I landed in Quito airport, after 21 hours of travel, at the
stroke of midnight. Nothing like arriving in a new country when all decent
people are already in bed. Immigration and customs were totally painless, and I
immediately felt the good vibes of the Ecuadorian folk. I came out unto the
lobby and immediately located the express bus that makes the service between
the airport and the northern end of the city. For only $8 US dollars I would be
transported to the northern end of the city, from which I would have to take a
taxi to my hotel, which is in the Zona Rosa of Quito. What a drag, having to
hunt for a taxi, but no sooner had the bus stopped that a taxi appeared out of
nowhere, the driver had my bag even before I had landed on the sidewalk, and
were soon speeding through the empty city and arriving at my hotel. Cost?
Another $8! Not bad, not bad at all.
Going back to the ride from the airport, it is a good one
hour drive to get to the city. First you go down into the canyon of the
Guayllabamba river, and then you have to climb, and climb, and climb the
opposite side until you crest the hill and, voila, the city extends at your
feet occupying the bottom of a wide valley. It is in many respects similar to
the city of Cuzco, high in the mountains (the similarities with Peru are
striking, and probably arise from the fact that both were important provinces
of the Inca empire).
My taxi driver was a chatty one, and told me a couple of
interesting factoids about the last few decades. To begin with, the currency of
the country used to be the Sucre, which for many years held an exchange rate of
4,500 Sucres for US$1. Everything was going well, and in the 70’s and 80’s the
country experienced significant prosperity. Then some damn economist tried to
fix what was not broken, the Sucre was allowed to fluctuate with the market,
and inflation skyrocketed to the point that it took over 25,000 Sucres to make
a US dollar. The country went in downspin. Then a strong president decided to
abandon the Sucre and made, instead, the US dollar the official currency of the
country (El Salvador does the same). So all prices here are in dollars!
Sometimes that makes touristy things look expensive, or a least fully priced.
Food on the other hand is inexpensive. According to my informant the shift to
the dollar has completely arrested inflation, so after having lost most of
their assets during the hyperinflation period, most people here now feel
financially secure.
I mentioned that Quito seemed to be a handsome city (at
least based on what I could see in a taxi that was flying through red lights at
1:30 am), and my driver explained that for about 10 years they had a mayor who
had invested a lot in infrastructure and in educating the citizens about the
need to keep Quito clean and appealing for the tourists. Unfortunately, this
resulted in high taxes and draconian fines for those littering. It worked, but
the people eventually got tired of the absurd fines and voted him out of
office. The new mayor is a lot more laid back, but that means that for the last
two years very little has been spent in infrastructure, so people are no
bickering about the potholes on the streets. Go figure.
My hotel is named La Vieja Cuba, and has been developed in
what in the 1980’s had been a rather large mansion. I like it, but by 2 pm all
I cared was to hit the sack, so I did.
A few hours later . . .
I awoke at 7 am, ready to go play tourist. After a quick
breakfast I went to the heart of the Zona Rosa (aka La Mariscal), which like
the one in Mexico City is the hip part of the city where all the nice
restaurants, boutiques, travel agencies, and tourist-oriented shops are
congregated. The center of the action is Plaza Foch, where at 9:20 am I took
the hop-in hop-off tourist bus, which in other cities of the world I found is
an excellent way to see the main attractions of the city.
Quito is a beautiful city, with about two and a half million
inhabitants (the whole urban sprawl is probably 4 million, and the total
population of Ecuador is 14 million). Like many old cities (it was established
in 1534), it has the old downtown, but is surrounded by handsome modern areas,
many built during the good years of the 70’s and 80’s. There are also the fabelas farther up the sides of the
valley, but even those look properly urbanized with well painted brick
structures. The draconian fines of yesteryears imbedded their message deep into
the minds of the people, because it is a remarkably clean city.
When we drove through the new parts of the city our
attention was called to many fine parks, markets, and boulevards with tall,
beautiful trees. Once we entered the old part of the city, however, the streets
became very narrow (driving a big bus through them must be a leading cause of
early demise amongst middle-age males), and every building proved to be a
priceless church (the gilded altars of the Church of the Convent of San
Francisco being by far the most impressive) or an important colonial building.
One difference with Cuzco is that archaeological sites are rare; there are a
couple of museum I didn’t have time to visit that reportedly have very fine
collections of pre-Hispanic art, but nothing is left of the civil structures of
the Inca town.
The city is dominated by the Pichincha volcano to the west,
and El Panecillo cinder come to the south. Pichincha is 4,500 m in elevation,
so clearly I passed on hiking it. El Panecillo, however, gave me the best
panoramic view over the city, and over the Calzada
de los Volcanes which is defined by the Cotopaxi and other three volcanoes
that can be seen to the south, east, and north of the city (add Pichincha to
that distinguished company). Paradise for the volcanologist! The other
distinguishing characteristic of El Panecillo is a monumental statute of the
Virgin of Quito, made of aluminum, who looks over the city. The construction of
this statue caused much controversy, because rumor has it that El Panecillo is
where the Inca had its northern palace, and it is there that Initiraymi, the
ceremony with which the Inca greeted the god Sun every summer solstice, is
traditionally celebrated.
The tour ended with a drive through another modern portion
of the city, a stop at the central park and botanical garden (much beloved by
the Quiteňos, who on weekends flood the park), and finally a return to the Zona
Rosa. I left the tour there because I had given myself the task of visiting
several travel agencies and finding an affordable boat trip in the Galapagos.
Prices started at $6,000! Finally, after looking around I found a 7 day trip in
a small boat for $1,800. I hope it is a good deal (and my rebellious free
spirit kept whispering that I should wait until being there to find the best
deal), and has taken care of the last week of my stay in the Galapagos. I still
have to finess on the spot the first week, so I have not turned into a complete
looser. More about that as the time comes, but for now there was nothing more
to do but go back to the old downtown and be a tourist to the death. I was
delighted, once I decided to go back, to find a tram that for 25 cents brought
me back to the Zona Rosa, famished but satisfied that I had done a fair
sampling of the tourist sites of this beautiful city (I really would have to
stay here for a few more days to “do Quito”, but other places are calling to
me.
I did mention there are many similarities with Peru,
particularly when it comes to food. Humitas, ceviche con choclo, sanduiches de
chancho, choripan, and many other Peruvian favorites are everyday fare in here.
I had used my mid-day break to visit travel agencies, so I has skipped lunch,
and had now promised myself a nice ceviche con choclo and a deep-fried pescado paneado for my dinner. But of
course I forgot that here “lunch” is really “dinner”, and that many of the
interesting small restaurants close for the day at 5 pm. Rats! Finally, after
having walked dozens of blocks looking for a place I found a small family-owned
fonda, where for $7 I had a nice plate of “aguachile de camaron” (but with the chile
part replaced by thinly sliced onions), a bowl of pipping hot fried plantain
chips, and a big and very cold beer. Delicious!
Tomorrow I plan to make an excursion to the countryside, so
I need to be up at 6 am. I better get to bed.
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