Quito, Ecuador - Days 3 & 4

Wednesday, March 9

Today wasn’t too exciting — Andi had a lot of phone calls & computer stuff to do, so he sat at the desk in our airbnb’s bedroom most of the day.

Tory, Aden and I did school in the morning, and then the kids sat on the couch and played Roblox for a long time together. I blogged, did some Spanish lessons on DuoLingo and actually took a two-hour nap. I have a terrible cough that I can’t seem to kick & haven’t had a decent night of sleep in the past 10 days. I guess the exhaustion finally caught up to me.

It’s one thing to push it to the max with a non-stop itinerary when you’re only spending a week somewhere new, but since we’ve been in Ecuador for just shy of two months now I think it’s OK to have a quiet day once in a while. We all need it to recharge our batteries.

Today was the first sunny day we’ve had in Quito, so we probably should have been out adventuring. Oh well, it was still a joy to watch the city alive below our 11th floor apartment.

Late afternoon, I took Tory and Aden to swim in the condo’s pool again and then Andi and I went for a walk around the block together. I can’t get over the busy-ness of city life — there are so many restaurants, coffee shop, people out walking their dogs, horns honking, etc. every hour of the day. It’s been a real treat living this life for the past week, but Andi and I both agree that we love our quiet, rural life in Wisconsin. It’s a world’s difference from this one.

We ordered take-out from Cafe Mi Amor, the restaurant in the base of our condo building, and watched the last episode of Dive Club together as a family before bedtime.

Thursday, March 10

Last minute change of plans — This morning, our family was scheduled to check out of our airbnb in Quito and travel two hours north to Otavalo, Ecuador to stay with an indigenous family for the next two days. However, I was up half the night coughing again and Andi woke up with a splitting headache. I have been battling the same cough for a week now and hoped it’d be gone by our San Clemente homestay. I feel perfectly fine during the day, but I cough as soon as I lay down. After talking about it this morning, neither Andi or I thought it was a good idea for us to stay in someone’s home if we are sick. Such a bummer because I was really looking forward to visiting Otavalo and staying with another indigenous family in Ecuador.

Andi made arrangements for us to stay one more night in our current airbnb. It’s a super comfortable place to stay with every convenience we could want. We also have our own living space so we don’t feel like we’re directly spreading germs to anyone else. One or more of us has been sick for the past 2 1/2 weeks now and it’s getting old!

Since we now had the whole day ahead of us in Quito, we decided to visit the TelefériQo — a gondola that takes visitors up the slopes of Pichincha Volcano. We’d been waiting all week for a clear day to do this activity and we finally had one today. The volcano was completely socked into the clouds on Monday and Tuesday this week.

Before heading up the mountain, we stopped for coffee & breakfast at L’Artisan Cafe a few doors down from our condo complex. Their croissants looked amazing! I’ve never seen flavored croissants other than chocolate before.

I’d read that temperatures are the top of the TeleferiQo viewpoint. The city of Quito is at 9,350 feet and the gondola ascends to 12,943 feet which is quite high in altitude! The four of us dressed warm, finally using those winter jackets we’ve been hauling around in our suitcase this entire trip.

Gondola tickets cost $8/pp. We boarded the chair lift right away. The 20-minute ride up the mountain afforded beautiful views of the city of Quito below. Boy, were we high in elevation! Our ears and even my nose canal was popping from the change in air pressure.

At the Cruz Loma viewpoint (the top of the TeleferiQo), we disembarked from the gondola and walked around for a while. There were a few hiking trails, but they weren’t well marked. Our family followed one dirt path that I think was actually a horse trail. It ended up leading us to a service road, so we circled back up the side of the mountain. While the hike was short-lived, it did provide gorgeous views of green, rolling hills and the cityscape below.

It didn’t take long at all for the clouds to roll in. Parts of the view were completely covered now, so we decided to walk to the mirador swings. The views were beautiful on both sides of the path leading up to the swings, but the altitude was kicking our butts! Andi said he had a pounding headache. We took it slow, walking at our own pace up the path to the swings overlook. The temperature wasn’t nearly as cold at the top of the volcano than we’d thought it would be. I think for a local Ecuadorian it might feel cold, but for our family who is used to Wisconsin winters, the temperature was actually quite pleasant for hiking around.

There were a few other groups of people there, so we waited our turn to use the swings. Tory and Aden sat on one of them together while Andi gave them a big push. Both kids screamed for joy until suddenly demanding to be done. Tory, in particular, is afraid of anything remotely adventurous these days.

Afterwards, we walked back to the gondola terminal and rode down the mountain. What a beautiful place to visit! It was hard to believe we were just 20 minutes outside the city of Quito.

We hopped in a taxi and drove to Quito’s Old Town for lunch. A local tour guide recommended a place called Cafe Ida that serves excellent Ecuadorian food. We found the tiny cafe located across the street from the Museum of the City, and bellied up to one of three tables inside the restaurant.

A sweet, older woman (likely the owner) took our order — strawberry & pineapple juice for Tory and Aden, morocho for Andi and I to share (a warm milk pudding drink), a variety of empanadas, scrambled eggs for Aden, a ham & cheese sandwich for Tory and a quimbolito for dessert (a steamed cake baked in a tamale leaf). It seems like we ordered a lot of food, but everything was individual and cost $1-$2 each.

Our food started coming out — first the juices and morocha drinks, then one empanada and Aden’s scrambled eggs. As the restaurant owner delivered our food she asked if the kids wanted milk to drink. Andi and I were kind of confused, but said sure. She returned with two mugs of warm milk for Tory and Aden, but never brought any of the other food we ordered. We waited around for 20 minutes or so before Andi finally asked for the check. This has happened several times to us at restaurants in Ecuador — either the person taking our order doesn’t hear or understand us when we order, or they must think there’s no possible way anyone can eat all the food we’ve just asked for. Regardless, we left the cafe still feeling hungry and very confused.

I will say, the one empanada verde we did eat and the homemade morocha drink were very tasty!

I’d wanted to visit the Museum of the City across the street from the cafe, but Tory complained that she was still hungry so we set off to find more food instead. We turned the corner onto Calle La Ronda — the famous pedestrian street we’d visited on Sunday — and decided to look for food there since visiting this area again was on Andi and I’s Quito bucket list. Unfortunately, there were hardly any restaurants open in the area. The street was completely quiet. We wandered through a few chocolate shops and a small museum before hopping into a cab to go to a restaurant called Heladeria San Agustin.

A local tour guide suggested Heladeria San Agustin which is located in a 16th-century building near the main square in Old Town. A restaurant that’s been open since 1858 must be good! It was packed at 2:00pm.

Once seated, we ordered more empanadas, a portion of French fries, a ham & cheese sandwich for Tory (since she never got the one she ordered at the previous restaurant) and a cata which means “tasting” in Spanish. The waiter returned with a ham & cheese sandwich which included a small side of French fries and a beverage called Orangine (which we did not order). He also brought a sampler plate of their homemade ice cream including flavors like maracuya (passion fruit), mora (blackberry), coffee, taxo (no idea what English word that flavor translates to), fruitila (strawberry) and coconut. We loved being able to try all of the different flavors.

Andi ordered one scoop of strawberry and one scoop of taxo to share. The ice cream was served in a dish with dry ice steamed around it — cool!

We never did get our plate of French fries or our empanadas. I’m guessing the waiter gave Tory the combo meal which included a ham sandwich, fries and a drink in place of our order of French fries.

We owed the family we were suppose to stay with in Otavalo $50 for canceling on our reservation, so Andi had to go to the bank to transfer the money. Ecuadorians don’t use money services like PayPal or Venmo — everything is done physically through the bank. I think that’s always why there’s a line around every bank a mile long.

Andi said the experience of transferring money at the bank was unique! During our two months in Ecuador, we’ve observed that this is a very rule-following country. Ecuadorians are good-natured, cooperative and have very pleasing personalities. Multiple times, we’ve had Ecuadorians in the tourism/ service industry tell us they just want to make our time in their country an enjoyable one. And, they really mean it! As Andi recalled his experience inside the bank, he said it is the only time during the pandemic that he’s ever seen people stand perfectly on the “maintain 6 feet of distance” squares. Nobody seemed irritated about it. I can’t imagine this ever happening in the USA.

We took care of transferring the money to the Otavalo family, and then cabbed back to our airbnb in the Carolina neighborhood. For the next few hours, we lounged around the apartment. Sometimes, our accommodations here are too comfortable! We have a hard time motivating to go out into the city again.

Andi and I contemplated getting sushi for dinner, but the menu of the restaurant near us didn’t look that appetizing. Sushi is one food that Ecuadorians don’t do well. Instead, Andi ran down the street from our condo to get tacos to-go from a local restaurant. We were telling the kids about the movie Dumb & Dumber the other day, so we decided to pull it up on Amazon Prime and watch it together. It was honestly the perfect night for us in Quito.

We have one more day in Quito tomorrow, and then we fly home to Wisconsin on the red-eye. I cannot believe our time in Ecuador is coming to an end. It makes me so sad! I have loved every minute of this trip.