The Quito to Ecuador

We flew from Colombia to Quito, which is the capital of Ecuador. It is a beautiful town full of rich history and great architecture. The city has two distinct ‘districts’ of the old town and the new town. The old town houses the ancient buildings such as the central plaza and the city’s grand basilica. We stayed in the old town while in Quito and toured the area and soaked it all in the day after we arrived. Walking day trips around the old part of town allowed us to see most of the great sights, as well as taste the homemade ice cream at a local heladeria San Agustin, which first opened it’s doors in 1858. We also visited the Contemporary Museum, which was a walking tour of Ecuador’s revolution and struggle for freedom from French rule. With key figures and events depicted in life-size wax figures, there was a lot to look at; unfortunately the entire museum was in Spanish and we had no idea what was going on or who we were looking at and learning about. Robyn took the opportunity to pose alongside the wax figures, forever embossing herself into the history of the country (and providing some new stories).
The ‘new town’ is a result of the influx of foreigners and travellers: while light on historic and cultural outposts, the area boasts plenty of great bars and restaurants. We walked this part of town (which was much larger than we had expected) for the second day, sampling the food and spirits. Our day ended at a café which overlooked the North part of the city’s stunning view of the valley below. The sunset and cervezas complimented each other perfectly and capped off a great couple of days.
We did have a troubling experience while departing the city, but it’s only the cost of travelling. When we were checking out of the hotel we had two hours to kill between checkout time and the departure of our bus, Southbound deeper into Ecuador. With the help of the front desk we put all of our bags into the locked luggage storage room, which was a glorified closet. We ventured into the city and returned to the hotel for our things, retrieved our bags from the room, and took off to board the bus. It wasn’t until we arrived at our hostal in Banos, five hours away, that we realized that we had been robbed. An inventory of the losses included a cell phone, an iPod, Robyn’s credit card, and my sunglasses. Because of the timing and sequence of events, we knew that it had to be an employee of the hotel who had access to the locked storage room. More upsetting was the fact that, on the day of the theft, someone attempted to make a $5000 purchase on the credit card. Despite numerous calls to the hotel we were unable to locate any of the items or even get management to accept some of the responsibility. Luckily we were able to prevent any further significant damage and the items we lost are easily replaceable, but it was still a frustrating experience.