Quito, Old Town

The city of Quito is divided roughly in two halves; the Old Town and the New Town (the touristy part). On Friday, we decided to stick to the Old Town, and spent most of today exploring it. It's unlike any city we've every been to, and we are still trying to get a sense of safety/security here. We've been cautioned about carrying around the Nikon SLR but can't imagine not doing so, so Lisa spent most of Friday wearing her fleece and rain jacket (in 22 degree weather) in order to keep it concealed under layers. The weather was supposed to be chilly and rainy here all week, but has been suprisingly hot and sunny!

On Friday, we climbed to the top of "La Basilica" for some views of the city, which involved crossing some rickety wooden make-shift "bridges" and ascending some ladders; no big deal. Alex was a trooper (since she is afraid of heights, and ladders for that matter). The views from the top were definitely worth the effort. For reasons we still cannot figure out, our feet attracted way too much attention; whether it was the flip-flops, bright toe-nail polish, or big "white" feet, we will never know, but it was certainly bizarre. Very few people speak any english here, so our Spanish will improve rapidly.

We have definitely been feeling the altitude here, and have been blaming most inconveniences on it (memory lapses, lazyness, fatigue...). The entire city seems to be built on a hill, so climbing 10 flights of stairs at a time is not unusual, but we feel more out of breath than [we'd like to think] we would be in Calgary.

Friday evening we went out to "La Ronda" - the oldest street in Quito and where the authentic nightlife is. We were definitely the only tourists around, but it was fantastic. We find it interesting that all generations go out to party at night. There was this adorable 4 year old boy on the dance floor showing his moves off ALL NIGHT. Something you would not see in Calgary. After going out we didn't really feel like making plans for the next day so we decided to "figure it out in the morning" - something we learned doesn't work all that well. 

 

Saturday, we attempted (and failed) to arrange several day trips, and instead settled on exploring the New Town and setting up our Amazon adventure for next week. It ended up being an interesting day; we went to a local market and bought super soft alpaca blankets, which we will happily exchange for our American Airlines fleece blankets. They had the most adorable alpaca sweaters, hats and bags as well, but we resisted the urge. The Llama sweaters will come later, in Peru. We also discovered that papaya is NOT our favorite fruit, after purchasing a huge cup of it in the park, and struggling to eat it.  So far (knock on wood) we haven't had any stomach troubles.

 

 

This will likely be the last blog post until next weekend, since we are off on some adventures starting tomorrow. Sunday we will climb Cotopaxi Volcano up to El Refugio, and then up to the glaciers. Following our trek we will take a night bus to Lago Agrio, where we will spend 5 days (4 nights) at a jungle lodge deep in the Amazon (near the Colombian border).  We are looking forward to some Pirhana fishing, Amazon tubing, river canoeing and alligator sighting. (Dear parents: we promise this is safe!) It also means we are starting out anti-malarial drugs tonight :( This will be the only point on our trip where we will be in the Northern Hemisphere!