A quick stop in Quito

Quito is the capital of Ecuador with a population of about 2.7 million so as you can imagine, a bit of a shock to the system after Ayampe and its modest number of residents. Our hostel, Colonial House was located in the old town (as most hostels in big cities seem to be) and arriving at 4:30am meant our room wasn't available, instead having to make do with couches in the common area. I squeezed onto a 2 seater in the fetal position and Jim onto the 3 seater. Not an ideal place to sleep obviously but we managed to last until 8am before eventually getting up and having some breakfas at the hostel.

By the time we got ourselves sorted it was already about midday so we decided to head to Basilica del Voto Nacional, the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas. The idea of the basilica arose in 1883 and was finally consecrated and inaugurated over 100 years later in 1988. Gothic architecture is my favourite style and I wasn't disappointed. For USD$1 we were able entry into the church and for once allowed to take photos. Of course they don't do it justice, but the stained glass work was pretty incredible!

For an extra $2 each you were able to climb the tower at the end of the church in order to get a good view of the city as well as the church from a different perspective. The incredible thing was first of all the bridge you cross inside the roof that has 2x4 supports and that's it, with no signs saying there is a limit of people on the bridge at a time. Jimmy definitely made a comment about the fact they must have never heard of the Cave Creek tragedy over here. The next crazy thing is the ladders you climb which are near vertical and if you fell you'd do yourself some serious harm. Only in Ecuador eh? But man it was worth it! What an amazing viewpoint. 

Of course we asked the one guy in the tower who had obviously never used a camera before to take a photo of us. The result was this photo of us laughing at his attempts to just hack away at the button in hope of it taking something. I actually love the photo even if the background is pretty blown out.

A selfie to try and get a less blown out pic.

By then it was approaching 3pm so of course we had to go watch the Holland v Brazil game and grab some lunch at the same time. We passed on the chicken feet soup options lining the streets of Guayaquil, instead opting for a spot in Teatro Plaza that had two big projectors, perching ourselves there for the afternoon. After the game it was back to the hostel to freshen up and layer up now that we were back at altitude before trying out the local brewery - Bandido Brewing, run by American expats Ryan and Nate. Their IPA was pretty damn good after having very average beers for the last few weeks, or even months really. I cannot wait to get home and have myself a Hendricks and tonic (the tonic here is terrible) or a nice cold sav (I haven't even bothered to try the white wine here). I've never drunk so much beer in my life! 

Earlier we had found the local market area and decided it was time for another home cooked stir fry for dinner since we had been carrying around the oil, rice, soy sauce and honey for about a month. So we stocked up on some vege and headed home to the hostel to cook up dinner and have an early night in prep for our early start of 7am. This was in order to do the epic 24 hour journey that was to get us across the border into Colombia and onto Cali.

Oh and we had a tamarillo juice the other day so I knew we must be in tamarillo territory. Sure enough we found some at the markets, even in the same netting bags you use dad so had to take a snap for you. But of course they aren't even in the same class as your South Head red and gold beauties.