Quito, Ecuador
It’s been almost three years since I travelled to Ecuador. I only wrote this article in English back then. Now it’s time for me for a bit of nostalgia.
I always envied people who travelled around the world, who counted how many countries they visited. I have to admit that probably this envy made me do the total opposite. Once I started to travel in Colombia. I realised that there is so much to see, so many beautiful cities and landscapes, that it doesn’t make any sense to just jump from one country to another. You can easily spend months in one Country and you still won’t be able to see every attraction.
However I still had the urge to go and visit at least one more country. And I chose Ecuador. I had to take a 24 hours bus ride from Cali. It was my longest so far. I’ve bought a direct ticket to Quito, but later it turned out that it wasn’t really direct. They took us to the border, they explained to us what to do, then they took us to the next city and they bought our tickets for the next bus. So the service they offered was more like what a travel agency would do.
Quito was quite silent when I arrived. It must have to do something with the fact that a few weeks ago bloody protests were taking place here. It wasn’t even advised to go to Quito yet, but I made a little bit of research and I thought that the risk was minimal.
Usually I didn’t book any accommodation, because I wasn’t there in the high season. I just checked online where the hostels are and then I went there to ask for a room. Usually the first one was free but this time I had to go to three different places until I found one but then it was empty and cheaper. It was weird but it was a good hostel.
The next morning I decided to go for a run. I’ve never run at an altitude that high, but it felt great. I didn’t even feel the lack of oxygen. When I got back to the Hostel I started to look online how I should spend my day andI remembered that a girl from Luxemburg who I met in Cali told me that climbing Rucu Pichincha was an amazing experience. Let’s do it. I thought. Let’s climb a 4696 metre high mountain. It was already late but when I got to the Teleferico I forgot that I should have money. I had to go back and find an ATM. I took a taxi to go back to the Teleferico. When I went up I wasn’t sure that I should start this hike, but I started walking up slowly. And as I kept going further I kept being more confident that I would do this. But for more: read this article!
So I only spent two days in Quito and I spent half of it hiking. I didn’t learn too much about the city, but it was an amazing experience. I was impressed by the cheap prices of the buses, and even more impressed that there is no electronic ticketing system for paying bus tickets. There were cashiers on every bus next to the bus driver whom passengers had to pay.
I loved the morning run in Quito and I loved the hike even more and I also saw some nice architecture.
On my way back to Colombia I organised the border crossing on my own. It was cheaper that way. And I believe that it was easier as well. I just took a bus to Tulcan. Took a Taxi to the border. I took a taxi on the other side again and I took a bus to Popayán from Ipiales.
