Galapagos - Day 2 - Quito, Ecuador

I woke up before 6 and tried to sleep until around 7. I slept pretty well - other than occasionally waking up gasping for air. I woke up with a slight headache that was quickly fixed with advil. Kyra and I headed to the complimentary breakfast. It was really good, though the sausages looked like pink fingers and there was a broccoli dish that neither of us touched. We tried the watermelon juice that had to literally be squeezed watermelon - it had very little taste - adding sugar helped a little bit. I had my first empanada too.

Centro Historico and Iglesia de Campana de Jesus

On the way out of the hotel we saw a very deck out police officer who looked like he was on a SWAT team, we think he might have been a motorcycle cop. Kyra and I walked to the trolley to head to Centro Historico. For a fairly long ride we paid 25 cents. We got to the historic area, got some good information from the Information booth, and were off to explore. Our first stop was at the Iglesia de Compana de Jesus. For $2 each we got a guided tour in English (with only 2 of us in the tour group) of the most ornate and beautiful chuch I've ever seen in my life. There was gold everywhere, paintings, statues, and wood carvings. There were no less than 10 sanctuaries. Despite all of the beautiful architecture, the thing Kyra and I were most fascinated with were the confessionals. They were "boxes" with the priest sitting in a chair with a curtain across his face and kneelers on either side of him - where everyone can see you. Down the center aisle the art was decided to the old testament, with portraits of people like Daniel. The side altars were of Mary (and her parents!), St Ignatius, etc. There was a pulpit to the side with good acoustics because of a beel over the chair. The alter was large with a crypt of the first saint of Ecuador. The saints who founded the orders of the priesthood had statues on the wall behind the altar. In the ceiling were portraits of archbishops and saints. The sacristy was fairly large as well. The back of the church had a large 2nd door meant to keep noise from the street down as well as a spiral staircase to the loft with the organ (that is too loud to play) as well as a painted staircase to keep things symmetrical. The entire design of the church is symmetric. This site has some pictures of the church: http://www.sjweb.info/world/lacompania/backstory.cfm

Centro Historico

Emapanda Search

After the church tour we wandered around to other areas, including San Francisco Plaza, taking pictures, and then headed off to find the hidden empanada place. Kyra had seen "Samantha Brown: Passport to Latin America" feature on Quito on the Travel Channel. They recommended an empanada place that 'doesn't really have a name'. Locals knows it by the street address - 762 Calle de La Ronda (officially, Calle Morales OE1-134 y Guayaquil). So we went searching for Calle de La Ronda. The street was under construction but looked very cute. Lots of history and lots of artists there. We found the hole in the wall by the address OE1-134, but it was also under construction! So, we headed back to town, took a break at Santo Domingo plaza and got some great local ice cream from a street vendor (it was more like flavored ice, but delicious). We grabbed lunch at a great courtyard restaurant and got some empanadas. Kyra got a "wind" empanada (Emapanada del Viento) and I got a empanada de mocho (made with white corn). Both were very good and we made it through ordering without English. I even asked what Mocho was - maize blanco. :)

Empanada Search

La Mitad Del Mundo

After that we headed off to La Mitad Del Mundo (the middle of the world). We caught the blue bus and went on a wild ride across town! It was like paying 25 cents for a 45 minute roller coaster ride. We were flung all over the place on the bus, surrounded by at least 30 school kids headed home. We got to the transfer station and thanks to two very helpful Ecuadorians we got in the right line, knew how much the bus cost, and which bus to get on. Even when La Mitad Del Mundo autobus arrived they told us not to get on - once becauuse it wasn't actually the right bus and once because we'd have to stand. Oh yeah, they only spoke Spanish! Thank you high school Spanish! The bus ride was another 1 hour adventure in a more rural part of town. It wasn't clear to us how we'd know when to get off but we stuck it out and got dropped off right at the monument. Kyra and I stood in both hemispheres at the same time and took lots of pictures. I ended up buying an awesome hat and getting a free passport stamp. The only bad part was a trip to the bathroom that charged 10 cents (dimes only) for toilet paper. grrrr. After we had enough of the Middle of the World we wandered back to the buss stop where the bus drivers jumped off the bus and flagged the "gringas" down to get on his bus, so we hurridely hopped on. Then we played the "where are we going" and 'when do we get off" game most of the way back to town since we were on a different bus line than when we came in. We also were worried we would have to jump off of the bus. The bus stops in Quito are really "rolling stops" to let people on and off. It was crazy! We ended up figuring out where we were on the map and only had to walk about 10 blocks to the hotel, and we didn't have to really jump off of a moving bus since so many other people were also getting off at the same place.

La Mitad del Mundo

La Boca del Lobo

After a quick stop at the hotel we headed out to do some quick shopping. I found awesome stuff at Coosas. We then went to dinner at La Boca del Lobo, also recommended in the Samantha Brown show. The restaurant was very cool. We had an amazing cheese and bread appetizer and I had an absolutely delicious Frenzo Pollo, which was chicken with cream cheese wrapped in bacon, and a good chocolate milkshake with nutmeg.

We were off to bed for a 9:30 flight.

La Boca del Lobo