Ecuador Trip - Day 1 & 2: Panama City, Guayaquil, and Quito

Panoramic Picture of Quito

Jeff and I just got back from Ecuador - we were there for about 10 days, and we had a great time! I kept a journal while we were on the trip, so now I can write a bit about it.

We left really early in the morning on Wednesday, March 12, and got into Panama City around 11am. We had an 8 hour layover, so we decided to leave the airport and spend some time seeing the city. After filling out a bunch of forms and thoroughly confusing the customs officials by saying we were visiting for less than a day, we got out of the airport.

Jeff started exercising his Spanish skills to try to get us a taxi. The woman at information must have sensed our inexperience at bargain in Spanish, because she walked over to the taxi driver and bargained for us. Not exactly sure how much it would be or exactly where it was going, we happily got into the cab and headed for Casca Viejo (the Old Town). We were dropped off in front of a church, and seeing some other tourists around, thought this was probably a main tourist spot in the old town.

We spent the next few hours wandering around seeing the old town - it was all very pretty, but not that big, so I think we saw most of it. We had lunch at "Casablanca Bistro". Jeff ordered some kind of seafood medley that came in a pineapple.

In the afternoon, we caught a cab back to the airport to catch our flight to Quito, happy with how smoothly the trip was going so far. And thats when we hit our first speed bump of the trip. We were flying along when an announcement comes on that sounded something like this... "Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, Guayaquil, Spanish, Spanish". It turned out that instead of flying to Quito as planned, we were going to land in Guayaquil - another city in Ecuador. (We tried to find out later why we didn't land in Quito - some said it was weather in Quito, while others heard something was wrong with our plane and its easier to land in Guayauil, which isn't in the mountains like Quito.)

We got off the plane, not sure what the plan was, since it was 10pm and it didn't seem like another flight would go out that night. As we exited, they handed us cards that said "Transito" - no names, info about our flight, or other information, just generic white cards. Jeff and I were skeptical, but then we learned how to use the cards. You follow the crowd, and whenever you're confused about where to go next, you just wave the "Transito" card and someone points you somewhere. This got us out of the airport, onto a bus, and into a hotel room (for free!). We even got breakfast the next morning before being bussed back to the airport.

At the airport, we weren't quite sure what was going to happen. We stood in line, and heard rumors that they were trying to fit all of us onto various flights to Quito going out on other airlines, but that there were only three today. As we sat our our backpacks, reading and waiting for something to happen, "I just want to fly" played over the airport speakers. I wonder if they planned that.

Luckily, Jeff and I made it on a 10:30am Tame Airlines flight to Quito. We had only made a reservation for the first night at our hostel, but we decided to take a cab there anyway and hope that they had rooms available for this night. They did. So we stayed at The Secret Garden Hostel in Quito.

The Secret Garden Hostel - Quito
We really liked Secret Garden, and even though we'd only planned to spend one night there, we ended up staying there the whole time. The hostel had an awesome rooftop terrace with a cool view of the city. They serve breakfast, dinner, and drinks up on the terrace, and have free tea and coffee all the time.

The people that work there are all volunteers - mostly students and young people. You volunteer to work at the hostel, and in exchange you get free room and board and 20 hours a month of one on one Spanish lessons. It's a very cool way to live in Ecuador for free for a while. Also, the volunteers were up on the terrace pretty much every night, eating, drinking, and chatting. That was really nice, because you get to know them and it's a lot easier to arrange travel plans, ask questions, etc. The atmosphere is very friendly - hanging out on the terrace at night, having a drink, and talking with other travelers was one of my favorite things to do in Quito.

Anyway, the first day in Quito, Jeff and I just spent some time wandering around. Paul, the guy who runs Carpe DM, a travel agency associated with the hostel, suggested a few lunch places to us. Our first restaurant experience was a bit awkward, because we didn't really know what to do. The waiter told us to just find a place to sit, but all the tables had people at them, after looking confused for a while, a guy explained that we just sit at any table with enough open seats, so we did that. After sitting there for a minute, the other guy eating at the table asked if we'd ordered. No, we hadn't. So we got up and went back to the front to order, and then came back to sit down.

In Ecuador, ordering food is pretty easy, because for lunch, you always order the same thing - Al Muerzos (i.e. Lunch). That usually includes some kind of soup, rice, meat, and vegetables, as well as a cup of fresh jugos (juice). And all of that usually cost about $2 a person. (Ecuador's official currency is the US dollar, so we didn't have to do any converting of money.) While we were at the restaurant, two guys came in and sang and played the guitar, which was pretty cool.

After lunch we walked through some of the main squares in Quito. The Old Town in Quito is a UNESCO heritage site - it's all very pretty with cobblestone roads and houses with little balconies. Also, the city is in the mountains, so in every direction the background is beautiful green mountains, often covered with brightly colored houses.

We walked to the National Basilica, which is a huge old-looking church on a hill. It looks like a neo-gothic Cathedral, except that instead of gargoyles, it has turtles, ant-eaters, and other animals on it.

You're allowed to climb up to the top of the towers, which Jeff and I thought would be pretty fun. To do this, you go up a series of stairs (no problem), then walk across a wooden plank over the main roof of the church (the creaking does make you a little nervous), then up another ladder (at least you're not on that wooden plank anymore), and then you're outside. Once outside, you get to climb up another series of ladders to the tip-top of the tower (um... just don't look down.) Once you make it, though, the view is great. I took a panoramic picture of the city from one of the towers.

You can also climb the clock towers, which require a bit less nerve, because it's mostly stairs, and the series of ladders are indoors, rather than outside. There is a great cafe in the clocktower, where Jeff and I had some coffee and a Humita (like a Tomale).

After all our climbing, we were ready for an evening of chatting with travelers at the hostel. It seemed like everyone we met was traveling for three months, six months, or a year - people thought it was crazy we'd come to Ecuador for only three days. Also, we met a bunch of people who had been to Bogota', Columbia, and highly recommended it. Possible future trip?