Our hostel was located in the backpackers ghetto euphemistically referred to as the ¨New Town.¨ There, my fears of having to eat meat were ill-founded. I was able to secure a steady supply of Italian-Asian-fusion vegetarian fare, and wasn´t at all obligated to sample any local cuisine - because who want´s to try new things? Additionally, New Town is both dangerous, and void of local culture, but what it lacks in these areas it more then makes up for in terms of its truly extraordinary population of hippies (it´s like Arcata meets the global south), so it mostly balances out.
“Old Town” Quito, on the other hand, is exactly what you´d expect of an Andean guerilla city. It´s loud, crowded, dirty, polluted, and crawling with indigenous people and Spanish Colonial architecture – in short – a lot more interesting, and dare I say, more authentic than New Town.
The main touristy activity we engaged in was a Gondola ride, known as the TeleferiQo, which rockets its occupants up to a foreboding volcano, which sits, watching over the city at an altitude of around 13,000 ft (Mt. Whitney weighs in at around 14,500 ft.). The $4 ride gives you the opportunity for hiking with the added bonus of feeling your heart beating out of your chest with each
advancing step – highly recommended. The other touristy activity was a day trip to Ecuador´s finest hot springs in Papallacta. The Andean setting was both epic and calming, and the food was delectable - having the whole place to ourselves didn´t hurt either. I would imagine that at the end of Rosa´s seven weeks in South America, these hot springs may out rank Machu Picchu as being her favorite activity.
In summation, Quito seemed like a nice enough place to start a journey, but I still came away with the yearning to see and to experience the Andean country I had so recently read about in my travel guide…
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1 comments:
sounds awesome. where to next?
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