18-21/1/2012 - A swift visit to Ecuador

If only I'd been quick enough with the camera to get a photo of the pig...

There was little of note on the bus journey to Ipiales except a rather strange stop to use the rest rooms. The service stop looked like any other we'd stopped at – a shabby restaurant and a toilet block around a dusty courtyard. Two german shepherds were on top of the toilet block and suddenly started going crazy. As we looked around trying to work out what they were getting excited about the door next to the toilet block opened and a man walked out leading a massive pig on a leash. I thought the dogs were going to jump off the roof and maul the thing but they limited themselves to barking their heads off as the man bundled the pig into a nearby cart and waved goodbye to the bemused travellers.

A few more bus hops, a scenic border crossing into Ecuador and finally I arrived into central Quito in the dead of night... or so I thought. My lonely planet guide, dating back to 2008, assured me that the bus terminal was extremely central and the hostel I wanted to stay at was a stone's throw away. After asking around, I ascertained that the central bus terminal no longer existed, that I was in fact at a terminal to the north of Quito, I needed to get yet another bus to another bus terminal and that once I'd done so it'd still be miles out of Quito. Eventually I made it to my hostel with plenty of recommendations on what to see from my taxi driver and having learned not to rely too heavily on my out of date guide in the future.

Unfortunately Quito was to be my only stop in Ecuador and, although its obviously impossible to get a sense of a country from 2 and a bit days in its capital, I thought I'd give it my best shot. The historic part of the city is a world heritage site and is littered with beautiful churches, cathedrals and museums.

Around the main square there was a host of expensive restaurants and fast food places catering to foreign tastes but wandering a few streets away I found some nice typical eateries serving set lunches of soup, rice salad and chicken and a drink for $1.5 (the currency in Ecuador is the US dollar). Ecuador is a major exporter of bananas and plantain and these fruits are omnipresent in the diet. My particular favourite was a ball of fried plantain stuffed with bits of meat and served with coffee. Having never been a coffee drinker before South America, I now knock back several cups a day. I can only blame Venezuela and Colombia for this transformation since on every street corner in these countries, guys with flasks of coffee are selling it for pennies and eventually I got addicted to the stuff. In Quito, these coffee sellers were gone only to be replaced by old women selling disgusting ice-creams for 25 cents.

Wandering around the city I quickly became aware of the altitude. Quito is in a valley so to see many parts of the city involves some fairly steep climbs. After barely a minutes walk up one such incline I paused to find that I was completely out of breath and that my heart was going at breakneck speed. Slightly unnerving.

Freddy vs The Beatles

This guys had to contend with people constantly trying to pour drinks into his mouth while he was singing

In the hostel I got chatting to a couple of Argentinian women and in the evening we headed to a nearby street in the old town lined with small bars, all boasting traditional live music. Settling on a great little no frills place filled with locals and colombian holiday makers we got a jug of Canelazo – a hot alcoholic drink flavoured with cinnamon and either naranjilla or mora juice, not dissimilar to Gluehwein (german mulled wine you get at Christmas markets) albeit with a bit more of a kick. The guy on the guitar was really good and sang a string of sad songs, one of which was ironically about how alcohol ruined his life. We moved onto another bar where the singer looked uncannily like Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street and sang Hey Jude with spanish lyrics.

On my second night in Quito I ended up in the party centre and got chatting to a group of ex-pat teachers in an Irish bar. I quickly realised that there would be nothing remotely Ecuadorian about tonight, especially after we headed to a bar/club called “house of rock” which played a good dose of AC/DC but also threw in a disappointing amount of Coldplay and Keane. After a while I made my excuses (the teachers had paid for all my drinks which was really nice of them) and headed to another club I'd been recommended. Once inside, the first guys I got chatting to were Russian - how do I keep finding them? The club was a fairly typical affair – American chart music and inflated drinks prices but the Ecuadorians I chatted to were really friendly and berated me for spending so little time in their country. The police came and shut the place down at 3 which was a bit of a shame but it had been an awesome night (and definitely more successful than the one in Medellin).

On my last day I checked out a few more cathedrals and museums as well as doing a spot of clothes shopping – I'd accidentally left a plastic bag full of clothes in Medellin. My 36 hour bus journey directly to Lima in Peru was supposed to leave at midnight but when I rang up to confirm this, I was told it wouldn't be leaving until at least 3 am. This wasn't ideal but it did mean I got to share a few more jugs of Canelazo with the Argentinians who implored me to get in touch with them once I got to Buenos Aires.

Midnight came and went. The hostel grew deadly quiet. I packed my stuff, strolled into the deserted street and hailed a taxi. Goodbye Quito. Goodbye Ecuador.