Break for the border

Trip Start Oct 01, 2008
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Trip End Apr 01, 2009


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Where I stayed
Casa Helbling
(Quito hotels)

Flag of Ecuador  ,
Sunday, November 16, 2008

It's another country.  Despite having the same weather, language, taxis and flag (but for a bit of a motif in the middle) Ecuador is very different.  The hills aren't as lush (not through lack of rainfall, and it's not an altitude thing, I'm sure) and the people seem a bit better off.  And where Caratgena was pirates, Spanish galleons and slavery, Quito has a much more refined air about it.  The people are pale and European looking, more like Argentinians.  The food (especially the sugar free bread) is better too.
 
I didn't expect to like Quito but now I've arrived I'm impressed.  For a start it could show London a thing or 2 about how to run a fast efficient bus service with bendy buses that everybody pays to get on.  The new town, where I'm staying has a huge choice of cuisines - I had a Syrian meal last night and it was delicious.
 
I arrived a day early because the bus I caught from the border didn't stop at the place I was planning on staying Saturday night, so I stayed on the bus till Quito without any way of latting the hostel know I'd be a day early.  Arrived at 11pm having driven round the block several times in a taxi looking for it (a very discreet sign) and I was so relieved they had a bed for me I didn't even mind sharing the room.  My roomie moved to her own room Sunday so I have it to myself now.
 
Pasto was vile, and there was a big demonstration there too, not sure what about - hence being a day early - and I never got to see the lake.  On the way to the border I took a detour to the Santuario de las Lajas, a gothic monstrosity of a church built into the rock face above a river where someone once saw the Virgin Mary and it's now good for miracles.  It looks as though it'd be more at home in Bavaria or Transylvannia than Colombia.  I bet it's in Wikipedia.
 
The bus was stopped 4 times between the border and where I didn't get off and randomly searched for drugs and weapons.  The 2nd time it was my bag they took off, but I thought it was a horrible little man trying to steal it so I went charging of the bus shouting at him, luckily with my padlock keys to hand so I could watch my stuff being searched by the side of the road.  I think it was because my troll was actually the only luggage in the hold, the rest being bags of onions, poatoes, clothing, cocaine and uzis.
 
That explained why the border crossing had been remarkably free of searches.  I had to queue for an hour to get into Ecuador, but the Colombian hippy behind me had his girlfriend sit inside with all our bags while we queued out in the rain.  Why does it always rain on me when I do a land border in South America?
 
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