Arrival. - 25th March 2009

Just after arriving in Quito, having travelled for more or less 18 hours, the taxi driver responds to my directions with "Oh, the Gringo Quarter." Which is nice.

First impressions of Quito are more or less as I expected. It´s similar to the sightly dodgier parts of most European towns. Only it´s all like that. There´s a KFC just round the corner from the hotel (no, I haven´t been yet), and the security guard there is armed.

The hotel is much better than I expected, I´ve got a double bed with ensuite, free internet in the communal room, and every can speak some English. Breakfast included and just $10/night.

Last night I went out for a quick wander, found a little cafe aimed at tourists - had a OK pan-roasted rosemary chicken breast, and some of the local beer.

This morning, got up early (set my clock wrong so I was up at 8.30 instead of 9.30) and went up to the Old Town where they have literally dozens of Churches and several museums, as well as the Presendential palace and all that jazz. Fairly interesting, most of it built whenever the Spanish came over - about 15th Century I think. One of the Churches was partially destroyed in the 1987 earthquake, but it is rumoured there is 8 tonnes of gold lining the ceiling.

After some Mate de Coca (coca tea) (it´s supposed to help with altitude sickness) I walked up a ridiculously steep hill out of the town centre so I could try and get a good view/photo, only for an old Ecuadorian bloke to convince me to follow him back down the hill into the town centre. Apparently, it´s very dangerous up there, "no turismo" and "peligro (danger)" is about all i understood then he made gestures of strangling and stealing.

I then found a the original city centre, just one ancient street - nothing that interesting, other than it was cobbled and it was the first time I saw any other European tourists!

I also went to the Museo del Banco Cental - apparently the most extensive collection of Ecuadorian history, ranging from caveman stuff to modern art. Spent a good couple of hours there before heading back to the hostel for a long siesta.

In the evening, I went to a restaurant down the road for some Ecuadorian cuisine - I had Caldo de Pata (Beef "Leg" Soup) to start, followed by Cuy (Guinea Pig). The soup was very tasty, essentially a beef stock with cream and herbs, with loads of fat, gristle, and other random body parts thrown in - not actually any meat though (turns out it was cows hoof soup)! The Guinea pig was breaded and deep fried, like KFC, only it still had it´s head and feet on. It tasted similar to rabbit only more fatty; there wasn´t alot of meat on it though. I probably wouldn´t go for Guinea Pig again - it tasted alright but really wasnt worth the $9. Soup was good though.