Miranda & Toddie's World Tour: Equador

Well our South American odyssy hasn´t got off to the best of starts in Quito (Equadors capital city,) as having successfully checked into our hotel (Catedral internacional in the Old town) using ´piggyon spanglish´ we realised that all was not good as our room came with a balcony to the extremely noisy main street. It also offered no hot water, no curtains and enough street lighting to make night brighter than day! Unsurprisingly with zero sleep we checked out early & walked the short distance down the hill (Calle Mejia) to a better hotel (Viena Internacional in the Old town) where we hoped for more luck.

Unfortunately lady luck really wasn't on our side as but yards from the door to the hotel a "bird" poo´d on both Miranda & myself. Normally it´s said that such poo IS in fact lucky! However this was the synthetic mustard type that´s commonly associated with street robbery & those ´friendly locals´ who were attempting to clean it from our persons´(with conveniently handy napkins), were infact feeling us up for wallets & jewellery. As we stumbled into the hotel lobby & attempted to figure out what was actually happening, an elderly male made off with Miranda´s hand bag as the other three made for the door.
Mercifully Miranda & I were both unharmed during the attempted mugging & thanks to the genuienly helpful receptionist, (who took chase,) we even managed to retrieve the lost bag seconds later with its full contents intact. (ed. thanks here to my personal body guard! x)
Although a little shaken by the event, we managed to check into the hotel & put the experience down to a ´single bad thread within the rich & enjoyable tapestry of travel´since these things just happen now and again!............or do they as it was in fact Friday the 13th!

Left: The crime scene, near hotel Viena Internacional.

Centre: Plaza Grande in the Old town.

Right: Basilica Del Voto Nacional

Left: Plaza San Martin

Right: The view from Basilca Del Voto Nacional.

With our guard raised we set out to explore the beautiful city of Quito & visited such sights as the Plaza Grande (a tranquil oasis in an otherwise frantic city), the Basilica Del Voto Nacional (an eery looking Gothic church perched high on the hill to the South East) & Monasterio De Carmen Acto (where you buy stuff from closeted nuns) to mention but a few as well as the usual plethora of resturants, cafe´s and street vendors. (ed. nun produce came in handy with some insomnia water tried and tested!) All in all we found the architectural splendor of Quito´s Old town is quite unsurpassed & is deservedly an UNESCO awarded world heritage site since 1978.

Left: Church of El Sagrario. Right: Church of Santo Domingo

Having then exhausted the Old town sights, we relocated to the Mariscal Sucre neighbourhood within the New town. Staying at the Crossroads Hostal on Mariscal Foch, we relaxed amongst fellow back packers, climbed the 4300m flanks of Volcan Pichincha (having first grabbed a lift on Quito´s newest attraction the Teleferico) & counted down the days till our Galapagos adventure.

Left: Miranda finds a new breed she likes. Watch this space!

Right: Mariscal Sucre in the new town. Note the heavily armed police everywhere!

Left: Miranda looking very happy as we made it up Volcan Pichinch (4300m). (ed. this took some persuasion!)

Whilst Miranda will wax lyrical about that particular adventure, i´ll jump forward 8 days & conclude this blog with our final Equadorian destination, Guayaquil. (ed. the bold type of will is his means of sarcasm that i am slack at doing blogs!!! )

The countrys biggest city with a population of around 2 million, Guayaquil is positioned along side the Rio Guayas & was once internationally known as a crime ridden port that most would be well advised to avoid! But no more as a multi million dollar investment program (the likes of which we have never seen before & one that makes Pompey look bland) has transformed Guayaquil´s waterfront into a safe, relaxed & pleasently breezy retreat, (known as Macecon) from the otherwise dusty & oppressive city. At the Northern end of Macecon is Cerro Santa Ana - a idealised South American hillside village with cobblestone walkways, buildings with brightly painted high ceilings & a fort called Fortin Del Cerro (with its own lighthouse). Unfortunately this trendy area was well out of our price range accomodation wise, but that didn´t stop us enjoying the local delicacy of Ceviche (marinated raw seafood with onions, coriander & lime) & Quimbolitos (sweet maize sponge cake steamed within the plantain leaf) at the infamous riverside cafe of Arthurs before making our way back to our more basic hostel in the North of the city.