Bonito Quito
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2008
1
15
122
Trip End
Jan 01, 2009
Quito,
Ecuador
Thursday, October 9, 2008
We decided to get a head start on the trip to Quito and leave early in the morning. After catching a bus, seeing another motorcycle accident and then catching the ferry over to Bahai de Caraquez we found out the next bus leaves at 10pm (it was 11am). With time to kill we hit stopped by an internet cafe, where Arik caught the attention of some local girls who needed a picture for their HighFive (facebook) page, and tried Lonely Plantes food recomendation, a funky pizza place.
The overnight bus was horrible as always, but we saved $20 on a hostel!! Arrival in Quito at 5am was a bit unnerving, but we found our hostel and made it to the bed
Us in front of the Church
. Arik met some interesting Scotich guys on the 5th floor rooftop terrace before breakfast who were still up from the night before. Interesting guys who were doing a major city tour of South America for 4 months. Even though many people see backpackers as a fairly homogenous group there are many different breeds. Here is a quick sketch of who we´ve met. In my 20´s seeing the world before responsibility Backpacker: this one is us, around 23-30, usually educated, and looking forward to new experiences, wanting to try everything, and enjoy being away from life for a while. Easy going and but sometimes rowdy. Bedtime still before 2am.
This is my life Backpacker: These ones are travelling permanently, finding work or volunteer opportunites to sustain the trip for years. They usually have a different comfort level for cleanliness, have seen so many things little amazes them, and love to give opinions. The age ranges between 22 and perhaps 35. All meals are eaten in the street or prepared in the hostel kitchen.
I´m a former Israli Soldier Backpacker: Israilie people are required to serve in the army for atleast 2 years. After that it is the normal thing to travel the world, so from a country of 5 million they out number most other travellers we´ve met. They are usually looking for adventure and some partying
Arik at the Church
. Great travel companions as their negotiating skills are very impressive. I´m young and want to party backpacker: These guys see every bar, and barely make it to the sights. A few even conciously have the trip just to be in big cities, as this is where the best clubs are. They usually sleep late into the afternoon, can´t remember much of the night before, rarely make it home before 3am and have made more than one call home to borrow more money as traveling this was aint cheap. Our Scotish friends fit in here.
Now that we´ve sterotyped the entire backpacker community back to the blog...
Despite the danger warnings and from other people, Quito is a very nice city, and we made it out alive. So many viewpoints, beautiful indigenous people from near by Otavalo, and great architecture. We stayed in the historical Old Town and were amazed by the beauty of this UNESCO world heritage site. For lunch we hoofed it to a cafe with 180 degree views of the city. Great food, great atmosphere, and it got us our of the hailstorm in the nic of time!
That night we met our spanish teachers and then called up a friend of a friend (A girl who lived in Thailand with our friend Erica). Ana and her friend Ana toured us around town and then to La Mariscal, the centre of new Quito for dinner and some reagaton at a local watering hole. The Mariscal is packed with travellers, almost blindigly white, and referred by many in Quito as ¨Gringolandia¨. The restaurants were mostly too expensive for locals, but very very nice, again like Bogota easily transfered to any international cosmopolitan city. Ana and Ana were great guides and we learned a lot about life in Ecuador. One day in Quito is not enough, but it will have to do. On to the jungle...
