…and Away We Go!

Typically we don’t take this type of bus tour but for Quito, it was a great way to see the city. With our Senior Discount, it was a bargain at $7.50 each.

This neo-gothic cathedral, Basilica del Voto Nacional took 100 years to build and it’s not yet complete! The most interesting features are the gargoyles, many in the shape of Ecuadorian fauna.

Another important landmark we saw on our bus trip around the city was El Panecillo with the statue the Virgen of Quito, (she’s made with 7000 pieces of aluminum).

It’s an excellent vantage point for an overview of the city.

For a small country, Ecuador has many bio-diverse regions. To learn more, we went to Quito’s Botanical Garden. In a beautiful setting in La Carolina Park, we saw examples from the wetlands, cloud forests, plus many orchids and tropical flowers.

Here are just a few:

We are staying in a neighborhood called La Carolina rather than the Old Town. We like it as it’s lively with many shops and restaurants.

We’ve had an interesting time in Ecuador. While we haven’t felt particularly unsafe in Quito, we’ve had more than one cab driver or restaurant server tell us how unsafe this city is – we’re cautious but they’re quick to remind us that we’re easy targets.

We have one more full day here before we make our way home!

On Sunday, the streets in Quito’s Old Town are closed to traffic between 8 am and 2 pm so it’s a great time to visit. We started our day at Plaza Grande.

Quito has many churches so our next stop was to see Compañía de Jesús – famous for its ornate interior.

Along the way, we enjoyed haggling for fake antiquities with a gentleman carrying a gym-bag-full. For $6.00 we acquired a vase and a small vessel with the head of a condor – something I might use on a tour at the Carlos Museum.

Someone told us that the streets of Quito are like San Francisco – and our legs found that to be true!

The statue at the top of the hill in the photo above is Virgen of Quito. We hope to get a view of the city from that vantage point another day.

Larry is a whiz at finding the best option for getting around any city. In Quito, he uses an app called Cabify – like Uber or Lyft. We had good luck with kind drivers going to and from the Old Town today. Here’s a view from the back seat.

So, Quito is certainly an interesting city. Here, we’re seeing more poverty and some refugees from Venezuela.

We have several more stops before we make our way back home late Thursday. In the photo below, La Basilica is at the top of the street!

It’s a unique city with lots to offer! We met Americans who have moved there, Americans who are staying awhile to decide if they want to move there, and American students doing research or studying Spanish. The Gringo Post is a forum for ex-pats and the Cuenca High Life online newspaper is an excellent resource. We learned the term “economic refugee” to describe people who move there to afford a better quality of living.

There are many activities – for example, at San Sebas Restaurant, there is an art class called Van Gogh Night. For $29.00 they provide art supplies and instruction – wine and food are available for purchase. In the photo below, you can see some of the results by class participants. It sounds fun! San Sebas is also a great place for breakfast or lunch!

We loved the San Sebastián neighborhood where we stayed – we walked by the San Sebastián Church (below) every day.

It’s on the steps of the church where they have an aerobics class every evening at 8:00 p.m. The city pays instructors to lead the classes!

Our favorite breakfast places weren’t open when it was time for us to leave for the airport. For $3.75 Cafe La Ruta provided fresh fruit, fresh squeezed orange juice, eggs, ham/cheese toast and coffee! The owner wanted us to try the local specialty – horchata. Which was slightly warm and perfect for a rainy morning.

For 50 cents, Larry got a shoe shine. I was so impressed watching this young boy as he tapped out 3 different powders to mix with shoeshine paste to match the colors of this guys shoes! He was an artist, testing colors to make sure he had the right match.

I checked out the Cuenca Modern Art Museum before we left town and liked this still life.

So, Cuenca is behind us as we took a short 45-minute flight to Quito this morning. It’s quite a contrast – Quito is a large, modern city. We have a beautiful room at Hotel Le Parc.

There is a thunderstorm outside but we’ve settled in here and look forward to exploring Old Town Quito tomorrow!

Our hosts recommended a trip to the nearby town of Baños for a soak in waters from “the heart of the volcano.” There is a spa there called Piedra de Agua and after a terrifyingly, fast bus ride we arrived at this entrance.

Once inside, we went through a series of spa activities – cold shower, steam room, red mud bath, blue mud bath, a soak in a volcanic mineral pool, cold pool plunge and more. The really wild ride started when we caught the return bus home. We missed our stop and spent 1 hour and 40 minutes on the bus winding our way in and out of the city. Happily, we eventually returned to our home base. Unfortunately, the return bus ride “undid” the relaxed spa experience.

There are several nice breakfast places nearby but our favorite is Tienda Cafe – today the fresh juice was strawberry.

There are also many bakeries like this colorful one, just around the corner.

We visited several churches today – the San Francisco Church was quite spectacular.

Nearby, the immense main cathedral is Cathedral de la Immaculada started in 1885 – it’s considered to be the “new” Church.

We learned that a popular drink in Ecuador is horchata – pink in color and made with fresh herbs, lemon, and sugar. We tried the herb-y drink served as a gin cocktail at La Caleta Neuva Cocina.

We’ve met several American couples who live here permanently – they like the inexpensive cost of living and the congenial attitude of the locals. We’ve enjoyed our stay here but partly due to the traffic and pollution, we can’t imagine making Cuenca a permanent home. Here’s a view of the traffic today…

We found this goofy llama at the market today – she makes us smile!

One more full day here and we’re off to Quito!

Cuenca has a nice Zoo but it’s not for the “faint of heart” as the animals are displayed in natural surroundings on a trail that weaves its way up a steep mountain. We felt a little light-headed as we acclimated to the higher altitude.

Here’s Larry along the trail…

and Sharon with a view of Cuenca in the background.

Along the way, this llama wanted to be in our photo too!

We saw Monkeys…

Toucans…

Caimans…

And our fav- this lazy jaguar! Not a guy we’d want to tangle with in the jungle!

We’e had a fun day and got quite a bit of exercise too!!

Sharon and Larry

It was 47 degrees in Cuenca this morning and it has rained off and on for the past couple of days. We like our hotel very much but heat is not available so we sit inside wrapped in blankets. Raindrops haven’t stopped us from exploring the city – this church with three blue domes is in the center of the Old Town.

We visited the Pumapungo Museum which houses an excellent collection of pre-Colombian artifacts, shrunken heads, and, outdoors, there are open-air Incan ruins. It’s a fantastic museum!

We discovered the charming little Restaurante El Maiz on our walk back from the Museum. The food is traditional Ecuadorian with fine European touches as the chef has studied in Spain and Italy.

The chef was happy to talk to us about the food as our lunch was late and we were the last remaining customers. He made a chimichurri sauce and brought a dish with herbs to show us the ingredients he used. Fresh parsley, oregano, thyme, cilantro and garlic.

The final result was perfect with slices of warm baguette.

Grains are a staple grown in Ecuador and this beautifully presented quinoa salad was a delicious treat.

Larry’s plate with pork, sweet potato, avocado and an eggy-corn dish was great as well.

This is a restaurant that we enjoyed so much that we hope to return.

Our next stop was a dusty, curious antique shop owned by a very elderly lady. To enter we were instructed to ring the bell three times and then wait. She has collected pre-Colombian artifacts -some original (she said) locked inside a glass case and some reproductions on shelves scattered around the room. These are a sampling of the keys she has collected.

So, we were tempted to buy something but knowing nothing about collecting Ecuadorian antiquities we thought it best to leave empty-handed.

We like Cuenca and appreciate the cooler weather but the rain – not so much. Maybe blue skies and sunshine will appear mañana!

Cuenca is the third largest city in Ecuador but we imagined it as a smaller town. When we took a bus tour and saw Cuenca from this vantage point, we were quite surprised! The three domes in the near middle of the photo are in the center of the Old Town.

We learned that Panama hats are not made in Panama but in Cuenca, Ecuador. We made a visit to the hat museum to see how the cool straw hats are made and Larry got this one.

And I found one at the local market.

There are fruit and vegetables galore here – the mild climate and intense sunshine make for excellent for growing conditions.

Cuenca Suites where we’re staying, was formerly a school. This is a view of the interior courtyard.

Temps are in the 50’s this morning, the sky overcast and there is a mist in the air. All is well!

It’s our first day in Cuenca and we’re still finding our way around the city. We found a great place for breakfast – Tienda Cafe. Sweet Plantain Waffles, coffee, and fresh squeezed blackberry juice. A great way to begin our day!

We are happy with our studio apartment at Cuenca Suites – the owners, Rebeka (from Cuenca) and Simon (from Denmark) are excellent hosts. We like the location just a little out of the city center but near many restaurants.

The flowers here are beautiful – we’ve never seen glads quite this big!

And, the street art is great! This artist painted around an unattractive gray door!

The weather is refreshing – we are glad we packed light jackets and long-sleeves – this evening it’s raining.

One downside to walking the narrow streets of Cuenca is the fumes generated by big blue busses like this one.

It seems like there is plenty to do here and that we’ll easily fill our time. This evening, we found a fun aerobics class held in a nearby town square. Latin music and dancers in every age group participated! Larry took this video…

https://photos.app.goo.gl/o6ZSRdu7oypLWLgs8

 

Our first look at Ecuador so far has been limited to our airport hotel! We arrived safely around midnight and caught the airport shuttle to the Quito Wyndham Hotel. The temps are pleasantly cool and happily so far we’re feeling little effect from the high altitude here.

The oddly-shaped hotel is located in an industrial area about one mile from the airport.

We have a very spacious room and the common areas with flower arrangements throughout at the hotel are comfortable.

This sign in our room is a first for us…

We went for a walk and found more lovely flowers outside,

And stopped to take a funky photo of our reflection in this window.

We’ll hang out around the airport until time for our 7 p.m. flight to Cuenca!

People ask us how we decide where we’re traveling to.  This time, it was a conversation in a laundromat in Chiang Mai that convinced us that we should consider a trip to Ecuador!  A woman we met there had just traveled to South America – specifically Ecuador, and she had great things to say about the city of Cuenca.  She said, it’s vibrant with inexpensive hotels, great restaurants, lots of activities, and the possibility of day trips to nearby villages.

That sounded good to us, so away we go to check it out!

From Atlanta, we fly direct to Quito.  As our flight arrives in Quito around 10:30 p.m. we’ll spend our first night in a Quito airport hotel.  The next day, we have a 7:00 p.m. flight to Cuenca – it’s a quick 55-minute flight.  We hope that the first day in Quito will help us acclimate to the higher altitude – Quito is at 9,350 feet.

 

Lonely Planet Map of Ecuador

Ecuador straddles the equator and is situated below Columbia and above and beside Peru.  It has a Pacific coastline, an Amazon Rainforest, 27 potentially active volcanoes, the Andes Mountain range and more!  It’s famous for great chocolate, coffee, bananas, and flowers.  Many travelers go to Ecuador to travel to the Galapagos Islands but we’re skipping the islands this trip to check out cities and villages.

Our itinerary is a simple as we only plan to spend time in two cities – Quito and Cuenca.  From our base cities, we hope to take day trips to learn more about the country and all that it has to offer.

Here’s our plan:

Quito Airport Hotel – 1 night

Cuenca – 9 nights

Quito – 5 nights

We’ve found several things that make Ecuador an easy destination:

1)  Short flight time – from Atlanta it’s 5 hours (compared to 8 hours to Europe or 24 hours to Asia);

2)  minimal time difference as Ecuador is only one hour behind Atlanta, and

3)  the currency is U.S. dollars.

However, there are a few disadvantages:

1) The flights arrive and depart late in the evening and the Quito airport is far from the city;

2) there is a possibility of getting altitude sickness (though we have medication just in case),

3) we’ll be vigilant to carefully guard our cell phones and cash – as we would in any large city and,

4) it’s recommended to drink bottled water and be careful about how foods are prepared.

We’re looking forward to an interesting and unique travel experience with no earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.  If the internet is good we hope to post a photo or two every few days!  You’re welcome to follow along!

Adios Amigos!