Quito

Onwards to Quito, capital of Ecuador, high in the Andes, complete with a stunning historic center and reputation  for pick pocketing and mugging.  We´d been in  for the day to organise our Galapagos tour last week, but heading in with all our possessions was a different story.

Luckily for us we managed to get a ride right to where we were going with Daniel, a Costa Rican who is working in Quito and happened to be visiting the hacienda the morning we wanted to leave.  We stored our bags for the day and headed out to see the sights.

The historical center of Quito truly is beautiful.  Gorgeous churches, plazas, streets lined with balconies . . . We only went into one church: Iglesia de La Compania de Jesus.  This is also known as ´The Gold Church´ because inside it is impossibly ornate and covered in 22 carat gold leaf.  Ben was bitterly disappointed that he wasn´t allowed to take photographs inside it . . .

From the historic centre at 2,800m we took a taxi to the base of the Teleferiqo - an amazing cable car that takes you up to 4,100m above the city.  It is an incredible panorama with the volcanoes all around.  The altitude difference was quite noticeable with a bit more breathlessness and a definite drop in temperature.

Back to the centre of town to pick up our bags, then to the north of the city to stay with Gabriela.  In Baños we´d met a French couple who highly recommended an organisation called Couchsurfing.  The idea is that you stay with local people, or host other travellers if you´re at home and that it´s supposed to be a bit of a cultural exchange.  It felt little odd, contacting someone out of the blue to ask if we could stay the night, but Gabriela had some great recommendations.


I´m glad we did.  Not only is Gabriela incredibly kind, welcoming and fun, she has two gorgeous cats.  That night we were up late repacking our bags and it took considerably longer than it should have as we kept being ambushed by the kitten.  Far too cute!