¡Hola!
We made it !
Our first day in Quito - spent lots of time wandering around the city in the morning. First impressions, slightly overwhelming as there is so much traffic and seemingly very few rules! The buildings are amazing, all different shapes and colours. From our hostel there is an incredible view over the city, it sprawls as far as you can see into the hills and mountains in the distance, it looks just like a sea of rooftops.
We visited some of the museums and churches - best one was the monastery of Santa Catalina. The guide there didn´t speak any English, so I (Rachel) had to translate it all for James and we managed to get the gist of most of what he had to say. He took us up into the bell tower, then out onto the roof, where we had, as the guidebook say "the weirdest view of Quito".
For lunch, we tried the traditional Ecuadorian speciality... Empanadas de verde (basically toasted bread with cheese, not very impressive), for 40cents (20p). It´s odd how cheap everything is here, especially food and drink.
We spent the evening on the rooftop terrace above the hostel, chatting to other guests around a fire in a wheelbarrow. It was great, especially when you looked up to see the view of Quito at night, all lit up.
