Photos 2.0: Quito & options for Ecuador

Yep, I've started settling in to the hostal and Quito in general. It has a much more relaxed atmosphere than BA and so I'm definitely staying until at least Thursday to get to know it a bit better.

Things are a lot cheaper here, and I'm living quite well on about 20-25 USD (which is the national currency here after dollarisation in 2000) a day, including accomodation and a few beers. Okay, so the budget will have to increase as soon as I start including transport and things like guides for treks and hiring equipment, but I think I've done a decent job of predicting that (fingers crossed).

A lot of new people showed up at the hostal - there was a french connection there for a while, but fortunately only the nice bloke in my room stayed on from that lot :-) . There's a more communicative vibe about the place now and the kitchen is really being put to good use!

I've also found a partner in crime for visiting some of the places in Quito I wouldn't want to walk about alone in with my camera out. Raz is from ... Victoria, British Columbia (of all places) and has some time on his hands, so we decided on an early start on Monday.

Cima de la Libertad.

Right at the top of av Libertadores, directly overlooking the old town (the Virgen de Quito stands on the green hill behind the gun's barrel) and with the rest of the town spread out before us! The second taxi driver finally knew where it was and it took us 30 minutes to meander up the shack-lined street to the top.

It wasn't an unsafe neighbourhood; we ended up catching a bus back down and walking for a km through a neighbourhood market where not a single other tourist was to be seen. However it was nice to know there was someone there watching your back!

The early morning view was breathtaking. Since Quito is mostly about 5 miles wide and 15miles in length, the city was basically laid out like a carpet before us, with the mountain range constraining it on the other side clearly visible.

The clouds were menacing but far away.

So we found a pasture a little higher up from the monument and just enjoyed the sun for a while, while our heartbeats slowed from the 400m we had walked and our lungs started feeling normal again.

Maybe it was the thinner air or the sun (I admit I've the beginnings of a sunburn), but we started tossing about places to visit in Ecuador and even drawing up a rough budget for the Galapagos Islands, which I had planned on giving a miss, due to tours being prohibitively expensive. Budget 1000 to 2000 USD for a week there - flights included - with a definite tendency toward the upper end, because a very good guide who knows their stuff and a decent boat just makes the whole experience much more worthwhile.

Our rock-bottom, no-frills indivudual travel budget would stretch to 5 days and come to about 600USD, including flights (about half the cost) and one or two days of guided wildlife tours. So now some re-calculation is in order, because everyone has been saying how great the place is... I'll let you know how things turn out. Oh and if you're reading this and have a boat that you could place at our disposal for the 1000km trip out from the mainland, let me know!

So much for Option a) - What to do post-Quito?

Option b) would be to head out to the coast by bus and spend a few days in Puerto Lopez (see here), just hanging out and daytripping into the National Park.

Option c) is to go for a trek straightaway: either the Inca Road to Ingapirca or going around Cotopaxi.

I'm torn (no, please don't start singing, Marie!)