Quito, Ecuador

My bus pulled into the Terminal Terrestre in Quito at 5am.  I awoke in a daze to passengers exiting the bus.  I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, packed my sleep mask, earbuds, and water bottle into my daypack and meandered off the bus into the brisk dawn.  I got my things and headed to the front of the of the bus station and found a cab.  I told the cabbie to take me to “Barrio La Mariscal y un hospedaje circa de el centro turismo” (La Mariscal neighborhood and a hostel near the tourist center), a trendy part of the city popular with tourists, aka New Quito, New Town.

At 6am, the cabbie stopped in front of Hostel Vanessa, knocked on the door, spoke to the night attendant, and set me up with a private room for $10.  I signed in then crashed in my room until 10am.  I went out for a big, long breakfast while researching Quito and planning what to do over the next two weeks until I needed to return to Chicago for my brother’s wedding.

Quito is the capital city of Ecuador.  It is located in the north-central highlands of Ecuador on a plateau between an Andean mountain range on the west and the Pichincha Volcano on the east.  As such, the city sprawls many miles north-south, squeezed between the two mountain ranges.  It is the highest elevation capital city in the world at about 9400ft above sea level.  The historical center (aka Old Town) of Quito is said to be the most well preserved colonial city in the world.  Outside of the beautiful colonial Old Town, one finds a wonderful mix of newly developed modern high-rises and old, colorful two level flats.  Quito is a vibrant, bustling metropolis with many parks and plazas that make it one of the top places I’ve visited on my travels.  While crime and muggings are said to be common, even taking place in broad daylight, I felt more secure in Quito than anywhere in South America I’ve been.

I decided to wander the city while heading in the general direction of the Guayasamín Art museum.  I caught a bus taking me north.  I needed to go northeast to arrive at the museum.  After about 15 minutes, I got off the bus in a nice looking neighborhood, El Batan.  I roamed through trendy neighborhoods to the east for a while before reaching Parque Guanguiltagua at the south side of greater Parque Metropolitano.  A map told me I could go through this forest park and come out only a few blocks away from the museum.  The park was beautiful, densely populated with eucalyptus trees.

After about 30 minutes of hiking through the park, I came out the other side and arrived at the Guayasamín museum.  I had never heard of Oswaldo Guayasamín before arriving at the museum.  Wow.  Guayasamín was an extremely prolific Ecuadorian painter, muralist, sculptor, and architect.  Almost all of his art has indigenous themes, particularly depicting political and cultural oppression.  Heavy, powerful stuff.  A couple times I was getting sad and emotional to the point of my eyes tearing up viewing his works.

Worth mentioning is that nearly all of his works are massive in size.  The scale of his paintings adds to their gravity.  Several of his works are actually 8 or so painting ‘panels’ that make up a whole.  The panels can be rearranged to show a different narrative and have different meanings.  Some of these works can have as many as 60,000 different combinations of the panels.

After a tour of the museum, I had a tour of Guayasamín’s house.  The museum is built right next to his house in the hills of Quito.  His house is a work of art in itself.  He designed the house, and built most of the intricate furniture.  Guayasamín collected thousands of pieces of indigenous South American art, particularly of Quechua and Mestizo heritage, which are displayed throughout his house.

I caught a bus back to La Mariscal, and wandered around Plaza Foch, a hip area of the neighborhood known for its nightlife, having dinner before returning to my hostel to write.

The next morning I had breakfast and wrote until noon at a café.  I scouted hostels in the area for something more communal and/or backpacker oriented.  That afternoon, I moved to Vibes Hostel a couple blocks nearer to Plaza Foch.

After settling in at Vibes, I caught a bus to ‘El Centro Historíco de Quito’ (The Historic Center of Quito).  As I walked through streets, marveling at the charming colonial Spanish architecture, I was amazed at how many people were out.  It was Friday, August 12.  Turns out they were celebrating Quito’s Independence Day.

I had a tour of the most amazing church I’ve ever seen, maybe the greatest in the world, Iglesia de La Compañía de Jesus.  I wasn’t able to take photos, but here’s a few from the internet.

A young girl Doris gave me a tour and we got along quite well.  At the end we exchanged info and she wanted to hang out later in the week.

I later stopped at La Ministería de Cultura and viewed modern Ecuadorian art.  At one exhibit, you were instructed to write a personal dream or something you were thankful for on a piece of paper, roll it up, stick it in a wall with thousands of holes, and take some else’s piece of paper.  The piece of paper I drew said, “Deseo que tengan trabajo” (I wish that you all have work).  Simple, but touching.

After having dinner and returning to the hostel, I found a group of people in the common room having beers and playing pool.  I introduced myself, meeting Bas and Linda from Netherlands, Garrick and Toby from California, and a few German and Swiss.

After having some beers, shooting pool, and a couple drinking games, a crew of about 10 people went out to Plaza Foch.  Santiago, who worked at Vibes, was our guide for the night.  We started at a German Microbrewery, Cherusker.

After having a litre beer, we all moved on to Bungalow 6, a lively two story bar known for dancing and gringos.  The group did a shot together upstairs, and then I headed downstairs.  While walking down the stairs, I locked eyes with a girl dancing.  Like a tractor beam was engaged, I went right up to her and started dancing.  We were immediately vibing hard.  Soon we were making out in the middle of the dancefloor.  After a few sweaty songs we went outside for air.  I finally introduced myself, and got her name, Paula.  She introduced me to a few of her friends and we hung out together, dancing and kissing until the bar closed at 2am.  At close, one of her friends was in bad shape, having trouble walking.  We exchanged info, kissed goodnight, and she took her friend home.

Standing in front of the bar having a mapacho, I saw a smoking hot girl in a miniskirt having a cigarette with a girlfriend.  I walked up and rattled off something in Spanish.  She smiled, amused, and responded playfully.  Her friend tried to brush me off, but she was interested.  I tried to keep the exchange up, before she blurted out, “I speak English,” to relieve me of my Spanish language struggles.  We introduced ourselves.  Dianna was 24 and lived in north Quito.  She was cold in the night air, so I put my arm around her to keep her warm.  We were vibing hard.  I was on tonight!

Her friends had gotten cab and were heading to a friend’s apartment for an after party, and she invited me.  I hesitated for a moment, being drunk in a new city I had only been in for one night, but of course obliged.  We piled into a cab.  There were five people in the backseat, Dianna was on my lap on the right.  There was a moment of hilarity when the guy in the passenger seat turned around, looked at me in shock, and said “We got a gringo?!” Apparently, the guy and girl on the left side of the car also hadn’t noticed me yet, and they all broke out into wild laughter, “How’d we get a gringo?!”

At her friend’s luxury apartment in north Quito, Dianna introduced me to her friends.  There were about 15 people there.  We hung out passing around a bottle of fine rum.  For a while, I was the center of conversation, as several people wanted to hear about the US, my impression of Ecuador, my travels, and what I thought about this and that.

After a while, Dianna and I relaxed on couch.  Soon we were making out.  A bit later, Dianna had to leave.  We said goodbye to everyone, and I accompanied her out.  Downstairs she explained she work early tomorrow, so needed to get to sleep.  She was going further north, and I was going south, so we kissed goodbye and exchanged numbers.

After putting her in a cab, I realized in horror that I had spent all my cash at the bar.  My phone was also dead.  It was 5am, I was drunk, had no money, and had no idea where I was in a big city.  I got my wits about me and walked towards a lighted street.  After about 10 minutes, I found an ATM, and soon after got a cab.  I was dropped off at Plaza Foch and made it back to my hostel without incident, getting to bed at about 6am.

The next day I woke at noon, still drunk, and moved into a nearby Airbnb.  It was a nothing kind of day.  I went back to bed after settling into my room, and finally rose at about 5pm.  I went out for a cheeseburger before returning home to watch ‘Human,’ a documentary recommended to me by Andrea in Puerto Lopez.  I texted for an hour with Paula to try and set up a date, but she was at a family event.  I went out to walk around Plaza Foch later that night, but wasn’t feeling high-energy enough to hit the nightlife.  Instead, I got some late night tacos and retired at about midnight.

Sunday I awoke early, and went for a jog in the quiet Quito morning.  I picked up some eggs and vegetables from a tienda and returned home to make a big breakfast.  I played poker all day at my Airbnb.  It was an unremarkable session except the fact that I finished +$1000 on the day.

Monday I moved out of my Airbnb and into Blue House Hostel.  I spent the late morning and early afternoon going to tour agencies to try and set up a trip to the Galapogos Islands.  I wasn’t particularly drawn to Galapogos, but I was in Ecuador, so it seemed like a must.  Plus, my Mom wanted to go to Galapogos and was urging me to go so she could live vicariously through me.  Most of the tours arranged by the tour agencies seemed like a rip-off.  I resolved to do a DIY trip to Galapogos.

That afternoon, I traveled back to the historic center of Quito.  I spent the afternoon wandering around, seeing a museum at the Central Bank of Ecuador, Iglesia San Francisco, and La Basilica.  The Basilica was awesome.  You can climb to the top of the spires (very high up!) for epic views over Quito.

I spent the evening having dinner in Plaza Foch, and spending several hours researching Galapogos online.  My head was spinning from all the information online about Galapogos, every site saying this and that is a ‘must see.’  Galapogos seemed like somewhere you needed to research beforehand, but it was too much—I don’t like to plan!  I just like to go somewhere and figure it out.

The next morning, I took a cab to El Teleférico (the cablecar), a gondola that takes you to a lookout in the mountains above Quito for amazing panoramic views and hiking.  I rode in the gondola with two young Quiteños.  We bullshitted for a few minutes, then they spent the rest of the 20 minute ride taking selfies, which was a little weird.  South Americans love having photos taken of themselves.  It’s not uncommon to see a person posing with a professional photographer at a park or popular site.

At the top, I walked around for a while at the Cruz Loma lookout, and had a cup of coca tea.  I had my sights on hiking the Pichinacha Volcano.  I had an extra cup of tea, then set out on the hike.  The lookout starts at about 4100m and finishs at about 4700m.  The hike took me about three hours, which was difficult due to the volcanic terrain and altitude, but at this point in my travels I was pretty well acclimated.  I passed many people along the way who were having a very difficult time.  The last 30 minutes of the hike is especially difficult.  It goes up a steep ~60 degree incline in calf-high fine pumice stone.  For every two steps upward, you only advance one step as the sand-like pumice gives way and slides backward underfoot.  This is exhausting at an altitude of 4600+m.

I again got the ‘high’ of summiting.  It feels amazing to be at the top of a mountain and able to see unencumbered views 360 degrees around.  I spent some time there resting and had a meditation for about 10 minutes.  A group of three guys joined me at the top and we hung out for a while taking photos.

On the descent, I discovered a new ‘extreme’ activity to get my adrenaline flowing—running down mountains.  As I was ascending, I had seen a group of guys running down the mountain through the pumice stone and it looked like great fun.  After passing the big volcanic rocks at the peak, I started bouncing down the slope in the pumice.  Gravity took over and I was soon at a full sprint, barely able to keep my feet under me.  I was moving so fast, at such a decline and with such momentum that I couldn’t easily stop, I had no choice but to continue.  If I were to go down, it would be quite a tumble.  Exhilarating!

Eventually, I made it to a less steep area, and I was able to ‘goat-jump,’ in which you plant a foot and instead of striding forward, pop upward to reduce momentum.  I slowed to a trot, and proceeded down the entire volcano running or trotting depending on the grade, only stopping to catch my breath a few times on flatland.  I actually think it’s physically easier to descend while running, certainly less stress on my knees.  I made it down to the lookout in just 40 minutes.

That evening I had an amazing dinner at Galería Orgánicos de Ecuador (I believe it was called), a small specialty shop that also has a bistro.  This is the type of place where they have an herb garden out front, and the chefs will occasionally come out to gather herbs.  Plus, you can watch the chefs make your meal, and they take great pride in their craft.  I didn’t see this place on Trip Advisor or any such sites, but it was easily the best restaurant I ate at in the Plaza Foch area.

I spent another several hours that night researching Galapogos, and finally booked a flight for $400.  The trip gave me one week in Galapogos.  Returning from Galapogos I had another $800 flight back to Chicago for my brother’s wedding.  All this was extremely expensive by my previously adapted South American standards.

The next day I had nothing planned.  I spent the morning writing, and in the afternoon I went to a dance studio to take a salsa lesson.  I was a bumbling idiot for the first 30 minutes of the lesson, but by the end had become adept at the basics and moving on to twists and spins.  For the more advanced moves, there is a lot of footwork to keep in mind, which was difficult for me.  My lovely teacher, Teresa, got a little frustrated when I would get a spin correct one time, then proceed to butcher it the next two or three attempts.  I scheduled another class for the following day.

The next day I took a couple buses south for an hour and half heading to the equator.  El Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (The Middle of the World City) is a village built around a large Monument to the Equator, which highlights the exact location of the equator and commemorates the geodesic mission that discovered it in the 1700s.  I spent several hours in the city visiting an indigenous museum, a museum of cacao, a planetarium, another Guayasamín museum, and several other attractions.

I arrived back just in time for my next salsa lesson.  I made some decent progress, and at one point Teresa congratulated me on my improvement.  Still, I would often fall out of the sync with the salsa rhythm and step progressions.  Teresa assured me salsa comes with practice and encouraged me to practice by myself if I really wanted to get it ingrained.

In the late afternoon I went to Parque Ejido in central Quito.  It is a big, beautiful park reminiscent of Central Park in New York.

I booked a day trip to Cotopaxi, one of the world’s highest volcanos, for the next day.  I spent the night making a hearty beef stew and turning in early to ready myself.

I awoke at 5am the next morning and made coffee and breakfast before packing my daypack and suiting up in hiking gear.  I was picked up from Blue House at 6am.  I was in a van with a tour group of 14 people.  The group stopped on the way to have breakfast.  During breakfast I made friends with Eric from California, who worked for HBO.  It took an hour to get to Cotopaxi National Park.

Once at Cotopaxi, the bus drove to a landing at about 4300m, then the group hiked upward through ankle deep pumice to the ‘Refuge’ at ~5000m.  I was the first in the group to make it to the refuge.  I spent some time hiking near the refuge, while waiting for the rest of my group to ascend.  At the refuge, I had hot chocolate and chatted with a Brit and two Argentines in my group who were staying the weekend to attempt to summit Cotopaxi (ropes, climbing gear, ice boots and all) at ~6000m or 19,300ft.  They had a device that measures your blood oxygen level.  The Argentine told me if you even want to have a shot at summiting Cotopaxi, you’d need at least 90% blood oxygen here at 5000m.  They let me try the device, and I got a reading of 91.  The other three were in the 87-89 range.  “Maybe I should be the one summiting,” I joked with them.

On the descent, I took to my new hobby of running down mountains.  I bounded down the pumice slope with great speed and vigor.  It was a hell of a fun time.  People must’ve thought I was crazy.  I made it to the landing in about 15 minutes, and had to wait 25 minutes for the rest of the group to arrive.

Once everyone arrived, we got on mountain bikes to ride down to the base of Cotopaxi.  The guide told us to take it slow and be careful on the descent as the mountain roads were riddled with crags and loose stone, and warned us that many people get injured on this ride.

I was soon cruising down the volcano at high-speed.  The ride was indeed dangerous, winding through the mountain roads and switchbacks covered in pumice stone, but I’m a somewhat experienced mountain biker and, well… I have a need for speed!  I was the first one down the mountain to the meeting place, a lake at the foot of Cotopaxi, and again spent some time chilling by myself while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.

Upon returning to Quito and getting dropped off by the van, Eric and I exchanged Facebook info, and arranged to hang out the next night.  It was Friday, but after Cotopaxi I was tired.  I showered and headed out for a burger and beer, before returning to my hostel to watch the Olympics and read in bed.

Saturday, I spent the morning at a café writing.  Afterwards, I asked the owner of my hostel where to get a haircut and she directed me to the street where all the barbers were.  Problem was all the barbers on this street were of the ‘Dominican’ variety, offering fades and stars carved in the side of your head.  I took a gamble and went in.  I thought my barber and I had reached an understanding of how I wanted my hair cut, but he immediately took the buzzer up the side of my head giving me the same style as everyone else there gets—buzzed sides up the part-line directly into long, parted hair on top.  I ended up just getting the longest length clipper on top to go with buzzed sides.  My hair ended up quite short.  Not horrible looking, but certainly not what I wanted.  South America!

That evening I met up with Eric.  We went out to a bar and watched the McGregor UFC fight.  Afterwards, we hung in Plaza Foch watching a concert.  We were told the city puts on a concert in the Plaza about once a month.  The band, complete with horns and all, rocked it!

Later we went back to Cherusker, the German microbrewery.  We had a few beers with a German guy who was quite drunk (Germany had lost to Brazil in fútbol for gold medal in the Olympics that day).  After hanging with this guy for 20 minutes, he went behind the bar and filled up his beer.  We discovered he was the owner.  He had originally came to Ecuador 10 years prior working for the Central Bank of Ecuador.  He quit his job and opened up the brewery, which he’s been operating for the last 7 years.  My man—central banking to brewing… way to go buddy!

Afterwards, Eric and I headed to some clubs.  Eric had another tour the next morning that was to depart at 6am, but he wanted to see the nightlife in Quito.  We went into a place called Nexus and did some dancing before he departed at about 1am.

I decided to stay out and went across the street to a place called NuBar.  I hit the dance floor, and two girls started dancing up on me.  Pretty soon it was a Matt sandwich between these two girls.  I took them to the bar and we all had a drink together.

Gisella and Lana were from Venezuela.  They had been living in Ecuador for a few months since things had taken a turn for the worse socially and politically in Venezuela.  They advised me not to go there on my journeys.  We did some more dancing together, and Lana and I were dancing closely.  We kissed a few times on the dancefloor and were vibing when the lights came on.

We hung out in front of the bar for a while, but eventually they went home together.  I made my way to my hostel, glad to get to bed at only 2:30am after a night out.

The next day was Sunday.  I moved back into the same Airbnb I had used the prior weekend.  I spent all day cooking and playing poker.  I had another decent day winning about $1500.

Monday was my last day in Quito.  The following morning was my flight to Galapogos.  I spent the day lazily.  I hung out at a café writing and trying to plan my trip to Galapogos until early afternoon.  In the afternoon I went souvenir hunting, visiting several shops.  I had dinner at the Galería Orgánicos and it was again superb.  I returned to my Airbnb to find my host, Rodrigo, chilling with a half dozen friends, all on their laptops.  They were having a Warcraft party.  I was intrigued, and hung out to watch for a while, before retreating to my room.  I played a couple poker tournaments and got to bed early.

I rose at 6am the next morning eager to catch my flight.  I showered, made breakfast, and then began packing.  I was on the sidewalk, hailing a cab to the airport at 7:30.  After having my bag examined for plant, animal, and bacterial species foreign to Galapogos, I was able to check in and made it to my gate with an hour to spare.  I spent some time chatting with a girl from Switzerland who was on my flight.  We both were doing DIY trips, and shared ideas on what to see and do in the Galapogos Islands.  We were both excited for the adventure to come.

Street art from Quito.  Unfortunately, I saw a lot of street art  while on a bus or in a taxi and wasn’t able to take pictures.