Quito - Ecuador

Ecuador and Galapagos

We arrived in Quito after flying via Miami from LA early in the morning. Ian found he had 2 bits of paper – one at 6.30am and then he found another sheet in the morning saying 6am flight – we got on the bus at our airport hotel at 4.50am and just made the flight. Amex had sent two different sheets and it was 6am!

We landed in Quito at night where Sam had developed a very bad throat during that day to the point he was quite sick. So the first thing we asked the people who picked us was we need a doctor at the hotel when we arrived to make sure Sam was OK. As it turned out he was not OK and needed an anti-biotic injection in his rear end. Luckily we had planned a rest day for the day after travel and we needed it to get Sam better and get the washing done and generally chill.

The next day Paul, our A&K guide, arrived and took us the equator and a museum about the Equator and Ecuador, which was fascinating. The museum showed us houses from each of the 4 regions of Ecuador: The Amazon, Highlands, Coast and Galapagos. We learnt why bath water went  clockwise  down the tap in the Southern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the Northern hemisphere – and straight down on the equator line – and saw a demo right there to prove it 2m’s either side of the equator! We learnt that on the equator the average person was 2.5lbs lighter – good news for us travelers!

Here are some facts about Ecuador


* One of the smallest SA country - 14m people - highest population per sq km in SA.
* Quito - capital & 2.5m people - 2nd biggest city. 62 volcanoes - 2 erupting at any time - last one in Quito was in 1999 - covered in 2 inches of ash - all took day off to clear up. * Ecuador inhabitants traced to 9,000 BC. 4 regions - highlands / coast / galapagos / amazon. Has President like USA - 4 yr terms - 2 terms - current president has 54-88% popular rating. 
* The Quito Ice cream sorbet was made in brass pot invented in 1885 - guanabana flavour. Use ice from mountain tops to cool the ice cream.
* Av. income - $300 per month but som highlands families live off $100 a month. Adopted US$ in 1999 after 95% inflation.
* Equator - sun on south sumer post end sept for 6 months - and then winter and then vice versa for northern hemisphere. Also average weight is 2.2 lbs less than normal due to equator and lower gravity.
* At equator bath water has no swirl - in north anticlockwise and south clockwise water on the bath.
* Ecuador was lots of tribes up to early 1500's - then they were invaded by the Incas from the south in early 1500 - over 3 yrs the incas defeated the Ec's and they rueld Ec for 45 yrs - in 1545 the Spaniards defeated the incas and took over Ec and ruled ever since - until 1822 when grand Columbia (venezuela, columbia and Ecuador) was created and independence awarded by Spain due to defeat - one president was appointed over Grand Columbia called Simone Bolivar (he got independence for Peru and Bolivia as well) - in 1830 he stopped being president of Grand Columbia and the 3 countries agreed to be independent from that point. And have been ever since.

Paul was very knowledgeable and a great guy with the whole family. He took us for lunch on the edge and top of a volcano – where people lived at the bottom of the crater!! It had only erupted 1500 yrs ago so they considered this safe living. We ate true Ecuador local food which was delicious. The Agi – a sauce that seemed to go with everything – was particularly delicious.

We then dropped Sam at the hotel to sleep and the rest of us went to tour Quito’s old town with Paul and get more history on Ecuador – Paul was very interesting and kept us all interested – the central old town is one of the oldest in South America and the churches were quite fabulous. We walked around and saw the Quito people in everyday life – making great tasting chocolate peanuts in front of us. We saw a church of Gold – pretty amazing and then we were taken to a Panama hat shop and Ian bought a Panama hat – which are all made in Ecuador – not Panama but were made for the workers working on the Panama canal many years ago to shade them – hence the name. They ranged in price from $15 to $600 – Ian chose one very much at the cheaper price and looks cool in it!!

We had a nice day out and got back to find Sam feeling better and the doctor signed him off as ready to go to Galapagos the next day.