Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Quito

We landed in Quito after 10 hours of an event less flight (that is unless you consider Shrek 3 to be an event). The change from the European sights of Madrid and the tidy Iberia aircraft to the Ecuadorian city and airport was abrupt and obvious. Suddenly, nothing seems new and the streets are dirty and crossing most of the streets is quite perilous since there aren´t any traffic lights and the local drivers will hit the honk before the brake. Quito resides in the Ecuadorian Andes and is surrounded with beautiful peaks, that are visible in the city's skyline



The Lonely Planet states that the Mariscal district, the place where most of the guesthouses, travel agencies and bars are, is to be considered dangerous to wander in after sunset (18:30 year round.. It´s the equator). Never the less, we found a policeman in every corner so we felt quite safe. Later on we learned that this is a recent change in policy towards tourism.



El Mariscal neighbourhood


We decided to be on our way to the Galapagos as quickly as possible and spent the next day arranging our cruise and the flights to the Islands and to Lima. Fortunately, we found a very nice guy called Dario in one of the agencies and he helped us with all the bookings and money business. He also told us about the new security policy in the Mariscal (btw, Mariscal is an army rank. The district is named after some general).

The weather seems to be indecisive, the sunlight on the equator is stronger so when the sky isn't cloudy it's hot in the sun but cool in the shade. It gets cloudy and even rainy about half of the day time.

Yarden is enjoying breakfast


We spent 2 nights in Quito and left early in the morning (that wasn't a problem because we both wake up around 5 am because of the jet lag). During the last night we heard a loud bang and a woman started crying in Spanish something that sounded like ¨porteños, porteños, ayudame¨. I probably misunderstood the first word because it seems improbable that she was crying for or against the port people .. but who knows.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just post a little something and say that you're ok and weren't in Lima tonight? Please?

Karin said...

We weren't, but we were on a boat in th middle of the Pacific Ocean so our access to the internet was somewhat limited. We didn't feel a thing though.