Strolling in Quito

After the slight disappointment in Otovalo we were still able to leave having had a positive experience. We grabbed an evening bus to the capital city and arrived at a great hostel situated conveniently on the top of a high, steep hill between the old and new parts of the city. Quito is quite huge and at night the valley is a stream of endless lights stretching far and trailing off into the distance. It was pouring when we got in, a daily event like clockwork beginning in the afternoon. After consulting a native Quitonian (?) on the bus we decided to leave our stuff and hit up Plaza Foch, a young, poppin neighborhood with a lot of bars, resturants and discotecas. We shared a burrito on a roof top along with some yummy margaritas, overlooking the crowded plaza and sea of people in their own world. Each cafe/bar was blasting it´s own music, making sure to play the few staple songs that we´ve come to know and love over the past couple of months. We later came across a small club boasting free drinks with cover, which we were able to get down to 2 for 1. We could choose between vodka, rum or aguardiente (no thank you, we´ve had enough), and enjoy the elbow to elbow space. After a few hours of dancing we called it a night, sneaking quiety into our dorm room of sleeping patrons and dozing off quickly ourselves.
In the morning we enjoyed hot showers and consulted our map to plan out the day. We opted to walk to the old city making a necessary stop at the Mercado Central for breakfast/lunch. We sat down and got amazing juice which we demanded the waitress to choose the combination for us. It was delicious and had a new component - alfalfa sprouts! Golly good! We then were given a bowl of fried fish and perfectly cooked potatoes, shrimp ceviche (you know we love that!), with a small dish of partially popped corn (big feed kernels that are commonplace in the whole country. After eating we took a lap around the market that was packed with fruits, veggies, candies, meats (including bowls full of freshly prepared lard) and various eateries. Mostly women who worked their, the staffs were dressed in uniforms that resembled that of nurses in pastel pinks and purples with little white caps and aprons. We strolled along Avenida Gran Colombia, one of many street names that appear throughout Ecuador and Colombia, and probably Venezuela since it originates from Simon Bolivar´s plan for a united South America(a.k.a. Gran Colombia). This only got as far as these three countries and their flags indicate the relation, all sharing yellow, blue and red horizontal stripes with a bit of variation. Bolivar is another name of streets, plazas and regions that appears everywhere. We hit up plaza central where the main cathedral is, a beautifully ornate church that is also the site of the tomb of Mariscal Sucre, the former general and president of Ecuador. His name is also everywhere, kinda hard to get away from if you tried.We walked and walked and walked and walked. Churches, plazas, then plazas and churches. All these give way to views of the enormous angel statue atop a hill overlooking the city and the various other narrow streets that would all of a sudden come to a 60º angle and head up the sides of the valley. We had our sights set on the basilica whose steeples were visible from around the city. On the way there we got our first taste of the Ecuadorian obsession with volleyball (there are courts everywhere, city or country, it´s incredible). But then right on schedule it started to down pour so we saught shelter in the massive, gothic basilica. It was absolutely gorgeous, probably the most beautiful church of the entire trip, dare we say our lives. We were happy to sit and dry off for a while, watching the start of a wedding ceremony and admiring the marvelous yet simple wonder.The rain let up and we were ready to return to the hostel after a long day on our feet. We gradbbed groceries with another hostelite named Jason and cooked dinner while admiring the splendid view from the hostel rooftop (remember how we said it´s on the top of a hill? Well that comes with the perk of a spectacular view). We discussed what our night activity was going to be over quinoa, veggies and beer, and decided to check out what the old city had to offer for a change of pace. We hopped in a cab with Jason and Josh, from Boston and England respectively, seeking out a place to hear traditional, live Ecuadorian music. These places are called peñas and are really common, but the only ones we heard of were apparently nonexistent and boarded up. But we didn´t give up! We walked further deep into the city per the recommendations of some pizzaeria workers, wondering where all the people were. These streets were deserted! There was not a soul around. What gives? Just a blocks further revealed where everyone was - the tiniest street in the whole capital city. There were beats pounded on drums and beautiful indigenous women with huge smiles persistently saying "Baila! Baila! Venga! Venga!" We joined in for a bit before we realized the procession didn´t really go anywhere, and it was shortly over. We wiggled through the crowd and found ourselves sitting in a little empanada joint drinking enormous beers and hot, delicious fried things. Of all the holes in the walls this was the liveliest. A woman standing by the door nearly demanding passerbys to come in while she maintained the foot-high flame beneath the castiron caldron of boiling oil, cranking out empanadas by the hundreds (or so it seemed to be that many). Afterwards we joined the crowds once again for laps back and forth along the street, stopping frequently to drink the hot, hard cider that was sold from other huge caldrons (a true witches concoction, sweet and deceptively strong). We also made numerous stops to the bathroom as you can imagine. The night was catching up with us so we decided to going into a dark, cavernous peña to hear some music and soak up some more ambience. Through a hallway from the front we crept into the back room which was larger than that in the front. On the back wall beneath an umbrella (not sure why that was there, but it served as an upside down stage) were two guys who were playing national Ecudorian music in synchrony. The place was packed with people young and old, singing along to every word. Think classic rock or Beatles - cross-generational, relatable music that brings people together. We definitely felt the love and enthusiasm that came with each song although we couldn´t have been more clueless to what was being said. The singers sounded fanastic, but sang so fast we could only pick up on the slower ones. Even so it was a splendid night. Tired from all the walking we packed it in and went to bed. After walking through an artesian market and getting coffee in the morning we hopped on a bus to head towards Salinas, a tiny town in the mountains. High in the mountains. We left satisfied with Quito and our adventures walking about. Not too much else we needed.
Sophisticated Koala