Day 332 – 333: Quito – Part I
After a wonderful 3 weeks in Darwin’s paradise, it was finally time for us to leave the Galápagos. However, even though we were departing from the *most populated city* in the archipelago and from the *main airport*, the journey out of the islands could not have been more absurd. First of all, the airport is nowhere near the city of Puerto Ayora (it’s not even on the same island! But I’ll get to that…), so we had to take a USD $20 taxi across the island to the Itabaca Channel (same place where we caught our dive boat the day before). Once we got to the Itabaca pier, we had to catch a short ferry ride across the channel to Baltra Island (this cost fifty cents each, but we didn’t know about the cost ahead of time so we forgot to get change the day before – since the water taxi couldn’t break a twenty we got a free ride!).
Baltra Island is a tiny off the northern coast of Santa Cruz, which used to host a US military base during WWII. After the war was over and there was no need for America to patrol the South Pacific for Japanese submarines, the island and base were “given back” to the Ecuadorian government (how generous). There is literally nothing on the island except the airport and a handful of iguanas. Once the ferry dropped us off at the pier, we had to sit and wait for about 20min until the (free) shuttle bus finally arrived to take us and all the airline employees to the airport. When we got to the airport, we discovered that the LAN counter wasn’t even open yet. We sat at the beginning of the line for an hour until we were finally allowed to check in.
Lindsay is baffled by the long, inefficient journey visitors must go on in order to reach the main airport for the Galápagos. Igor is happy once we can relax in the lounge.
Once we arrived in Quito, we had our hotel arrange a taxi pick-up at the airport. Our taxi driver, Javier, was really chatty, and gave us lots of recommendations for our upcoming daytrips outside of the city. Our hotel was located in the trendy Mariscal neighborhood, which is full of bars, restaurants, and foam-spraying youths enjoying Carnival. Our room was cozy and comfortable and had blazing fast Wifi. Even though we had an hour or two of daylight left, we decided to be hermits and just curl up in our soft twin beds and catch up on emails and writing. We needed to conserve our strength for tomorrow.
Muesli, coffee and fried eggs – perfect way to start a day of sight-seeing!
Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and rainy for our first full day in Quito. Even so, we decided to try our luck at the TelefériQo – a high-altitude gondola that rises over 2,700ft and takes a good 20min to ride to the top. On a clear day, one can see an amazing panorama of the city as well as many of the surrounding mountains – including the snow-capped Volcan Cotopaxi. All guide books recommend going in the morning, as clouds and fog tend to roll in in the afternoons. Even though it was already very foggy, we had a small hope that we would either get “above the clouds” or the cloud cover would clear long enough for a picture. Wrong on both points – we saw squat. Oh well, at least we didn’t have to fight crowds!
There’s no line for tickets for the TelefériQo gondola up to the peak of Volcan Pichincha, as the mountain is covered in thick clouds
Even though the view is incredibly foggy, at least we get our own car!
Igor shrugs as we confirm there is NOTHING to see at the top of the mountain – just lots of mist
Dew-covered grasses at the top of a cloudy Volcan Pichincha
Going for a short nature walk on top of the volcano – we can’t stray too far from the vistor’s center fear of getting lost in the fog!
Apparently this is a mirador…
Church at the top of the mountain: what they told us we would see vs what we actually saw
The peak of Pichincha is neary 4,000m – enough to cause altitude sickness for some people, so the visitor’s center has an oxygen “bar” available with several flavors of air for patrons to sniff (Lindsay’s not buying it)
As we descend back down the mountain, we finally get below the cloud cover and get a decent view of Quito from the gondola
After the TelefériQo, we caught another taxi into the “Centro Histórico” of Quito (we had a moment of difficulty explaining where we wanted to go to the driver – apparently the literal translation of “Old City” AKA “Ciudad Vieja” didn’t ring a bell). The taxi dropped us off at the Plaza de la Independencia, from where we could stroll through the quaint alleyways and admire the many Gothic and Baroque-style churches in the area. The rain held off util the early afternoon, but once the drops started coming down, we decided to retreat to the hotel, only coming back out for dinner. We had one more day in Quito planned before we flew off to Peru, so we still had time to hit everything we missed.
El San Francisco and El Sagrario – two of the city’s many, many churches
The entrance and bell tower of the Cathedral of Quito
The façade and domes of La Compañía – considered by many to be Quito’s most beautiful and ornate church. Lindsay forked over the USD $5 entrance fee to check it out (Igor stayed outside surfing the web on his cellphone) – the interior is covered top to bottom with gold leaf, so there’s definitely a of bling. Of course, no pics allowed inside.
Lindsay startles a large flock of pidgeons in front of El San Francisco. No, that is not bird shit on her jacket – we are in Quito the weekend of Carnival and all the kids are running around with bottles of foam, spraying people. Mostly they target their friends and leave tourists alone, but one little boy took a shot at Lindsay before running off
Walking through the alleys of Quito’s historical center, where we get a glimpse of El Panecillo – the statue of the Virgin Mary
Street art in the Plaza de Arenas
Outside the Quito Basilica. You can climb to the top of the bell tower for USD $2pp, but we decide to save this for when we return to Quito in a few days – hopefully the weather will be better and we’ll get a good view of city
Peruvians LOVE avocados…almost as much as we do! Lindsay is loving the guac on her burger, and Igor has the audacity to suggest his guacamole-filled quesadilla is on par with Lindsay’s homemade version!