Our first week in Ecuador was filled with many new adventures and sights. We landed in Quito late Tuesday night and headed to Friends Hostal. We woke up in the morning for a great breakfast of a biscuit, eggs, fruit, yogurt, and granola, and fresh juice. The hostel was a beautiful place in Old Town, Quito, with great location to a lot of different activities. We decided to stay three more nights to explore the Quito vicinity a little more. Our first full day the manager of the hostel, Henry, took us on a tour of the area. He showed us different plazas, churches, and loved to talk about the construction of all the different buildings. We had dinner that night on a rooftop restaurant and got a beer at the little bar right next to our hostel.
The next day we were planning on going to a museum, but when we arrived we found it under construction. Instead we visited some of the cities parks and found an old athletic club in the woods of one. It even had an old rusty zip line. We got a sandwich and a Coke for lunch for one dollar, and we got ingredients to make our own dinner. We had chicken and pasta for dinner, with carrots and a six pack for about 8 dollars.
Friday was Chelsea's birthday. We woke up, had breakfast, and caught a bus headed north. We traveled north by several different busses until we arrived at the Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the earth. We bypassed the monument, reading reviews about it not being the actual equator. Instead we explored a little museum situated directly on the equatorial line. We got a guided tour with lots of stories of indigenous peoples of Ecuador. We learned about their living styles/situations, some of their rituals, and how they determined the time and seasons with sun dials and clocks. We also had some demonstrations about water spinning different directions, the strength of the forces colliding at the equator, and balancing an egg on the head of a nail. Afterwords we headed back to Quito where we explored an old basilica. That evening we started with drinks in the hostel then took a little tour of a restaurant with lots of artwork on the walls. We got some dinner and had some drinks before retiring for the evening.
Saturday we woke up and started packing our bags. We ate breakfast and departed for Otavalo. About a two hour bus ride later we arrived in Otavalo only to find the hostel we were looking for nonexistent. Not to worry though we found another for over half the price. We dropped our bags off and headed back into the town center to explore the market. There is a market there everyday, but Saturday is the biggest with hundreds of vendors. They sell everything from blankets, tapestries, clothes, jewelry, pipes, knick knacks, instruments, and anything else you think someone could make. We got a beautiful warm blanket and a tapestry. We ate a late lunch and spent the rest of the evening watching movies in Spanish.
Sunday we headed northwest for a hike around an old volcano. We got breakfast on the go and ate it on the bus ride there. The caldera from the volcano had formed a lake with two islands in the middle. The trail we were set to hike went all the way around the rim and was 8.4 miles in length with about 1,400ft difference in elevation. It was gorgeous with many overlook points and awesome flora and fauna. It took us three and a half hours to complete the hike, then we headed back to town. We got some delicious dinner and headed back to hostel.
Monday morning we woke up early to begin a long day of travel. We looked around the market a little more, had a very large breakfast, and hopped on a bus back to Quito. Once at the northern bus terminal in Quito, we had to make the journey to the southern terminal, which was about a 40 minute taxi ride. There we waited for about an hour before our bus departed for Tena. About 5 or 6 hours later, 3 or 4 movies, and some podcasts we arrived in Tena. We descended for most of the trip and we are now at 1,700 ft above sea level. The climate, weather, flora and fauna is very different from that of the Highlands and I cannot wait to begin exploring.
