Party Week in Quito

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  Quito, Ecuador
Thursday, December 6, 2007

December the 6th is Founder's Day in Ecuador.  Unbeknown to us, this means parties in the street all week long.  Hell yeah!  After a full 8 days of sailing the Galapagos with folks in the second half of their lives, we were ready for whatever Quito would throw at us. 
We found our hostel by asking a very helpful Dutch girl who was on our flight from the Galapagos to Quito.  She suggested the Backpackers Inn which is owned by her Swiss friend.  The hostel was right smack dab in the middle of the Marsical - Quito's new town or downtown, if you will.  We were three blocks away from the main square where they had stages set up with a massive arrangement of tables and chairs for enjoying the festivities with a cold one in hand.  When we arrived, we settled in and started to make our way around the town, getting a lay of the land.  But first, we were hungry. 

The travel book we bought for Ecuador is complete shit.  It's the Viva Travel Guide, not the Lonely Planet...stupid Amy, what were you thinking.  However, one good thing came out of this and it was the best place in Quito to wet your whistle and fill Rory's tummy with delicious Tex Mex food.  Red Hot Chili Peppers is the name of this quaint little restaurant and margaritas are their game.  I'm not sure I've had a better frozen margarita anywhere in the states, but I could just be speaking from weeks and weeks of no margaritas what-so-ever.  Either way, I was smitten. 

The rest of the week in Quito we spent searching out bigger and better places to chow, but none compared to our beloved RHCP.  We did, however, find some posh little bars to hang out at and ended up meeting a very nice couple - Laurent from Quito and Libby from Colorado.  They both worked at this small, red lite lounge called Chelsie located in the middle of the square.  We spent at least three nights getting drunk, bellied up to Laurent's bar, having free shots handed to us right and left.  We couldn't have asked for a better situation...or could we?

Shooter's was another bar in the middle of all the chaos that offered $1.50 tap beers and was owned by a hippie Canadian named Milton.  We spent a few hours talking with Milton and exchanging stories of places we've been and things we've seen.  Turns out this guy was at Woodstock in 69' and it gave us an idea.  Excuse me sir, but do you know where we can get any marijuana?  And of course, he did.  The next night we stopped in at our scheduled time and were smoothly handed a film case across the bar.  Milton's the man, he didn't even charge us.  He was just happy to help out.  We'll definitely be visiting Shooter's again. 

After a week of crazy partying, not nearly as crazy as SD partying, we called it time to move on but not before we did some sight seeing.  So we climbed the towers of the Basilica in the Old Town which afforded some of the most magnificent views.  Surprisingly they let you climb all the way up to the tippy top of the clock tower where you can crawl out onto a tiny space right next to the pointed top, not roped in by any sort of railing.  Extremely high and very scary, but well worth the views.  Then we strolled through a few of the large grassy parks, walked down the busy shopping streets, purchased some new shoes and were on our way. 

The last night before we headed off to Banos to summit the mountain Iliniza, we hit up what is supposed to be the best club in Quito, Blues.  Unfortunately the music was shit, but that didn't stop us from having fun.  Rory claims that I was so drunk I couldn't stand or see, but I don't remember it that way.  In fact, I don't remember much at all.  Ha ha.  I'm sure it was a great night though because in the morning I was paying for it. 

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