My time ‘on the ground’ in Quito was less than 24 hours as I headed down to the south on a night bus the day after arriving. Nearly a tenth of that time was spent standing in line at the Immigration queue at the airport, such was the backlog..
This was not an issue however, as I had the company of Marco, who sat next to me on the plane. He was also travelling from Mexico as part of a traditional Mexican dance group who were touring Ecuador. We managed to converse about a number of topics, although he found my broken Spanish particularly amusing at times.
We even posed for a photo to be sent to his gf, currently studying in London.
The hostel I was at were very friendly, and I used it as a base to try and work out the feasibility of getting to Lima. The multitude of guidebooks and maps to hand eased this task..
Had a quick (self-directed) tour of the city, including climbing the Cathedral.
Continued the ‘when in Rome (eat where the Romans do)’ approach to food, and opted for ‘Soup of the Day’ in a side street restaurant. In exchange for my token, I received a bowl of slightly spicy potato soup, with some sort of meat dumpling. Was very tasty. Followed up by a cake sold by a street vendor.
You may notice that there are no pictures accompanying this entry. On the trole (pronounced “trolley”: essentially a bendy bus) to the bus station out of Quito I had my iPod and camera stolen. No need for dramatics, I am fine, if a little disappointed to lose the content of both.
It now means bus journeys will no longer be filled listening to Carly Rae Jensen on loop: giving me more thinking time, and who knows, I could even Find Myself that much sooner.
Though the task of Finding a Decent Profile Pic (or any picture for that matter) just became a bit more of a challenge…