Rain and Flip Flops

Ecuador, you have a cool flag and a room
in your government palace covered by yellow
fabric, bonus points.

Once in Quito, we headed for La Mariscal, the neighborhood that our friend Edgar recommended. The bus terminal was super far out of town so, when our bus arrived from Otavalo we split a cab with a Swiss couple that we met. We were all about trying to save money. La Mariscal was really cool and reminded me a lot of Bellavista in Santiago, just a tad bit more sketchy, but basically it's where all the young people hang out. We hadn't been making reservations for the hostels we were staying at, and we never ran into any problems, until Quito. The first like 5 hostels we tried had 0 available rooms. One had a private room available for $40/night, like I was gonna pay a whole $20 to spend the night somewhere, please. So we continued the search and eventually found a place (For $8/night), good thing all the hostels were so close together, we literally just walked two streets bouncing from one hostel to another. For dinner we heard about this delicious thai restaurant and Briana and I were craving ethnic food. Well it ended up being a sushi restaurant, but still delicious, and was pretty expensive. I was really annoyed about how expensive until Briana pointed out that it was all o.k. because we only spent $1.50 on a three-course lunch. That right there is legit justification.

Really pumped about my maple doughnut

Just like in all the other big cities that we had traveled to, it was cold and rainy in Quito. I ,however, only had flip flops to explore in. My hiking boots were still soaked from getting thrown in the river, and since it was so cold and wet in Quito, it would take our entire 3 day stay for them to dry. So I just got really used to my toes being cold and slipping and sliding all over the place. After we bundled up we headed out to explore some museums and the huge park in Miraflores. Seeing all the families in the park made me really happy. It was just full of people taking advantage of time off work or school or whatever for Carnaval and just having a grand old time in the park. There was a band playing some cover music, lots of artists selling their crafts, and delicious street food for sale. I was extremely pumped when I found doughnuts!! I hadn't had a doughnut in sooooo long, and boy was it delicious! 

Old Town Quito

My favorite part of Quito was the old town. The buildings are just incredible! To get there we took the trole, which is like a bus system, but it has it's own lane on the street so it avoids traffic. Pretty neat, provides modern public transportation without having to deconstruct the entire city to build a metro. Anyway, we missed our stop the first time and had to backtrack, but we made it, just in time for the torrential downpour to stop, score! Flip flops-Rain- Wet Cobblestones... not the greatest combination. I think I bruised Briana's arm from the amount of times I had to grab onto her to keep from falling. Anyway, Old Town, so pretty! The main square was just gorgeous, all the buildings in/around the main plaza are super colonial and painted really pretty colors. We got a free tour of the government palace too! Why is it that all other countries have all these regal names for their main government buildings and ours is a white house? That's not nearly as cool sounding. It was super awkward though because, when we entered, they asked us to salute the flag, Briana and I looked at each other then just kind of speed walked past the flag and into a group that was awaiting the tour. The weather really dictated what we did and when we did it, so when it was raining when we emerged from the tour, we just headed back to the hostel. 

Congresional building

I really liked the contrast

A little color to spice up the gray sky

A little cathedral we happened to stumble upon

Being in two places at once

Another Quito highlight, was our journey to Mitad del Mundo (The Middle of the World), as in the equator! I have lived that scene from A Walk to Remember, I have been in two places at once, except instead of straddling state lines, I was straddling two HEMISPHERES. It was really cool. The monument is actually huge and awkwardly bulky, but whatever, I've been to the equator! There were some other random museums and displays around the monument but they were all really lame, just being there though, there was a  When I get to see things like this, I can't help but think how lucky I am to be having this whole experience. I wish everyone could have one, equally as life changing, because it's just the shit. 

I wish I had more time in Quito because I feel like there were so many things that I missed. I never even got to see the Volcano Cotopaxi because the weather was so bad and overcast. That is just one of the many reasons why I feel like, of all the places that I have traveled to on this dream vacation, I need to return to Ecuador. There is just so much to explore in that tiny little country! We did however, have to leave after only 10 days in Ecuador, but this time we got to take  a PLANE to our next destination: Cartagena, COLOMBIA!