Yes, we finally made it to Ecuador *smiley smiling*
On 2850 meters above sea level, Quito is already quite high. The altitude makes you feel old(er) when walking around or taking the stairs. The later one you will do a lot in Quito, as the city stretches well into the hills around.
We opted to stay in a nice double room in a hostel nearby the Old Town*. From there many sights are in walk-able distance and we immediately started to make use of this.
Spanish influence and language
Exploring the colonial center, you feel the strong Spanish influence. It is still present today in buildings, habits of people and of course the language.
Oh, talking about “language”: We now realize that not really learning at least some basic Spanish* before visiting Ecuador was not the best idea. You can make your way around using gestures and some English words. But we definitely put learning a proper level of Spanish on our list *smiley worried*
After strolling through the old colonial Quito we climbed even higher to earn our evening beer. Walking a lot of stairs in thin air and reveals breathtaking views over Quito after sunset…
Quito by night
Whatever hill around the Old Town you climb by just following the streets you will have a great view. We looked up some decent place for dinner on TripAdvisor on one of the hills to have a destination. Eating in restaurants is comparable cheap over here. But for good quality and to avoid the too touristy places, you need to research a bit. I will make sure we have some nice culinary experiences along our tour. Both to eat healthy and get Thorsten back in shape *smiley kissing*
We had some great days in the city. Exploring, arriving in “vacation-mode” and organizing an early highlight on our round-the-world tour.
Today we are heading to Otavalo visiting a very local and huge indian market.
Note: This post was originally written back in 2009 and we gave it a “refresh” when transferring to our new domain in 2019