Quito

Ecuador has such a large diversity for such a small country. It seems to have almost every type of ecosystem and just as many types of people. Everywhere you go the communities are different, the customs, culture and landscape changes. Quito seems to be a microcosm of this trend. We stayed for four days in a beautiful hostal in between the new and the old town. Casa Bambu had a kitchen we could cook in, tall, cold, one dollar beers, internet and an amazing rooftop terrace all for just five bucks a night. It was from here that we discovered the diversity of Quito. During the day we would explore the different sides of the town and at night observe it from high on our rooftop terrace. Playing cribbage, eating, drinking a beer, we watched each night as the sky grew dim and the lights of the city sprinkled on with the pervasive drone of car alarms as our soundtrack. Quito is surrounded by mountains, huge, volcanic mountains, and the buildings seem to reach up on all sides of the valley like fingertips grasping at the night sky.

The first thing we noticed about Quito, having recently come from the poorer north coast is how available everything is. We had to run errands in the new town, the Mariscal district, and this part of town could be in any city in the world. Everything you need is just around the next corner. Outdoor stores, climbing walls, supermarkets, coffee joints, bookstores, pharmacies, etc... We tried to only come here for the ATM or to run errands.

The old town is a web of tiny streets spattered with beautiful old churches and monastaries and millions of tiny stores and restaurants. There seemed to be pockets of stores that all sold the same thing. You walk down one street and find twelve stores selling soccer jerseys and balls. The next street brings tons of cell phones and places to buy jewelry or exchange gold. There is a beautiful plaza in the old town where the president´s building is situated and it is common to have a mob of protesters with signs in front of it.

We spent a day and a half exploring the old town. And we learned a good lesson in the first church we visited. We hesitantly walked into the church, looking for a place to pay the two dollars we knew we needed to give them to explore the amazing views of the clock towers. Instead of finding a ticket window we are approached by a well dressed ecuadorian.
"Hablan Espanol?" He asks.
"Un poco" we respond, as we usually do when asked this.
So he immediately starts speaking english. He says he is the priest and he starts showing us around pointing at things and stating the obvious.
"This is a baby Mary. Take a picture, take a picture."
"This is a flag, this is a picture of the pope, this is a pole. Take a picture, take a picture."
Uhm. Okay. We get done with our two minute "tour", he hands us two tiny pictures of Jesus and puts his hand out. I'm not too comfortable with this, but what am I gonna do? I give him a buck. He asks for one more. I give it to him...I'm not good with confrontation. So we step out the back, feeling a bit ripped off, and see the ticket office. Mierda! We walk up to the ticket office, yep here is where you pay two bucks. I explain in broken spanish that there is a guy hustling tourists and that he got two dollars from us. I was just telling the woman so that she would know for the future, but she starts marching off towards the church beckoning for us to follow. Uh oh, like I said I don´t like confrontation. When we get inside we see him showing the church to a much larger group, and the woman strides over to the man and says many things in very rapid spanish. We are just standing on the side, I feel bad, but we did just get swindled. She forces him to give us our money back and then kicks him out. At least we got un ripped off in the end. And it was worth it to pay the real two bucks to climb up for an epic view of the city.

We also explored one of the most ornate churches in Ecuador with tons of gold all over it. We weren´t the only ones checking out this church though, there were a bunch of other tourists, including some sort of group of beauty pagent contestants completely decked out in short dresses, with flowers and all. They were being guided by some lady from the ecuadorian military. Strange for a catholic church, no?

In the old town we also visited an amazing photography exhibit, ate in a great restaurant, and chilled in the plazas people watching. More north of the new town we found the ecuadorian artist, Guayasamin's house and museum, as well as the church/museum he made. Amazing art, amazing collection of precolonial artifacts and great archetecture all situated, yep, on a huge hill with another amazing view of the Quito valley.