Middle Earth...

... that's the equator Im referring to, not the fictional setting of J.R.Tolkeins fantasy stories, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings!


The Equator runs just north of Quito in Ecuador - this being the seventh country in my epic journey around South America. I was a little apprehensive about visiting Quito as Id heard a few horror stories to do with the city, namely it was meant to have some dodgy areas. But then thinking about it Im in South America and all of its cities seem to have its fair share of crime...


My journey to Ecuador consisted of catching the second part to the most expensive flight ever that Id bought in Cusco, Peru. The flight itself went super quick, the same couldn't be said for the landing. Our pilot attempted to land the plane on arrival at Quito airport and suddenly pulled the plane up as he couldn't see the runway due to thick fog?! Luckily the second attempt (after thirty minutes circling the air again) was more successful. Thank goodness. Had we not been able to land then we would have had to go to Guayaquil airport  in Ecuador which whilst being only a forty minute flight away would have meant a seven hour drive back to Quito...phew!


The weather in Quito, as experienced during our flight, is fairly miserable - it rains EVERY day here. It is also much colder than warm Lima, Peru where Id come from. I am slowly realising that I function much better in warmer climes, not just physically but also emotionally!

A typical overcast day in the main square of Quito

I had arranged to meet Evelyn (my new Californian bestie who Id met on Machu Picchu) in Quito, however as her flight wasn't getting in until the afternoon, I went and had some lunch in what turned out to be the poshest gringo populated (but not expensive) restaurant in Quito called Mea Culpa. My lunch consisted of langoustine bisque followed by pesto gnocchi - both delicious but not the greatest combo taste wise. After such a rich lunch, and having woken up at 2:30am to catch my flight I was struggling to stay awake. I therefore went back to the hostel for a light nap. Three hours later...Evelyn arrived and we went out to meet one of her childhood friends Amie who was living in Quito as a teacher. Amie had been living in Quito for quite a few months so Evelyn and I suddenly had a ton of ready made friends to socialise with which was nice.  


Our socialising, unfortunately didn't bode well with the hostel we were staying at. The family who owned it seemed to switch off work after 10pm (locking the front door) which left us unable to get in! Cue several occasions where we had to ring the doorbell and wake them up. Thankfully each time we had our taxi driver Rene waiting outside for us. (He literally was our driver throughout our stay in Quito) We wouldn't have minded but there was no sign in the hostel saying that there was a curfew...


After a few nights of the above door saga we decided to change hostels to a hotel in the Mariscal district of Quito. This area isn't as pretty as the old town but it is where all the bars and restaurants are and given we were there most of the time it made sense to be closer to the action as it were. The hotel was lovely and we had two double beds in our room which made a change from the usual twin single beds you get. 

I love that our hotel looked straight out of Heathrow...

Luckily for us, Evelyns childhood friend Amie also worked part time in a bar / restaurant called Uncle Hos (they had rather amusing t-shirts that had I heart Hos on them...) so we were fortunate enough to get a few drinks for free. As Amie also knew pretty much most of the owners of the other drinking and dancing establishments in the area we also got in for free there! We had well and truly landed on our feet : D 


One night we ended up in the local dance spot Bungalow 6 (VIP of course ;-p ), unfortunately none of us had anticipated going out that evening so we were all in casual clothing, me in my hoodie, thermals and hiking boots. To say we stuck out like sore thumbs was an understatement. Either way we had fun, albeit dancing proved a little tricky given out footwear...


Quito wasn't all socialising, we did actually manage to drag ourselves to numerous tourist spots. Including the San Francisco Church which had a large stained glass window a la Notre Dame in Paris, the Equator line a.k.a middle Earth and finally Otavalo market which is two hours north of Quito and is tourist souvenir tat central. 

San Francisco Church

View from the window of the cafe in the church 

Amazing window in the church...check out the size (Im in the bottom left hand corner)

A sign in the church telling you how to do a confession...

View of north & south of the Equator at Middle Earth

One foot in North and one in South

One of the few interesting things at Otavalo market...

Food wise in Quito, I don't think I've eaten more of an eclectic mixture of cuisine since I've been travelling in South America. Here we literally had the pick of pretty much every nationality. Our favourites were Mexican and Thai. Price wise, everything in Ecuador is in dollars. Despite this we managed to find what had to be the cheapest three course meal ever for $1.50. Bargainous! 


During our stay Amie and Evelyn decided to get tattooed. Separately of course. Having not got a tattoo I was curious to see how it happened, so in addition to acting as moral support (not that she needed it as this wasn't her first tattoo) I accompanied Evelyn to get hers done. The process was longer than I imagined it would be although the tattoo gun didn't freak me out as much as I thought it would (its pretty loud and scary sounding). Randomly I ended up assisting the tattoo artist by passing him the paints, water etc. It was such a bizarre experience and one Im sure only happened because I was in Ecuador! Im no longer scared of getting a tattoo but I don't think I´ll be getting one done any time soon...


Tomorrow we leave for Colombia, via bus. Im travelling with two English guys - Kieran and Tom (who I met in Chile). Im hoping we don't have as such bad luck as Kieran had when he was travelling in Brazil from Sao Paolo to Iguazu Falls...basically his bus got hijacked at gun point and they were all locked up in the luggage section under the bus! horrific...