Quito - Days 38-40
We took our time waking up this morning while the other volunteers were hard at work bright and early. Felt nice. Our only commitment for the day was being back in Bogota for our flight to Quito at 10pm tonight. So we packed up, said goodbye to our home for the past 11 days, and made our way to "town" to have a leisurely cup of coffee back at Sybarrita. We had about 10 hours to kill until our flight so instead of taking the 4 hour bus directly to Bogota, we decided to make a pit stop in Zipaquira – a town about half way there featuring an underground salt mine cathedral. It ended up being quite the process to get there – bus to Tunja, bus to Briceno, bus to Zipaquira (This one was nerve wracking to figure out. They basically just dropped us off at an intersection and told us to wait.), then taxi to the salt cathedral. We eventually made it and signed up for one of the tours. A lady led us in and we just kept going deeper and lower. Despite being quite deep underground, the actual cathedral and prayer stations were massive! Pictures won’t do it justice, per usual, plus it was quite dark down there.
We finally emerged from underground, grabbed a plate of tasty fried chicken, and
hopped on a bus back to Bogota. We must have fallen asleep on the bus because all of the sudden we woke up to bright lights and the driver yelling to us that we have arrived. It was 8pm (already 8 hrs since we left Villa de Leyva) but we still weren’t done with our travel day. We groggily attempted to make our way out of the bus terminal to grab a taxi. Something didn’t quite seem right to me as I noticed that all of the locals were swiping a card to get out, so I paused to assess the situation. Ben did not. He quickly walked into one of the exit turn styles and promptly and forcefully got rejected. Clothes lined right in half. It was hilariously awesome. He was not too happy about that. Apparently we needed to pay an entrance to the bus station to get out? Dumb. Anyway, fast forward 4 hours and we finally land in Quito, Ecuador. Its 12:30am the NEXT day. And we still have to go through customs. THEN we have another hour long cab ride to our hostel. It’s close to 3:00am by the time our heads hit the pillows at our hostel and we’re asleep by 3:02am.
End of D38 cribbage score: Ben 68 (10 skunks) - Meg 54 (10 skunks)
As you can imagine, we slept in pretty late this morning. We don’t have anything planned for the day so spent the afternoon leisurely walking around the Old Town of Quito – quite a beautiful city! Similar to Bogota, its a big city set in a valley of the Andes so the
mountains surround you everywhere you turn. Lots of colorful, colonial buildings and great parks with lots of flora and open spaces. For lunch, we made our way to the Mercado Central where we were hassled by hundreds of vendors to buy their food. Sticking with our usual plan of going wherever the most locals are, we select a vendor in the corner and order “Tradicional Don Jimmy”. We had no idea what to expect but were very pleased with the randomness that was eventually set in front of us – a bowl of popcorn and cornnuts, ceviche soup, and a slab of sea bass. We looked around at what the locals were doing, and though it seemed odd, mixed all three of those things together and devoured the combined tastiness.
From most places along the streets of Old Town, you can see the spires of a cathedral poking up above the buildings. So we headed that direction after lunch and admired the beautiful stained glass artwork inside for awhile. On our way back to the hostel, we notice everyone on the streets eating a tasty-looking maroon colored ice cream cone. Must be part of the culture here therefore we must eat it too. Doesn’t take long for us to find a vendor (this treat is served on nearly on every corner) and we find out that it is mora (berry) flavored ice cream. And it is absolutely delicious. Ben gets two. Some places really get things right.
Our hostel has an amazing rooftop deck with large hammocks and patio furniture and is perfect for lounging with a happy hour drink while watching the sunset. We met tons of people from all sorts of countries up there and had a great time hearing their stories! One gal who had studied abroad in Quito recommended a place for dinner – it was okay. We took a really sketchy cab ride back (not the best idea in Quito) and headed to bed early to prepare for our mountain biking adventure tomorrow!
End of D39 cribbage score: Ben 69 (10 skunks) – Meg 54 (10 skunks)
Today is a very exciting day. We’ve booked a day trip with The Biking Dutchman (highly recommended, by the way) to go mountain biking in Cotopaxi Volcano National Park! Started with an early rise and a trek across town to meet the group. To our luck, the rest of the group canceled so it was just Ben, me, and our guide Alex! We hopped in a jeep for the 90 min drive to Cotopaxi – mostly boring, but intermittently had great views of the volcano. As we entered the national park from the south entrance, it started getting foggy and misty and overall icky. I got real nervous. But Alex assured us that the south
side of the volcano is always like this but we start from the north side, usually much nicer weather. Skeptical. Sure enough, the clouds clear as we round the park and reveal a perfect view of Cotopaxi. So amazing. We’re finally dropped off (quite high up the mountain actually), given our bikes and gear (which make us look super cool), and told to make our way back down. Should be easy, right? Nah. Its so sandy up there that our back tires kept slip sliding all around! Rode the brakes for the first few turns until we started to get the hang of it. Then zoom zoom! So much fun. About half way down the volcano, we stop and turn off the main road. This was the best part. We zig-zagged our way through the low grass, dodging the boulders, all heading slightly downhill so no pedaling needed. On one of our little breaks, we spot of herd of wild horses so we sneak a bit closer to take a peek. They were curious and let us come about 20 ft away – super neat! Then back at it, this time following the river, equally as fun and possibly even more gorgeous! After a few hours of (non)pedaling deep into the park, we’ve reached the bottom and there’s no where else for us to keep going down. So we hop back in the jeep and move back to the main road for some asphalt riding. Not quite as fun as the off roading, but we went so fast! Stopped off for a quick lunch and walk around one of the lagoons, then finished riding the asphalt back down all the way to the park entrance.
We get back to Quito in the early afternoon and are quite exhausted! All of that adrenaline this morning really wiped us out. We bee-line it back to the hostel but not before stopping for more mora-flavored soft serve, of course. Far too tired to go back out that evening so we had to endure another amazing sunset on the hostel roof, drats. We met Laura and Paul up on the roof – fellow honeymooners from England! They were one week into their 3 week honeymoon and their luggage was still stuck in Miami. But since they were headed to the Galapagos tomorrow for cruise, they went on a shopping spree in Quito today! Way to make lemonade out of lemons. They were great dinner/wine companions for the evening, bonding over many things including the fact that we were quite a bit older than the average hosteler around us. After a few glasses of wine, we all head to bed at a reasonable hour and leave the partying for the youngins.
End of D40 cribbage score: Ben 71 (12 skunks) – Meg 54 (10 skunks)
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