We arrived for the first time in South America. Unfortunately not by boat in Columbia, which is a wonderful country with many things to see, but in Quito Ecuador. The flight from Panama was not too long and the decent spectacular.
As Quito is situated very high and surrounded by volcanos and mountains, the landscape offered amazing formations.
We stayed at the Posada Colonial, a basic hostel in the historic center of Quito. As the tram was packed and we didn't see a chance to fit in with our backpacks on. So we ended up to take a bus which was less crowded. Our explorations of the town started immediately. We had 5 days until our flight to the Galapagos.
The city offers many small streets with neat houses and many, many, MANY! churches. Chrisy didn't like my plan of visiting ALL of them and was happy every time when we came to closed doors.
However, we still managed to visit some incredible churches and where able to see the inside and even join in a mess with a great guitar music to accompany the songs.
As Ecuador is on the equator we had to get there and make sure we did the step over the line in style!
Unfortunately we did not see the place with all the experiments, including the myth of the toilet water flushing the different direction, the standing egg on the equator line, the influence of the line on your physical strengths and many more.
On the weekend is a town with the name of Otavalo famous for it's market. So we took a bus to do the 3 hrs ride to visit it. The scenery on the way was very interesting and we enjoyed the time.
All different kind of textile, fabric and colorful cloths awaited us. Many artists showcased and sold their goods. Food stands filled the roads and offered from fresh fruit, cooked meals to herbs everything imaginable.
It was a very interesting day and we purchased some items from the vendors and ate delicious food from some street cars.
Here you can find more pictures from our day on the market in Otavalo
One of the other days we took the Taliferi gondola to be able to climb the volcano mountain closest to the city. The day started to be nice with good views on the mountain.
The trek was easy at the beginning and the views breathtaking. Wild flowers, including the Ecuadorian national flower were on the left and right hand side of the trek.
Soon the way got harder and harder and the air thinner with ever step. We had to climb along deep drops and scramble up the steep slopes. When we finally arrived the top with 4480 meters (the highest we ever have been), the view was stunning and for a few minutes we were able to enjoy it before the clouds took over the top of the mountain.
Unfortunately our way back was not so pleasant. I first thought we had a food poisoning but thinking of it now, we had the altitude sickness. (that's nothing to do with attitude!) we both felt horrible and had bad symptoms I don't want to talk about here... My head was killing me and after arriving back down in the city, I managed to leave my wallet with a few bucks but 2 cards in a taxi. Great job Robert! As there are uncountable amounts of taxi companies and my attempts to talk to some of them only met ignorance, I had to cancel them in the night. Luckily no transaction were made on them.
It took us almost 2 days to get better. Now we know that chocolate would have made a difference. If you ever should go into high altitude, make sure to inform yourself about how to prevent getting sick. Eat chocolate!!!!
As the weekend was national holiday weekend we were not able to visit some museums, however we were able to enjoy an afternoon in the well visited park and some free theater on the street and some jazz music in the evening.
More pictures from Quito find here.
To get to the Galapagos Islands, we got picked up in the early morning by a luxurious private van to get transported to the airport and led to the airline counter. This was the start for one of my life time dreams...
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