4 Days in Quito is better than 5 Days in Quito!

We ended our Ecuadorian trip in Quito mostly because our flight out was scheduled from there.  I get the feeling that everybody who visits Ecuador spends some time here.  It’s not a highlight.

Given the right mood and motivation, you could probably see what you need to see in 2 days tops. It’s fine, it’s a fairly large city all-in-all, but because of the geography, it’s really long and narrow.  The valley constrains in in one direction. As a result, each area feels like a slightly smaller city than it really is, but it is a pain to get around.  Cabs are expensive, and traffic is bad.

We had our driver from our bike ride down Cotopaxi drop us off near the place we would be staying, the “South American Explorers Club”.  We recommend joining the club if you plan to visit South America.  It’s a great resource for you, not the least of which is getting advice from experienced gringos and getting tapped into some nice activities (like organized hikes, presentations, or bbqs).

The clubhouse was quite nice compared to the other ones we had visited (Lima and Cusco).  We had two rooms and shared a bathroom.  We found out later that Glenn, another guest at the club had moved out of one of the rooms so that we could be in rooms next to each other.  Glenn turned out to be a super interesting guy.. he’s been traveling in South America for several years on a motorcycle and has made several films.  One of his films he made about “Australians in Peru”, which chronicled 2 people, one of which is Jane the owner of our favorite restaurant in Cusco, “Jacks Cafe”.  It was really interesting to watch it and learn more details about Jane’s history in Peru.  The other guy featured was an explorer and also super interesting, though we never got to meet him in Peru.  (though we did meet another explorer who used to work with him, and subsequently had a falling out).

The club was fun, and I think it was like 50 bucks for both rooms, which was a nice break from more expensive options.  We enjoyed chatting with and getting to know the other “guys” (they were all single men), living at the club.  The location is less than ideal being a bit away from the central historical district.  It turns out to be on a dangerous street.  At night, cars totally ignore the red lights, and simply speed down the road.  We heard/saw wrecks two nights in a row.  The second night, we were watching Glenn’s movie, and we heard screeching and a crash.  After the movie, we looked out, and there were people standing around a guy who had been knocked off his motorcycle.  You could see that they were solemn, and one guy was pacing anxiously a few feet away (and kind of hopping).  The medical workers were not doing much with any urgency, then they loaded him into the ambulance, nobody got in with him, then the ambulance sat there for another half hour, and when it left there were no lights.  The person was gone.  It was such a strange experience to watch from 100 yards away through a window.  So sad.

When we met John (the club manager), one of the first things we noticed was that he was “reluctantly helpful”.  He had trained himself to execute his job function as host, but he was not naturally a nice person.  We ran into this several scenario times on the trip.  One of the first things John told us was “you can’t use 4 days in Quito”.  Kind of an odd way to start as our host!  He also proceeded to tell us about a great hike he had lined up for Sunday.  We said “Great, we’re in”, and then he told us essentially, we’d have to wait until Sunday morning to see if there was room.  He wanted to give priority to his “hiking club” (even walkups who didn’t RSVP!).  We ended up declining due to the impracticality of getting the kids ready, packing lunch etc etc.  It’s a good thing we did decline, because the bus he ordered came way smaller than he thought, and there was indeed no room for us.

We managed to have some fun in Quito despite all of the negativity.

1) We took the cable car up to the top of the mountain.  Great views, but we didn’t spend too much time up there or do any hiking.  The kids had spied an amusement park at the bottom of the hill, and were eager to check it out.

2) We went to Vulqano Park.  I was a little concerned that at first, it looked like this place was mostly abandoned and was in disrepair.  It turned out to be great,  big enough to have some really interesting rides, but small enough to feel intimate.  We bought a card and put 20 bucks on it.  You pay for the rides by swiping the card (like a huge arcade).  The place was pretty dead that day, and as a result, Kane was often the only rider on a ride.  That was quite strange.  Kat LOVED the bumper cars.  We ended up going here again the next day, while Kim enjoyed some time to herself to do some planning for SE Asia and blogging.

3) We visited the equator.  There are a few options for this, but we chose the middle of the road (not the ancient location or the huge government sponsored place).  There was a neat “museum” there, and we learned a bit about the indigenous peoples of the area.  This included learning how to make shrunken heads, and how to wear penis straps to avoid fish swimming up your urine stream into your ureter.

The highlight of the visit (at least for me), was the water vortex demonstration with the portable sink.  They put a little sink on rollers, so they could move it between hemispheres.  They put little leaves in it, so you could see the vortex more easily.  First, they poured a bucket in on the equator.  It drained straight down with no vortex.  Then, they moved to the southern hemisphere.  Here, a vortex formed, spinning counter clockwise.  The, in the northern hemisphere (about 10 feet from the line), the water spun clockwise.  I would not have imagined this could be observed so close to the equator!  It was great.

We also got to try to balance eggs on nails (it’s easier on the equator), and the kids volunteered for a test where you try to resist your arms being pulled down (and it’s easier to resist when not on the equator)!

4) We toured Quito on a “big red bus”.  Ironically, we ended up doing this on our last day there.  The highlight was going to the top of the hill where the huge statue of the virgin is located.  It provided a great 360 view of the town.

5) The rest of the time was pretty low key, messing around.  Visiting the mall, going to the grocery store, going out to eat, hanging out at the club talking with the guys.  The last day there, we decided to ship some stuff back the states (like school books, and winter clothes that we would not need in Thailand).  We had enough stuff for two small boxes (perhaps 30 lbs).  It was quite an adventure to find the post office, and then to find boxes to use.

Once we got our boxes, and took them to be weighed, we discovered that it was gonna cost almost 300 bucks!  So we made another pass, and consolidated to 1 box for half the cost.  We ended up giving the extra clothing to the lady working with us at the counter.  She had kids and was excited to get some nice clothes.  It felt like an accomplishment, and I really had doubts whether we’d ever see that box.  (it did arrive!).

So all in all, Quito was fine, but if you have limited time to visit Ecuador, I can’t imagine you’d want to spend more than 1-2 days here.  Compared to the Galapagos, the beach (presumably), Cuenca, Banos, Chimborazo, Quilotoa, and Cotopaxi, quito is just kind of an OK big city.  I will say this, it was easy to find good food there…. Chinese, Pizza, Mexican (we had it all, and it was quite good).

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