Entries about quito

The flight from Quito was uneventful and I arrived back in Guayaquil late afternoon.

In the evening I went out for dinner with my friend and colleague 'E' to a crab restaurant. I was desperate to have crab at least once before I left Ecuador, because the coast is known for its crab dishes and many people, including several students, had recommended them to me. I had garlic crab; there wasn't all that much meat in them, apart from in particularly large and fat pincers, but I was still really glad I'd had them. What there was was very tasty and juicy. I was given a wooden mallet to crack the shells, legs and pincers with! They were all very thick, so a hammer or mallet of some sort was definitely needed. I was given a plastic bib at the start as well; this was also very much needed due to bits of shell and garlic flying around! 'E' had ceviche and then helped me out with one or two of my crabs as I had several and each one took me quite a long time to eat.

While we were waiting for our food to arrive 'E' gave me a goodbye present - a keyring in the shape of a palm tree, made of different sections carved from coloured tagua nuts. Tagua is called 'vegetable ivory' due to the close similarity in texture and colour to the real thing.

After the crab restaurant we went to my favourite morocho stand and had a cup of it each for dessert. Morocho is a delicious drink very much like a drinkable rice pudding, only made with a broken-up type of white corn instead of rice. The taste and texture is almost exactly like rice pudding.

Wednesday 23rd July

Originally I'd planned to go back to Quito as early as I could, to give me more time to go to places I wanted to see before I left for good, but I ended up not leaving Mindo until 1.30pm because before that I had an interview for a job at a small language school in Bulgaria! I successfully found the only computer with working Skype in a reliable internet café. The interview went really well and I was offered the job at the end. If I accept, I'll be due to start work in the middle of September.

The later leaving time from Mindo meant that when I arrived at the usual hostel in Quito it was late afternoon and I decided I was too tired to go out again properly. I just rested for a bit and then went out for some dinner at Achiote, a restaurant Dave and I went to last month. It does Ecuadorian food and the quality is really good. I had shrimps in a coconut and vegetable sauce with yuca chips and a cold salad as accompaniments.

Thursday 24th July

In the morning I went for a walk in Guápulo district, which runs picturesquely down a hill within walking distance of the hostel. It was really hot and sunny. Before I walked down the hill I took some photos of the amazing view next to a statue of Francisco de Orellana, a conquistador who was the first Westerner to cross the Amazon region to reach the Atlantic Ocean (he was also the founder of Guayaquil, out of interest.)

I went down the hill to the beautiful white Sanctuary de El Guápulo, which unfortunately was closed apart from the entrance area.

Then I climbed all the way back up again, packed my stuff and took a taxi to the airport for my flight to Guayaquil.

Today in total I visited two churches, three museums, a Republica del Cacao shop, two bookshops with English sections, and a tiny little traditional restaurant underneath the cathedral where I had some very tasty seco de chivo for lunch.

The museums I went to were the Museo San Francisco, right next to the monastery of the same name (beautiful courtyards, religious art, portraits of European rulers from the 17th and 18th centuries, and up some stairs to a choir stall looking out over the beautiful interior of the monastery, where a service was taking place); Casa del Alabado, a small museum full of fascinating and dramatically well-lit pre-Columbian artifacts; and the City Museum, set on the grounds of a former hospital. It had an exhibition about the old hospital as well as more general ones about the history of the city.

Museo San Francisco:

Casa del Alabado - pre-Columbian exhibits from the Valdivia, La Tolita, Jama-Coaque, Napo and Chorrera cultures, plus a view of the street outside:

City Museum:

One of the churches was Iglesia San Agustin. Due to a mistake on my map that showed it a block further away from the Plaza Grande trolebus stop than it actually is, it wasn't until I got there that I realised I had been there once before, with my sister Emma on Good Friday. The interior of this church is so beautiful and interesting I stayed for quite a while to look round it again and savour the atmosphere. Unfortunately no photography was allowed, so I couldn't get any pictures of the interior. I did get one of the street outside, though:

On the way there I also took these pictures of Plaza Grande:

Iglesia de la Merced, the other church (and the view from its steps):

The museums and churches were all in the Old Town. I went back to the hostel for a little bit after that and then went for a wander around the New. The Republica del Cacao shop I visited because I really wanted to get myself one of their t-shirts - I had intended to get one at Guayaquil Airport on my departure date from Ecuador, but then I thought it might be cheaper to get one from a place outside the airport instead. As it happened the prices were about the same, but they only had unisex sizes rather than fitted ones for women, so I didn't buy one after all. Although I had a nice browse in the bookshops I didn't buy anything from them either.

For dinner I went back to an old favourite, the Italian restaurant Cosa Nostra. I went for something a bit different this time and had some lovely bolognese gnocchi for a main and a teacup of amazing coffee ice cream for pudding.

The bus trip to Catamayo was simple. The bus dropped me off in the town so I took a taxi from there to the airport - only a two-minute journey.

Catamayo Airport is tiny - about the same size as the airport on Baltra Island in the Galápagos. After I'd checked in and got my boarding pass and was waiting for baggage x-ray and the departure lounge to open, a professional football team arrived and waited too. I didn't catch which team they were though.

I was lucky enough to get a window seat, so although it was partly over a wing, I still managed to get a good view of Cotopaxi Volcano as approached Quito. At the beginning of the flight I read an article about Guayaquil in the TAME magazine which was so full of hyperbole I had to chuckle a little to myself. I am genuinely fond of Guayaquil but even I can see that it is not quite the same level as Quito and Cuenca regarding beauty and history! This July edition of the magazine was a celebration of the Independence of Guayaquil, a public holiday for the whole country on 23rd/24th July every year.

I'm staying at Travellers' Inn, the same hostel where I've been on each of the three previous occasions I've been to Quito. The older guy here, the head of the family who own and run the hostel, asked me where my husband was! He must have remembered my ring arriving when I was here last month with Dave, though not the fact that it was an engagement ring not a wedding one. This chap was the one who helped me and Dave with information about how to get to Papallacta.

I arrived late in the afternoon so I didn't do anything apart from rest a bit before going out for some dinner. I went to a tiny French crépe restaurant down the road, because I fancied something a bit different to normal. I had a ratatouille and chicken crépe and a chocolate milkshake. Then I realised I was still hungry so I stopped at a bakery/café on the way back and bought a chocolate bun.

A trek up part of Cotopaxi Volcano today. It was organised by our hostel and although absolutely exhausting, it was well worth it.

A minibus took us and three others to a parking area already up part of the mountain. We'd stopped at the entrance to the National Park; at the café I bought a cup of coca tea because I was starting to feel unwell due to altitude sickness. It helped a bit, thank goodness.

The first part of the trek was OK, if tiring. It had a steep incline but wasn't all that long. The ground was a very fine gravel, so our feet sank into it. When we reached the top of this first part we turned and saw wonderful views over the rest of the National Park. The glacier above us was beautiful and awe-inspiring.

Dave stayed at this part, but I decided to carry on to the base lodge that was in the process of being built. I'd had to stop for the loo, because I was absolutely desperate, so the others in the group had already gone ahead of us. That second part of the trek was very difficult - in terms of sheer muscular exhaustion it was on par with the last hour of our trek up Ben Nevis in 2011. This was the view of the second part;

It didn't look all that far at the start, but that was misleading! I was struggling quite badly with altitude sickness by now - no nausea, luckily, just feeling quite lightheaded and off balance. My chest was hurting where I injured my rib in February last year and the back of my head hurt where it joins onto my neck. One of the guides was with me and she let me sit down and rest on rocks whenever I needed to, which helped. There were several moments where I considered turning back, but a voice in my head pushed me on. At one point a load of donkeys passed by me coming from the opposite direction.

And despite being physically one of the hardest things I've ever done, it was absolutely worth it. As soon as I reached the lodge I had my photo taken next to the signpost that said I was at 4864 metres altitude, then tottered over to a seat amongst the masonry at the front of the half-built lodge where two workers were busy working. It felt amazing to be so high up.

I had a enormously satisfying rest for five to ten minutes, along with a drink, before descending. The descent took about five minutes, making a mockery of how long it had taken me to get up there... a fast walk turned into a jog and then I was pushed by the slope into a run. Dave was watching from the bottom of this section, so he took a few photos of me coming down.

Then, after another little rest, we descended the first section together, at a walk. It was just us two along with the guide that had been with me on the second section. The others had carried on higher than the base lodge, to the edge of the glacier itself - this was an optional extra activity as part of the excursion - but Dave and I gave this a miss. By now I was starting to feel dizzy and sleepy and a headache was developing.

The three of us sat in the minibus waiting for the others to return. I started off in the front passenger seat but then I felt so bad I needed to lie down, so I moved to lying across the back seats and Dave took my seat at the front. The guide gave me an inflatable neck/head rest which helped make me more comfortable.

Thankfully, once the others had arrived back and we descended to the plains of the National Park, I started feeling much better. We stopped at a beautiful lake for a bit and then to a small café where we were given free cheese rolls and we could buy other things if we wanted to.

I wasn't hungry at all so I didn't have my roll, but I did get myself a hot chocolate and some Coke. Dave bought some coca boiled sweets, which we ate on the rest of our return journey.

We stopped again at the entrance/exit to the National Park. There was a TV playing the England vs. Italy World Cup group match - Italy were winning 1-0. It was just after half time. Just as we drew up to the hostel later on, the match finished. England had lost and were out of the World Cup.

As soon as we got back from Cotopaxi National Park I went to bed. I was feeling lightheaded and dizzy again and started throwing up. I had about four or five bouts of it. At around 6.30pm my engagement ring was delivered! - I couldn't get out of bed so Dave collected it from reception. It was just as beautiful as I expected.

I didn't have any dinner but Dave went out and had a similar mixed grill to the one he had at the Argentinian grillhouse a couple of days earlier.