Quito - Week 44

15th - 18th July

We managed to spend from 10am to 6pm 'travelling' from Chugchilan to Quito but there were only two buses and about 5 hours altogether actually getting anywhere. Lots of waiting around! We could only buy standing tickets for the 3 1/2 hour journey from Sigchos to Quito. Katie was lucky to sit herself in seat of a bloke trying to pull a girl that happened to be sitting two seats in front so he was perfectly happy to give up his seat for the whole journey in order to impress!! It was all altogether more unpleasant for James, however, hanging on round the hairpin bends every 200m and trying to stay upright over the potholes...

We checked into a hostel in the new town which is great for a few days - tons of restaurants, bars and casinos to amuse ourselves in. Having said that, we were in bed early after the knackering day of buses.

Monday was spent 'getting organised'. We did washing, swapped books, ate curry and finally booked our Galapagos trip! We fly on 20th August - very exciting! We spent the next three days taking as much cash each day out of the cash machines as we could and worriedly hurrying across the road to the travel agent. The rest of the time we spent exploring. On Tuesday afternoon we went to the Museo Nacional which was excellent. They have a lot of very impressive pieces of pottery etc and it told a very good story of Ecuadorean history.

On Tuesday night, we met up with 'army' Steve that we had travelled with for a few weeks in Bolivia and his roommate, Will from France. There is a happy hour in every bar in The Mariscal (the area where we are staying) so it got a bit messy. At about 10pm we decided that karaoke was the way forward and it was hilarious. In the first bar we went to there were a couple of women in their 30s and a 40 year old business man in a suit (all locals, of course). James started of the singing with his party piece that is 'Faith' by Micheal Jackson and things went on from there...

The bar man and business man were both fantastic singers and were interspersing our terrible, drunken efforts with brilliantly sung local songs. James spent most of the time being chatted up by the two desparados and doing zambuca shots, Katie got smarmed on by the businessman (and he made me sing a local song that I'd never heard before), and we all got very drunk. The next bar was a busier but still we were the only gringos. They were apparently all having a lovely time with their local songs 'til we rocked up and promptly sang 'Daydream Beleiver', 'La Isla Bonita' and 'Without You'. Very funny. By the time we got bored of that bar it was 3.30am, just time for a quick burger before bed!

Wednesday wasn't up to much except sleeping, over-eating and collecting Katie's jumper that she left in the karaoke bar. We did manage to get to the cinema to watch a rubbish Jack Black film (very disappointing) and checked out the shopping malls for shopping before we leave to come home. In the evening we met up with the girls that we met in Chugchilan and went to a pub quiz in an English pub.

On Thursday, we finally managed to get ourselves out of the Mariscal and into the old town for a bit of sightseeing. The old town is lovely with a lot of colonial buildings and a large central square with a big cathedral:

We visited a really good museum all about the colonial times in Ecuador with a scary recreation of the 1809 massacre of some of the revolutionaries in the basement! We also went to the top of the basilica for a fantastic view of the city. Inside the basilica itself was also beautiful.

We got back to the new town with plenty of time to finalise flight details for Galapagos, have a curry etc etc. Then we checked our flight tickets and realised that we were an hour late for our flight to Bogota! After lots of panicking, the most frustrating traffic in the world and a run through the airport and we arrived in time for boarding. The flight was the best yet with a glass of champers before we even set off, delicious food and lots of red wine - just what the doctor ordered!

Books we read: The Cupboard Full of Life by Alexander McCall-Smith