Days 336 – 337: Quito – Part II
We called a taxi to pick us up from our mountain top hotel after breakfast, and ferry us down to the bus terminal in town. As soon as we walked into the ticket area, we were bombarded by hawkers trying to find out where we were going. When we said we were going to Quitos, we were rushed over to a ticket counter and told to buy our seats urgently – the next bus would be leaving in 10min! Hurry, Hurry!
Not sure what the rush was – the bus had no intention of leaving until every seat was sold – we were sitting there for another 20min. When we boarded, we discovered a pair of backpackers sitting in our assigned seats, wearing earbuds and watching Netflix on their phones. Rather than disturb them (God FORBID), the manager directed us to just seat behind them. Fine – the seat had just as big a window, why not? However, 15min later after we had gotten settled, another pair of backpackers came on and the manager told *us* to move to the aisle in front of our original seats as we were now in the newcomers seats – WTF? Why do we have to be moved around to accommodate everyone else? Our new seat only had half a window and didn’t open to boot.
Karma did get the d-bags a little bit. After we pulled out of the station, the bus stopped to let in even more passengers – since there were no seats left, they all had to stand in the aisle. We later learned that this is common on Ecuadorian buses, and the standing price is different from the sitting price. A local guy with a huge bag ended up standing right next to our original seat, and for the whole ride, his stuff and sometimes even his butt would encroach on the backpacker’s personal space. Mwah! Take that, seat-stealers! It was a minor consolation for what was otherwise a long, stuffy and boring 3.5hr. bus ride. Occasionally hawkers would jump onboard to try and sell snacks when we were stopped at traffic lights, then had to try and get back off the bus as it was speeding away (driver didn’t bother to slow down to let the poor vendors off!) – we were so glad once we were back in the city!
Getting Nepal flashbacks – seat-Nazi managers, overcrowded bus, and hawkers selling snacks
We took a taxi back to our hotel in Mariscal and once again hid ourselves away in our comfy Wifi cocoon until dinner.
Revisiting the Mexican restaurant around the corner from our hotel – food was awesome, but warning: HUGE portions!
The next day, our flight to Lima wasn’t until mid-afternoon, so we had all morning to spend in the city. We didn’t have enough time to risk a second trip up Volcan Pichincha via the TelefériQo, so we opted to revisit the Centro Histórico instead. The weather was pretty nice today, so we decided to walk 45min to the Plaza de la Independencia, stopping along to way to shop for essentials we would need for our upcoming trip to the Peru Amazon (more bug spray, leech socks, and Malaria tablets – only USD $0.08 per pill!).
We get distracted by a “Chocolate Museum” sign – turns out to just be a República del Cacao shop. Must resist temptation! The chocolate here is WAY over priced – like USD $9 for a candy bar! What is this, Whole Foods?
Revisiting the Centro Histórico of Quito in nicer weather – El Panecillo gleams in the distance and La Compañía is surrounded by tourists
We eventually made our way back to the Quito Basilica, which we missed entering during our last visit. We arrived a little after 9AM, so the place was pretty empty. Tourists have two options for visiting the Basilica – USD $2 gets you into the sanctuary only (where no photos are allowed, boo), and a separate USD $2 fee gets you access to the roof and towers. We opted for the latter, (total deal as you get a great view of the sanctuary from the cathedral balcony as well) – we were pleasantly surprised by how much fun it was to run around and explore the roof of the church! Especially surprising was how much freedom they let you have when climbing up the towers – a similar area in the US would have been a safety nightmare, but I guess Ecuadorians assume people are smart enough not to fall off a roof (or if they do fall, they deserve to die – Darwinism is popular here, right?).
Making our way back to the Basilica of Quito for a self-guided tour of the towers
Feeling like Quasimoto – roaming inside the roof and the clock tower of the church!
The clock towers and the bell tower of the basilica, viewed from the roof
Climbing the steep, narrow staircase up into the bell tower
Panoramic view of Quito and El Panecillo from the Basilica bell tower
Stained glass windows inside the basilica sanctuary
We finally head toward the airport around noon. We wanted to get there a bit early as we read online that foreigners could get a refund for the 14% VAT tax we paid on all our hotels. Unfortunately, what we didn’t read is that we needed a pre-printed official form to submit into a drop box at Security. Not only that, but you have to *print your credit card number* on the form for the Ecuadorian government to electronically issue your refund. Yeah, right. We’ve had enough people hack our credit cards on this trip – we’re not leaving a printed copy of our credit card number for some random government admin to play with.
The flight to Lima was short and smooth. Lima itself, however, was a bit of a shit show. For some reason, Customs took FOREVER as they needed to scan *every* *single* *piece* of luggage (mind you – Latin Americans often travel with 5 suitcases each, as they often load up on clothes and souvenirs when they are abroad – especially when they go to the States). Apparently Peru has really strict import laws – our Customs declaration form told us that we were specifically only allowed (per person) one digital camera, two memory cards, two USB flashdrives, and one electric hair razor. Their clever answer to prevent tax fraud is to create ridiculously long lines at the airport.
We were soon to learn, however, that things don’t speed up once you get out of the airport. Lima traffic is HORRIBLE. It was almost midnight by the time we finally got to our hotel in Miraflores. No time for pictures – must CRASH.
No VAT refund in Ecuador since we didn’t have a preprinted form to drop off. The mayhem continues in Lima as we wait in a 30+ person line to exit Customs