Quito

Ecuador seems much more prosperous than Peru, the cars are all newer and even in the countryside and on the outskirts of Quito, we not seen any of the shanty town structures that cling to Peruvian cities.  Even better, they have a central bus station, where coaches of all companies seem to arrive and depart, unlike Peru, where even company has its own seperate terminal, often miles apart.  Better still, the Quitumbe terminal had a Tourist Information Office with free city map!  Once you´ve been travelling for while - this kind of thing becomes really cool.

The Terminal is located on the outskirts of Quito, but connected with the city via a comprehensive and impressive metro bus system which you can ride anywhere for only 25 cents.  The only downside is that the bus routes don´t correspond fully with the map, but hey ho - the bus people are friendly and helpful.  Bizarrely much like Peru, there are staggering amounts of armed security guards on hand.  Each stop on bus seems to have one, who doubles as a route planner.

We headed into the Mariscal district and failed to find the hostal that we had found online.  Instead we booked ourselves into a slightly more luxurious one and hit the sack.

After catching up on our sleep, we headed out to wonder around Mariscal, again forewarned by the LP to watch out for the muggers and miscreants that lurk round every corner.  It turned out to be really nice, prosperous looking neighbour.  The streets are clean and colourful, trees line the avenues and the people appear friendly yet unconcerned by the many tourists.  Aside from a couple of locals who seemed think that we needed tattooing, there is no tourist hassling. like you find it Southeast Asia.  Also outside the markets, there is not haggling, the stuff in the shops have prices and that is what you pay - nice and simple.

During our exploration we found the hostel (www.alcalahostal.com) we had been looking for and booked in the the following nights.  The Alcala is a nice friendly, family run affair in the heart of Mariscal.  

Mariscal itself is a party place, it is full of bars and clubs which from Thursday through to Saturday play some thumpingly loud music until all hours of the night.  We´re not really party people anymore, but if you are, this probably a cool place.

We organised a trip to climb Cotopaxi with Gulliver's Tours (www.gulliver.com.ec  Recommended by L&G) and headed out to climb a volcano called Pichincha on the outskirts of Quito.  This peak sits above Quito and can be reached by taking the spanking new Telepheriquo (Apparently this is the second highest cable car in the world). From the top of the bubble lift, there is a clear path that allows you to climb to the summit at 4696 metres.  At the top we were joined by two Swedish guys: Bjaren and Andreas these guys whipped out an ipod and speakers and insisted on us joining them for a summit dance(He promised we would be in their next video...).  It turns out that they are sponsored skiers who are touring South America, climbing and skiing the most notable peaks.  Andreas had just skied Denali, and they were on Pichincha, acclimatising before heading to Chimborazo. (There´s more about the crazy stuff these guys get up to at Bjarne´s website http://endlessflow.posterous.com)

Quito from above

View from Pichincha

The next day, we decided to get a dose of culture and headed to the Old Town to see the sights. There were some nice looking Spanish colonial architecture there and plenty of churches, plazas, parks and statues, including a large angel that towers above Quito at El Panecillo.  Lack the requiste appetites of city based culture, we headed for the highest place we could get ourselves: the San Francisco cathedral. 

El Panecillo

Towers of San Francisco Cathedral

Stained glass window in San Francisco Cathedral

From the outside this is a suitably impressive Gothic cathedral akin to those that dominate many European cities.  Get inside though and it is all artifice:  The cathedral was only built in the 1920s and made almost exclusively from concrete.  Once inside, as you climb higher, away from the areas of worship, the iron girders are not even disguised, their rusty points poking out from the walls at all kinds of bizarre angles.  Its saving grace is that it is very high and you can get almost all the way to the top, which does afford some good views of Quito, there´s even quite a cool catwalk that you can cross to get to the towers.

Catwalk to the towers

Before heading out to Cotopaxi, we went looking for new books to read and found the “English Bookshop” which is run by a bloke from Lea-on-sea in Essex - small world.