep steps out onto the roof top but after some persuading she came up, little did she know that there was worse to come. The next climb was a set of steep open fronted stairs to the very top of a tower. Sal froze with her back flat to the wall at the bottom of the steps so I went up alone. The panoramic view of the city was really something. You could also see how they had alligned a huge angel statue (kind of a Christ redeemer type structure) to sit directly in the centre of the two huge clock towers of the Basilica. When I headed back down to Sal and told her how amazing the view was she was determined to see it for herself. As she headed up the stairs/ladder she kept yelling at me not to touch her even though I wasn't touching her! Sal really transforms into another person when it comes to heights. I have a funny video to prove it, hehe. The girl did good and got all the way to the top where the fantastic views made her forget about the height.
For lunch we chilled out in the main plaza contented with people watching in a world that neither of us had ever experienced before. We took a walk around the local parks and saw a funky observatory. I started to tell Sal about the history of Quito, of how Marcus Quito was best friends with Simon Bolivar and together in 1764 they worked together to liberate the city from the Spannish. It took about 20 minutes of my ramblings before Sally realised that I was just making it all up to entertain myself! It was so funny when she realised, apparently I had been very convincing :-) We came across a funny little man made lake/pond with pedalows on it and decided it would be fun to hire one out. Our pedalow would only turn right or go forward which made things interesting. At one point I decided to abondon ship and jumped onto the bank while pushing Sal into the centre, the look on her face was priceless, you would have thought that I had just left her in the middle of the ocean. Then Sal realised it was a pond and peddled back to the bank. After working up an appetite on the pedalow we went for some dinner. We had amazing been chicken and potato skewers off a street vendor, this all came to a whopping 80 US cents each! Good times.
The next day we headed for the bus station for the next leg of our journey to Peru. It turned out to be a different bus station to the one we arrived at. This one was ultra modern and far nicer than many airports I have been through. Turns out this is the bus station we should have got off at when we arrived, ooops! It was a real shame that we didn't have more time in Ecuador but we had already booked our Machu Piccu tickets and had also spent more time in Colombia than expected. The small snippet of the country we had seen had been great but it was a tiny part of a hugley diverse country. I already know that I will be coming back to Equador one day to give this country the time it deserves.
I am so sad to be saying good bye to Ecuador but at the same time unbelievably excited about the prospects of all that Peru has to offer. I have never know times like these in my life where I am forever excited about something to come that is just around the corner. I'm not sure that Sal and I have stopped smiling during the past few months......... except when it comes to heights of course ;-)
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