This all started maybe six weeks ago when Andrew and I were discussing our insatiable wanderlust and the fact that we didn’t have a “global adventure” on the books for the foreseeable future. We’d hoped to do a home exchange in New Zealand in 2018 but this wasn’t coming together. We have business and some US family travel booked that we look forward to – but truth be told – we are incorrigible seekers of skirting our comfort zone in search of “cultural differences”….seeing the colorful pallete of the globe and confirming over and over that we are all the same deep down but march to different drums.
So when Andrew asked “Where to?” I blurted out “How about the Galápagos Islands?”…I guess way back Darwin’s discoveries stuck with me and I’d thought over the years it would be cool to hang out with giant turtles. And we made it so…with Ecuador thrown in as an added bonus! And here we are in Quito, Ecuador for our first few days before setting sail in the G’s.
Quito is a big urban city nestled – truly hugged – by a ring of volcanos in north central Ecuador. At about 9,300 feet above sea level. Verdant green surrounds it, and from early scouting it has much to explore historically and is an evolving metropolis growing its infrastructure bit by bit. More to tell in a few days. After flying overnight we arrived way too early to check into our Airbnb apartment so we walked around the area in search of desayuno (breakfast). Of course it would be Sunday and a holiday (our luck) so pickings were slim. Our good fortune landed us in a cafe where we met a lovely couple in their 20’s – Laura (from Guayaquil and a med student) and Roger (Brazilian and an accountant)…we ended up exploration buddies for the day.
We decided to take the Teleferico – a gondola ride – up to 12,000 feet for a spectacular view of the city and surrounding volcanos. By the way, we were told that only Cotopaxi is an active volcano so risk factor on that front is relatively low – Cotopaxi is in another part of the country we will visit later in our trip. Worth the ride for the view and on a clearer day than we had it would be stunning for sure.
Once down from the heavens we headed to a beautiful park that is sort of the Central Park of Quito – Parque Carolina – which was chock full of families enjoying a sunny Sunday festival of street foods, local entertainers, paddle boating, and strolling. The Carnaval time brought out kids squirting each other with what looked like a cross between silly string and whipped creme…apparently water fights are also common but not much action on that front where we were.
All in all a great first day in Ecuador. More to come…
Living La Vida Loca 