Alegria

 View from our terrace

 Instead of gargoyles, alligators oversee Basilica del Voto Nacional

 and Monkeys,

 Presidential Palace

 Building in Old Town

 Church in old Town

 Why you need a cellphone in Quito

 Notice on our Hostel door. I know crime is bad but I’m not sure how you can steal a Hostel.

Our flight to Quito arrived at 11:30 pm.  We flew on Avianca airlines.  We can’t say enough good things about Avianca.  The planes are new, they still serve meals and kids get a 20% discount.   Plus their airfares are very competitive.  I don’t know what happened to the US airlines but they could definitely take a lesson from Avianca.

After arriving in Quito, we were met at the airport by our hostel transport.  The cost from the airport was high, but when you are flying into a foreign country late at night, it’s nice to know someone will be there to get you.  About 20 minutes later we were at  Chicago Hostel.  It was after hours and the guy who checked us in didn’t speak English and of course we have limited Spanish, but he got us to our rooms.  A  room with 4 beds wasn’t available, so they put us in two separate rooms, across the hall from each other.  You can’t drink the water in Ecuador and we were so thirsty when we arrived, but the hotel was out of bottled water.  We had to settle for an orange soda.  So far our first impression wasn’t good, as it was raining and the hostel seemed dark,  we were tired and we were getting a touch of altitude sickness, but we went to bed and hoped things would look better in the morning. 

And they did.   It was still raining when we woke up, but the next day things were much better.  Our rooms were actually very nice and extremely clean.  Each room had a double bed and one single and a private bath.  The rooms, including tax, were $20.00 per night each.  Our rooms  and the rooftop terrace, had a great view of the mountains surrounding the city.  The altitude from the rooftop terrace is 9400 feet, yet the mountains in the distance still tower above us.  The clouds come in low with the rain, hiding half of the city in its  mist.  You can sit on the terrace and stare at the scenery for hours.  After a delicious breakfast at the restaurant next door, we really warmed up to the city. 

Our first trip was to walk to Old Town and see the sights.  Of course we had to tour the massive cathedral and churches, but unlike Peru, only one church charged an admission.  La Compania deJesus  charged $2.00 per adult to get in, and it was worth it.  Highlights of the church include a huge painting of Hell, depicting various tortures in hell, and reasons for being condemned.  This contrasted nicely with the excess of the 23 karat gold covering every inch of the church: gold more than likely stolen from the indgenous people by the invading Spaniards.

The rest of the day we just walked and enjoyed the city, Presidential Palace, parks and Plazas.  By early evening we were exhausted and headed to bed early. 

The boat was finally fixed and we were expecting to have her back in the water the next day, when Dan and I had the discussion.  One of the great parts of the last three and a half years, besides being together, has been the travelling to new places.  That came to a standstill pretty much once we got to Aruba.  We had a wonderful time flying to Peru and Chile from Aruba, but we didn’t like waiting there for a weather window to head to Colombia.  In fact, that has been the hardest part of this trip, the waiting for weather, which up until Aruba was never an issure.  But in keeping with my personal motto of never trading time for money, I didn’t see that waiting for a weather window to head to Colombia was better than just flying there now and doing a land tour.  So with an hour to play with before our final committment on going into water the next day, Dan and I decided we would wait.  The boatyard, while not great for living on the boat, was perfect for storing the boat.  After talking to the kids, deciding where each person’s interest lied, we made plans.  A week or so later we had our tickets purchased to Ecuador, flying back through Colombia.  It was a tough call at first between South America and Central America, but the airfares were much better to South America from Aruba.  Then it was a tough call between Argentina and Ecuador, but eventually the fact that it would be much colder in Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia won out.  So our plan is to keep the boat on the hard until our return first of July, then head east instead of west, hoping to be back in Dominica in time for whale season…………… unless plans change!