Day 37 Wednesday, April 10th Quito

Up late for breakfast at Casa Verde and then we just hang-around the lounge and spend an enjoyable few hours chatting with Mark, Carolina and her boyfriend-Stav.

The taxi picks us up at 12.30pm and we head into Banos for the 1.00pm bus to Quito. $3 each for the 3 ½ hr trip with all the locals. We pull into Quito’s brand-new bus station (all glass, marble and steel) and find our way to the trolley station for the trip downtown to our hostel. A man is praying to a statue of Madonna that is in the corner of the Men’s Bathroom. The trolley speeds along dedicated roads and through about twenty stations. One lady points at her eyes and then our suitcases-warning us not to take our eyes off them. Several people stop me putting my backpack with the suitcases and mime to me that I should keep it on me. Then the whole trolley bus of locals participate in helping us find the right station to get off. We have a lot of fun miming and trying to speak Spanish with them. We get off and the whole bus waves goodbye to us.

An old man gets off at the same stop and warns us of getting mugged by putting himself into a choke-hold. We lug our roll-aboards up the steep cobbled street to the Secret Garden Hostel and then up the five floors to reception. The altitude here is painted on the last step-an explanation of why we feel puffed.

 

A double room with en-suite is $40 but basic although it does have hot water. The people running the place are pleasant enough and there is a great roof-top terrace with bar and kitchen and a terrific view across Quito and its Basilica as night falls and the lights come on.

The hostel has a full-time security guard. He helps us use our street map and find a good place to hunt for dinner and we set off walking the streets of Quito at night. We always leave most of our cash and all the credit cards locked in our suitcases in our room and then spread the remaining cash around several pockets before we head out.

We have been advised to take a taxi (safer) and after a short walk another security guard (they are positioned around the city every few hundred meters) helps us get one. $2 gets us to where we have been told to go and so we then start to walk and look for a restaurant. All of them are seedy and have unappetising menus and we have to settle for one of them and we pay $24 (too much) for chicken which has been hammered flat and then pan-fried and french fries (plata-fritas) and warm red wine.

Quito does look interesting with well-built colonial style buildings and attractive squares but the undercurrent of street crime puts us off spending more time here.