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| Salud! From the roof top bar of our hotel |
We had one final flight to take which will see us arrive at Quito, Ecuador's capital city, and where our land tour of Ecuador officially started. By now, we're pros and a 45 minute flight?!? Pfft...child's play. When we arrived at Quito, there was no one waiting for us...momentary panic of a repeat at EWR. Our guide Raquel came running in 10 minutes later citing bad traffic, and whisked us back to Quito. It took over an hour to do so because of...traffic! Apparently they were resurfacing sections of the major highway to the airport.
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| A very quiet airport at 6am |
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| Our packed breakfast |
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| Feeling physically better after a good night's sleep in a bed |
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| Flight #4 Guayaquil to Quito |
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| First glimpses of Quito in the distance. They have since moved the airport away from the city further down into the plains for safety reasons. Phew! |
Our home for the next 2 nights, Casa Gangotena Boutique Hotel, was simply gorgeous. The original private home was built in 1600 and was opened as a boutique hotel in 2010. Fun fact: In 1914, the house suffered a catastrophic fire. The culprit? A bitter ex-boyfriend of one of the Gangotena (the final owners of the house) daughters, who set fire to the mansion on their wedding day in a tragic Quito tale. The ruined marriage wouldn't last long; in fact, barely 24 hours. The house then slowly fell into disrepair with the deaths of the remaining Gangotenas.
After checking in, we set off to explore Quito's World Heritage listed historic centre on foot with Raquel. Right in front of our hotel was the imposing San Francisco Church and Monastery. Our brains had not quite recovered enough to take in the different styles and art form of the various structures...so most of the information went right over our heads! The cloister and the choir chamber were beautiful though! And we enjoyed climbing up to the belfry, enjoying sweeping views of the plaza below, the city and the mountains. This is where we first suspected that we may not be as immune to the altitude as we thought because we were completely short of breath at the top! Perched high in the Andes at 2,850 meters, Quito is the world’s second-highest capital. It is technically in the southern hemisphere but the famous "straddling" point was only 20km north.
We ticked off all the iconic sights including Independence Square, the Presidential Palace (Carondelet), the Archbishop’s Palace, the Cathedral of Quito and La Compañía Church. We were utterly charmed by Quito's colonial buildings, with its ornate church domes as well as picturesque volcano views in the background.
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| Part of the lobby. |
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| The cafe/bar |
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| Fresh flowers everywhere! |
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| One of Ecuador's main exports are...roses! |
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| The hotel was charming yet cozy |
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| View from the entrance |
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| Our room facing the plaza |
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| Look at the ceiling |
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| Stairs |
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| View of Quito from Panecillo¸ a hill located at the southern end of the Old Town |
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| The Virgin of Quito, although my photo made her look constipated |
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| You can see the plaza, with the San Francisco Church to the left and our hotel in the corner |
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| The Cloister |
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| Choir room |
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| Belfry |
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| Views from the top! |
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| Our hotel! Our room was on the top level right above the main entrance |
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| Ain't just a pretty building. This is the metro entrance! |
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| Locals only allowed one animal each on the subway |
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| La Compañía |
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| Moorish influences |
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| Real stairs and painted one for "symmetry" |
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| Presidential Palace. The man is in da house after having had to deal with protests over the last month |
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| Old Town was full of character |
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| Last stop was a snack stop. Yay! In one of the first "converted" house to boutique hotels |
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| Chicken empanada |
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| Narajilla juice (known as lulo in Colombia) |
Once back at the hotel, we had free time before our 6pm dinner. The rain afternoon rains had come. We decided to go for the "chocolate" experience at Yumbos as Ecuador was reknowned for its cacao bean exports as being the best in the world. It was only a 20m walk from our hotel which we felt we could manage in the rain. This was a surprisingly pleasant experience! We were no chocolate connoisseurs but even our amateur palates could discern the depth of flavours that our host, Michael, heaped upon us. The flavours were intense. Their 85% chocolate had so much flavour compared to the Lindt ones which are mostly just bitter. No surprise we bought a fair bit. Big surprise, they were open to Malcolm bargaining! Win win!
The on-site restaurant at our hotel was meant to be decent so we decided to give it a go. We figured we'd be too tired to venture out. We were correct. We went for the tasting menu. I'd describe it as adventurous. Some worked some didn't. There were combos which I would never had thought to put together eg coffee and fish. Of course I didn't take a photo of the outstanding winning dish which was the mushroom! Overall though, it was a win. The wait staff were great, the service was fast and we were very full!
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