Monday, March 24, 2014

Destination Ecuador

3:08 am: The ungodly hour the alarm went off. Time to rise and shine and begin our long journey to Quito.  4:00 am: Our good friend Dean arrived to drive us to the airport. Luckily for us he was off to work at Air Canada. 4:30 am: The line up at the United counter was long. Considering that Spring break is almost upon us, and that we finally had an opportunity to sneak off earlier than usual, we shouldn't have been surprised that others were doing the same thing. From there things went very smoothly. Lynda declared the ham and cheese sandwiches and granola bars at US Customs and we were waved through (thanks for that tip, mom!) We also learned there is a $350 fine and the loss of your Nexus card for not declaring an orange. It wasn't us, but another traveler in front of us. She got off with a warning this time. For those of you who don't think US Customs has a heart, you are wrong. We personally would not be willing to take that chance. We enjoy being able to bypass the long lineups at Security and Customs.

Our flight to Houston was uneventful. It was too dark to see outside this time so Craig wasn't able to watch any prisoners being loaded onto our plane. He would probably argue this point, but ignorance can be bliss. We arrived at about 1 pm Texas time, located our next gate and went in search of a comfortable place to wait for 5 hours. There were no hidden nooks or crannies, just hundreds of arm chairs. How is one supposed to sleep in an armchair? We did find an area with some camp cots along a set of windows. They looked well used, and after some recent issues with lice in the school, Lynda was not going to take a chance. We met another clever traveler who had stretched out his hammock between two steel beams. It was brilliant. He even let Craig try it out. Lynda settled for the fetal position between two rows of armchairs pulled closely together. It worked and she was able to catch a few zzzzzs.

We did fork out the extra cash for the Premium Economy seats on the flight to Quito. United charges for most things on board (food and entertainment). With P.E. you get a bit more legroom and some extra seat width. After hours of traveling and waiting, it was a bit more comfortable. We think it was worth it. 

After the plane landed we passed through Immigration quickly (another benefit of getting off the plane first) and went to collect our bags. Lynda was holding her breath. Craig's bags have been lost on our last two journeys. It seemed like a long time, but then his new, orange Gregory backpack appeared on the carousel. What a relief! We had our bags scanned by Customs and exited into the arrivals area where our driver, Jamie, was waiting with a sign with our name on it. We hopped in the car and drove to the old town. Fifty minutes later we were very happy to finally be at our destination, the Colibri (which means hummingbird) suite. 

We slept soundly until about 9:30 am, at which point, we got up and met with our hosts, Wolfgang and Andie. The location and the villas are beautiful. It's one of those places that looks like nothing from the street, then you open the gate and you are in an oasis. They had kindly left us some provisions for breakfast, including a much needed cup of coffee. Lynda was suffering from an altitude headache which was satisfactorily remedied by some coca tea. After breakfast we headed out towards La Ronda and the Old Town. It was fairly warm out and not raining. We spent several hours roaming the streets and then we stopped at the "mercado" to pick up some provisions. A taxi costs a mere $1, but we were happy to walk. Apparently, that is not a good idea after dark.

The second day we were much more refreshed. Miraculously, it was not raining. We say that because in checking the i phone weather forecast for Quito every day before we left, it always said it was raining. There was some blue sky and clouds rolling in, but after consulting with Wolfgang we decided to take a taxi up to the top of the Teleferiqo. We thought it would be an interesting way to see the city from above and a safer option than El Panecillo. We hailed a taxi on the corner by the villas and asked the driver the price. He said "cinco," so we were off. The traffic was quite congested and our progress was slow. Halfway through the trip we noticed that the meter was running. We looked at each other in astonishment because it was already well over the "cinco" we were quoted. When we finally arrived at the top, the meter was over $19. Lynda pulled six dollars out of her pocket and handed it to the driver. He smiled, thanked us, and we made a quick exit towards the entrance to the Teleferiqo. The sky tram takes you 2.5 km up the side of Volcan Pichincha to an altitude of 4100 metres. It was not the best of days, but we were able to spend about an hour and a half at the top. We walked another 500 metres to the horse corral, which was empty, before we decided to return to the tram and make our way back to the city. It was time for lunch! We caught a ride back to Plaza Grande with a van driver for "cinco" dollars and walked a few blocks to the restaurant of our choice. San Agustin has been serving classic Ecuadorian fare since 1858. We found a table on the middle of three floors and ordered from the English menu. It was our first truly Ecuadorian meal. Lynda chose the "seco de chivo" (goat stew), while Craig selected a conservative chicken breast. It was quite entertaining as the restaurant became very busy. We were sitting by two narrow staircases, one that went up and one that went down. As the young, energetic waiters raced up and down the stairs, it seemed that the entire building was shaking. After an order of helados de paila (homemade ice cream), our meal was complete.
Our next stop was the Casa del Alabado, a small museum with a collection of pre-Columbian artworks, that Andie recommended. Museums are not usually high on our list of places to visit, but we decided to stop in. The lighting was very well done and the English audio guides were comprehensive, so overall, it was a worthwhile place to visit. We made one more stop at the "mercado" then walked back to our villa to get ready for our Saturday trip to the markets at Otavalo.

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