Tour of Quito- A Heritage site.

Monday, April 25- Quito
This  morning, it is our guided tour of Quito. We have now met five other couples who will be joining us on our Galagos tour on The Samba-name of our ship. There are three American couples,one Swedish husband and wife, and we couldn't believe it, but another couple from New Brunswick. How cool is that? They are by far the youngest twosome in our group. This is their honeymoon. They were married in August.
Our guide, Mauro and the driver picked us up at 9 am. We were off to visit the Basillica, which is the one Ron and I walked to the other day. We had not entered the other day so we did that. Very nice stained glass depicting the stations of the cross and much more.

Every Monday the government has the changing of the guards at 11 am. We were lucky enough to be able to witness this event. It is quite elaborate. We did not stay for the President's speech. He is not very well liked by the Ecuadorians. Our guide certainly had nothing good to say about him.

We then drove up to the highest peak in the city where there is a statue of the Lady of the Apocalypse. We took the pictures of Quito from above. It has a little over 2 million inhabitants. 

The Lady of the Appcalypse. There's a good story that goes along with this statue. She is also known by other names. 

Quito 

after this viewing, we board the bus to go to Mitad del Mundo, otherwise known as the Middle of the World. There's another great story here, it's not exactly at the right spot. They missed it by about 140 meters. Touristy with a lot of shops along the sides of the monument.

A divide in the equator

These seat are all over this place. They represent some of the hummingbird species found in Ecuador. 

We had lunch near one of the biggest craters in the country. It is eight km long. People live there. Not sure how they get in and out... 

This Llama was tethered outside near the restaurant. We have not seen this as a choice on our menus. It seems that they do not eat llama meat anymore, but we learned that some people do eat Guinea Pig. Not for me, thank you. Tonight will be a quiet one as our departure for the airport is at 6:30 am. Final destination- The Galápagos islands. Very excited to get there. I will probably be off line for the next eight days or so, maybe more. Not sure about connection on the islands, but we know that there won't be any on the boat. Buenos tardes. 

Papallacta excursion

Sunday, April 24- Papallacta hot springs excursion.
Our day started at 7am when we were up and getting ready for breakfast. Always lots to eat, fruits, toast, fresh raspberry juice, eggs, etc. Our driver/guide was picking us up at 8:30. We met Luis in the lobby at 8:20, so off we went for our two hour drive to get to our destination. It was a good drive as it was on the opposite side of the Mountain that we travelled to on the other excursion. Much different vegetation and views.

Mountains and clouds every day. 

Ears popping the whole way.

Young vendors as well.

There are fruits and vegetable stands every two or three minutes. They sell fresh cheese as well.

We arrived at our destination around 10:20. Everything was set so we just picked up our towels, our lovely bathing caps, and our key to a locker. We had brought our bathing suits. No birthday suits allowed. This was absolutely amazing. We started out in a warm pool, moved on to a hotter pool and then made our way to the hottest pool. Of course there is a small cold water pool that you have to do

to get the full experience.

Ron enjoying the medium pool.

Sitting in the Jets. 

Ron taking a cold dip. 

The larger, warmest pool.

After our many soaks, it was time for lunch. I had a grilled trout and Ron had grilled chicken. They were both served with yuca and veggies. We had a nice refreshing drink of blackberry juice mixed with another fruit that we did not recognize. Yummy though. We also had a hot sauce called "snob". We will look to buy some. 

My trout with snob on it

After lunch we headed out for a one hour hike with our guide. There were cows and llamas on the sides on the mountains. We also followed along a river that makes it's way to the Amazon River. Quite impressive. 

Just loved the sound of the gushing River. 

Very beautiful. 

Our guide taking our picture. 

We just met some of our travelling companions.  There are three couples and they are all Americans. 

We will all be on a guided tour of Quito tomorrow. Ron and I just went out to a bakery to get a light snack for supper. We are always eating full meals and I didn't feel like eating again so just a baby banana for me tonight. 

Bellavista, day two

Saturday, April 23- Bellavista Cloud Forest. We are up and getting ready just before 6 am. We meet Natalie and three other guests for some birding. This is the best time of the day to find the different varieties. We hang out a little over an hour and get to see quite a few species.

So many hummingbirds

A turquoise Jay

Breakfast is served at 8:00. We start with a bowl of varied fruits, yogourt, homemade granola, fresh bread and jam, and coffee and tea. Second round is eggs, any style you want. It is a very filling start to the day. We then to go get ready for our 9:30 hike. It is a great trail where we can see many flowers, different species of ferns, orchids, Palm tees, etc. we even see an earth worm, but nothing like the ones at home. This one is over a meter long and about one inch in circumference. It was amazing. 

Earth worm. It had started to burrow into the dirt. The hike continued for over two hours. For a short distance we walked on a dirt road. It was here that we saw a Plate-billed Mountain Toucan. Unfortunately it is very cloudy and he was high up in the tree. The photo is dark.

I could see the many colours through the binoculars. (Thanks Wendy and André).

We returned on the trail, now going downhill for another 20-30 minutes before arriving at our destination. We hung out with the hummingbirds one last time before going back to our rooms to pack. We had lunch at 1 pm, then around two thirty it was the drive back to Quito.

We got back to our original hotel, Mansion del Angel. It was still light out so we got a few photos of the hotel from outside. It is quite wide so the photo doesn't show the whole building. We also went 

for a walk before returning to take a shower and go down to have supper.

Our bathroom is covered in rose pedals.

Our hotel

Cathédrale nearby. We will try to visit in the next few days.

We had made a reservation for 7:30. They make us order beforehand so when we get there it is ready. Ron had the surf and turf and I had the sole. Both were very yummy. Ron topped of his meal with chocolate lava cake. It is now 10pm. Tomorrow's excursion has us leaving at 8:30. It is another two hour ride to a natural hot springs. It is situated between two volcanoes so the pools are naturally heated. Should be very therapeutic. Good night. 

Cloud forest

Friday, April 22- Quito to Bellavista Cloud Forest
Our wake up call was at 5:45 as our pick up was at 6:25. Our driver is very punctual and we are on the road by 6:30. Wow, everyone in Quito must be up and about. The traffic was snarled everywhere and local buses are bursting at the seams.
We pass through a town name Mitad del Mundo, which translated means Middle of the World, literally. We had a two hour drive to our destination and the second half was on very windy, twisty roads but our driver, Johnny, was very adept so I felt very comfortable.
We arrived in Bellavista at 8:30am and after a quick walk through with a guide and showing us our room we were served breakfast.

This place covers 700 hectares of lush rain forests and climbs up to 2500 meters. It is hosts to 14 varieties of hummingbirds, the olinginta (resembles an opossum), and a myriad of other birds and small mammals. There is also the spectacled bear, but he is shy and not seen very often. Birds on the other hand were in abundance.

Our room

Dining area

Our first sighting of birds was of hummingbirds. We couldn't believe the variety and the numbers. 

They are not afraid of us at all.

Our first hike started at 9:30. Our amazing guide was Natalie. She could see everything and sing just like the birds, she took us along a muddy trail that went down for about 45 minutes where we came upon a waterfall. They offer their guests rubber boots to wear and thank goodness as we would have ruined our sneakers.

These were our hiking boots for two days.

We were seven guests on the hike; two Germans, two Americans, one British man, and the two of us.

One of the American woman was very chatty and she often continued talking when the guide was giving us a lesson. I stayed right in behind the guide so as not to miss a thing.

We were back in our room around noon. Lunch would be served at 1 pm so Ron had a nap and I took notes. There was no Internet in this remote area and no tv, no radios, no electronics at all so really nice and quite. 

Oh, and it is a common occurrence to have rain by afternoon and sure enough it started to come down during lunch. Our second hike was to start at 3:30 and by some miracle, the rain stopped just long enough to get 3/4 of the hike completed.

We deserved a nice hot shower upon our return. Because of the rain, we hung out in our room until dinner which is served at 7pm.

There was one table set as there were only 6 of us left. Three people had left after our hike. This was a great opportunity to get to know each other. The German couple had just complete their tour of the Galápagos islands, the American chatterbox would be starting her tour of the islands on Sunday, the other American was not going to the Galapagos.

The German couple, Kristin and Sasha, Josh, an American from Maine, and chatty Ruth from California.

After supper, we are back in our rooms and Ron and I play a word game on my IPad to pass the time. The room is cool and humid so we turn on the little floor heater to take the edge off and try to dry our clothes.

It's 10 pm, lights out as we meet Natalie at 6:15 tomorrow morning.

Quito

We have arrived but not without a little glitch. Leaving Toronto was with Air Canada. Our departure was on time and although no food was served (in five hours) it was smooth and only half filled, so pretty quiet. The trouble started when we went to the Copa desk in Panama. We were not given a boarding pass for this leg of our journey so we had to line up to get one. After waiting in the queue for 30 minutes we decided to go to our gate and speak to someone there. Well, to our surprise and amazement, the agent informed us that we we're not booked on the flight and that she could not do anything about it on her end. She told us to return to find an Air Canada agent to try to figure things out. Luckily this nice worker took us to another Copa agent and explained the situation. Air Canada had us in their system and showed us booked with Copa. It took awhile, but finally he was able to get the agent to find our booking. What a scare! We were now 40 minutes from our departure and we hadn't eaten. We quickly bought a few empanadas and headed to our gate.
The Copa flight actually served us food and alcoholic beverages, on them. To top it off, it was only a one hour and fourty minute flight.
We arrived in Quito on time, at 5:15 but once again things didn't work out as planned. Our driver wasn't there. We needed up taking a taxi. Our tour operator was supposed to book a driver for us. What a drive! Blinkers and following road signs are obviously optional. Our driver was also anxious to return to pick up more passengers as he was zigzagging in and out to get us to our hotel in record time. Wendy, you would not have survived that ride, even in the front seat. Quito is a city in the mountains. The climb to our hotel was in narrow, spinny roads where you still have to share the road with busses and trucks, yikes!
We get dropped off on a one way street so the cab driver stops all traffic to let us off. Imagine all of the horns going off as we struggle to get our bags out of the trunk and then find the fare for the ride.
The hotel is amazing. Too dark for outdoor pictures today but hopefully tomorrow morning. I did get a few shots in the hallways and in our room.

Just outside our room.  

Ron eating the chocolate left on the bed.

Our sitting room.

Some queen above the fireplace.