Thursday 1 February
3.45am pick up! At least there's no traffic at this time of the morning. A flight from La Paz to Lima, a 2 hour layover and another flight to Quito, Ecuador.
We stayed at Casona de La Ronda, a boutique hotel in an historic building.
Our room had the biggest bed we have ever seen!
We took a walk to Plaza Grande in search of a sim card. Police and security everywhere.
We stopped for a pisco sour at the Grand Plaza Hotel and ended up trying some local snacks - tamales, humitas and bolon and Ecuadorian wine too.
They serve their sorbet with the lights off, an eerie bell tolling and the waiter dressed in a purple "clan" outfit. We still have no idea why! But we ordered one anyway.
The centre of town is very quiet after dark.
Almost every bar and restaurant is empty.
At Canndyl de la Ronda they only had 2 other guests. The salsa band was playing in an empty room.
We tried a tray of local shots. Awful!
So we headed off to bed.. no alarm clock set for a change.. just as it should be.
Friday 2nd February
Quito is 3600m above sea level but it seems I have finally acclimatised. It's on the equator but is surprisingly cool due to the altitude. The currency of Ecuador is the USD. This makes things quite a bit more expensive than South Africa. Recent political unrest has led to a big drop in tourism.
Today we slept in; the first time since the start of this trip. It's rainy anyway.
We ubered to Plaza Foch, the student/ backpacker party area in La Floresta.
We had lunch at the Colombian coffee chain Juan Valdez.We tried fast food empanadas.
We sat at an upstairs bar with a view over the square to watch 6 nations rugby. The only thing going for "Jack and Beer" is that they put ESPN 3 on for us; the only guests.
The clubs (discotekas) started before 4pm on a Friday afternoon and thousands of young people flocked in.
After the rugby, we ubered in the rain, to a more upmarket Bar Zinc. Again the place was so empty for a Friday night.
Saturday 3 February
We walked all over the historic old centre of Quito today. Busier being a Saturday.
Lots of people watching. Lots of churches.
And lots of hills. Neil had fun buying me a hat.
In the evening we had cocktails on the rooftop terrace of Hotel Casa Gangotena.
Then dinner and music at Lena Quitena on La Ronda; much more local and much more fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment