¡Bienvenido a Quito, Nate!

4 de septiembre, dos mil ocho

Blink blink. The sun comes pouring through the window. I’m curled up on the bottom bunk in bed number 6 of dorm D, Secret Garden, Quito, Ecuador. It doesn’t take much to wake me up though because the excitement and anticipation have been building for days. After a nice hot shower and an all-you-can-eat breakfast of eggs, fresh fruit yogurt granola, coffee, juice, and fresh rolls I am ready. So ready. I catch a taxi al aeropuerto where I make my way to llegadas internacionales. My flip flops are slippity sliding all over the slick floor. And then I wait. And wait. And as I wait I realize that I’m starting to get feverish again. My head is spinning, my forehead is burning, and my hands are in a cold sweat. Same as at the border. I guess all this waiting is making me sick.

Despite my inability to keep myself healthy, I keep my eye set on the rhythmic opening and closing of the automatic door in anticipation. Then finally I see him, an attractive tall blonde in blue walking my way. All it takes is a split second and I am running toward him with my camera posed.

Bienvenido Nate! You’ve left the red, white and blue and have stretched your international legs! And you have a stamp in your brand new neverbeenbrokenin passport to prove it! Congratulations!

I try to bargain with the taxi drivers who are charging too much. I want to impress Nate with my Spanish. However he looks dazed after his three flights, two layovers and 19 hours of travel time. In the taxi, he stares out the window as I chat his ear off. Stimulus overload!



We arrive to Secret Garden, move into our splurgy private room, and take to the streets. I had lost/misplaced/had stolen my Lonely Planet guide book the night before (after saying that I needed to reduced any dependence I had on it… coincidence?!) so we were blind in a new city. We walked toward Old Quito. The streets and sidewalks narrowed. Nate was trying to make sense of these new surroundings. I got us to the Plaza de Independencia and from there we took some roundabout route to find some food.

We stopped in a restaurant for a late almuerzo. Mmmm… soup, a main dish, jugo de maracuyá, and dessert. All for $1.50. I think I’m going to like Ecuador. We continued walking.



Then to our right the towers of the Basilica del Voto Nacional grew out of no where. A friendly woman on the corner pointed us to the entrance. $2 later we were climbing up stairs. Those stairs lead to a long wooden plank bridge. That bridge led to a steep metal ladder. The ladder led up and outside to some nearly vertical stairs. At this point we can see all of Quito, including the street that we left many stories below. My knees were shaking and my fingers were desperately gripping the railing. But the view from the top was worth it. 360 degree view of Quito! Unreal!

As we climbed down the stairs we made small talk with a French guy, who was too afraid to go all the way to the top. The rain started.

A quick unwanted tour of the inside of the beautiful neo-gothic church led us back on the street. The rain came down and we trudged through it. What to do in a rainy Quito? We bought a periodico from a friendly corner vendor and sat inside a juice place trying to decipher the news. Mmmmm… Papaya and naranjilla juices were good, but not good enough to keep poor Nate’s eyes open. Nate was so travel tired, and for good reason, that we decided to stay in that night.

5 de septiembre, dos mil ocho

We took our time waking up. Nate had a lot of sleep to catch up on. A late desayuno and then we climbed the back streets behind our hostel to Parque Itchimbía with a breathtaking (literally! The air is so thin at this altitude!) view of Quito. Along the cyclovía past school children to playground where we hung from monkey bars and performed balancing acts. Then sat on a bench overlooking the city to catch our breaths!



To descend we took unknown streets with little restaurants and shops. We passed buenas días men and women. Down down down we walked. And around and around. Hours passed and we still walked. Lunch was $1.40 and was a mixture of yummy and not.



After a siesta, we set out again. We walked all the way to Mariscal Sucre and Plaza Foch, for which everyone had a different set of directions. Meanwhile, I noticed from the abundant English and skyrocketing prices that we were getting deeper and deeper into Gringoland. Not exactly where I wanted to be. The neighborhood was crawling with Saturday night partygoers and when we left the vicinity, the deserted streets looked dangerous now that the sun was no longer up. So we settled on an overpriced non-authentic Mexican restaurant after we accidentally witnessed a drug deal. It’s amazing how much more delicious the typical Ecuadorian restaurants are, but the foreigners love the more familiar restaurants that are of poorer quality.

Food Highlights:
All the fresh juices. Let’s see, I’ve tried the FRESHEST limonada, tomate del árbol, papaya, mango, mora, tamarindo, guayaba, guanábana, maracuyá… am I forgetting any?! Mmmmmm…