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Quito & Cotopaxi Trip

By : Judy Green
Trip Begins March 5, 2010
Trip Ends March 14, 2010

Our first sight of Quito as we dropped through the clouds was of a bowl filled to the brim with lights. Quito sits high in the Andes, surrounded by mountain peaks, and the city runs right up the mountainsides.
See my photos : Quito & Cotopaxi Trip

Want to go? Cotopaxi - Quilatoa

I went to: Ecuador, Quito, Cotopaxi
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March 5, 2010
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Our first sight of Quito

Quito, Ecuador

Our first sight of Quito as we dropped through the clouds was of a bowl filled to the brim with lights. Quito sits high in the Andes, surrounded by mountain peaks, and the city runs right up the mountainsides. The plane dropped down, down into the lights as if it meant to land in the city center. Which is pretty much what it did—the airport is tucked right in alongside downtown!

We were met by our Adventure Life guide, a young man named Daniel, and whisked within minutes to our little hotel, Hostel La Rabida. The hotel had been built as a gracious home early in the last century. Our first impression was of wide, white-walled rooms, a curving staircase, and a fire in the fireplace. Daniel promised to be back in the morning.

March 6, 2010
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Half-day tour of Quito

Quito, Ecuador

After a pleasant breakfast overlooking the hotel’s garden, complete with resident bunny, we met Daniel for our half-day tour of Quito. He took us to the Old City, and after ascertaining that we were comfortable walking even at Quito’s altitude of 9,000 feet, he parked his truck and led us through the narrow, thronged streets. Quito’s Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so far unravaged by earthquake. We visited the magnificent Basilica del Voto Nacional and crept along the catwalk high above the vaults, although we didn’t manage the narrow ladder to the highest tower. My favorite was La Compania de Jesus, covered almost every inch in gold—seven tons of it, according to our guide. Under the graceful, metallic gaze of the statue of La Virgen de Quito which stands on a hilltop overlooking the Old Town, we enjoyed the Plaza San Francisco, where we were interviewed by nervous high school students practicing their English.

Daniel recommended Mama Clarinda’s on Via Reina Victoria for lunch. I had the local specialty, guinea pig; unfortunately it came deep-fried and very salty, so it tasted just like anything else deep-fried and salty. We then made our way to a market recommended by Daniel, where we squeezed through narrow corridors between stacks of beautiful, handmade goods. We succumbed to colorful, soft Ecuadorean blankets and hand-painted picture frames in bright blues and reds. We ended our day with a pleasant dinner at La Rabida, and prepared for our trip to the Galapagos early the next day. My journal of that trip is posted separately.

March 13, 2010
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Return to Quito

Quito, Ecuador

Our return to Quito felt like coming home. There was Daniel to meet us, so pleased that we had enjoyed our trip to the Galapagos. There was staff at the Hostel La Rabida welcoming us back. We made our way to the market like old hands and had to buy a satchel to accommodate our new tablecloths, hats, children’s toys… We ended our evening with another dinner at La Rabida, with the rabbit.

March 14, 2010
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Cotopaxi National Park

Cotopaxi, Ecuador

Daniel picked us up bright and early for our trip down the Avenue of the Volcanoes to Cotopaxi National Park, past tightly-packed houses built of unreinforced concrete just waiting for an earthquake. The magnificent mountain peaks around us were snow-capped only five years ago, Daniel said: global warming has removed the glaciers that Quito counts on for its water supply. As we drove, Daniel filled us in on the history of both his peoples: the indigenous Quichua and the conquering Spaniards.

Inside the park, Daniel took us for a shake-down walk at 11,000 feet along a large pasture that had recently been the Laguna de Limpiopungo. Then we were ready (?) to try higher altitude. He parked at 13,000 feet and we zigzagged—slowly, oh, so slowly—up to the Base Camp building just below the retreating glacier, while the top of Cotopaxi loomed through the clouds above us. The peak of Cotopaxi is the spot on earth closest to sun. Daniel would be helping lead an expedition there in just a few days; evidently it’s necessary to leave Base Camp at midnight, hike to the top in six hours, watch the sun rise, and scurry down again before the equatorial sun softens the snow. Not for us: at the Base Camp, sitting at 14,400 feet, Daniel supplied us with cups of cocoa to give our wobbly legs the strength to get us down again.

It was slightly horrifying to zoom along back into the city, sharing the highway with open pick-up trucks piled high with vegetables and, perched on top of the load, small children and grandmothers in black top hats bouncing along. After an interesting search by Blackberry and cellphone through rush-hour traffic—both vehicular and pedestrian—on precipitous streets, Daniel dropped us at the restaurant La Mosaica. We sat on the balcony overlooking the Old Town—straight down—and dined on some of those Ecuadorean vegetables as we watched the sun set behind the mountain peaks and the lights come on across the city and up the mountainsides. The restaurant owner, a New Yorker, sat with us over complementary passionflower liqueurs, and then we had a $3 taxi ride back to the hostel. A perfect ending to a perfect trip. We just wish we could have adopted Daniel as our own, and moved permanently into the gracious rooms of the Hostel La Rabida.

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