I was fascinated by the beauty of this beautiful country once again throughout my bus journey from Banos to Quito, the mountains seemed to be travelling with us all this time. I experienced a beautiful sunset from inception to the end and it was an amazing experience. I took loads of pictures, not very good one as I wanted to see and feel it more through my naked eye than through the lenses of the camera. But I am not very good with words and expressions, so I do not even know how to describe the beauty I saw, the feeling I felt and the pleasure I got! When I got down from the bus, I had to look for a taxi and found one immediately although the ride from there to the hotel seemed very long, may be I was kind of tired after the bus ride. I did not close my eyes for a moment other than my regular blinking throughout the journey; it was too beautiful to miss even a bit of it! The hotel address was a bit confusing and it took me few minutes to figure out the right hotel. Anyway, the reception representative told me that the room I would be given is just for that night and next morning I have to be moved to a different room. I was okay with that. The hotel had nice breakfast and nice internet service with a beautiful garden at the back. I was hungry and was not sure if I should walk several blocks to get some food or just stay close and eat locally. There was a place next door and it seemed like another hotel but had a nice big restaurant in it. They were open and I was hungry, so it clicked well. I had a nice chicken soup and then a dessert, flan. The soup was pretty good and the amount was a lot almost two people could eat. The soup was yummy and it was made out of the stock of an entire chicken, the large piece of chicken was also part of the meal and I had to take it out of the soup as it was so much for me! I tried this type of soup in Santiago, Chile. It reminded me of a chicken soup I had there in the other side of the river where the restaurants were not at all crowded but the food was great.
Something very interesting happened in the hotel I went to eat. I asked at the desk if they had any tour guides or brochure for Quito city tour. They showed me some and I took them and was going through those while eating my meal. Then I asked a few questions about the tour, the manager or the front desk guy came and asked me if I would be interested for a tour all day tomorrow by his own car, it would be less expensive than the regular tour. I thought for a moment and realized that was not a bad idea!
So, next morning he picked me up from my hotel and in the car was also his wife. That was very sweet of him to bring his wife along as I was feeling a bit awkward just going for touring with a stranger! He introduced me to his wife and she seemed nice, she did not speak much as she could only speak Spanish and I could only speak English! But we had a nice communication three ways and he interpreted her words to me and mine to her. It worked quite well. We drove all the way from the hotel to the Mitad del Mundo (Spanish: Middle of the World). It is a tract of land owned by the prefecture of the province of Pichincha, Ecuador. It is located in the San Antonio parish of the canton of Quito, north of the center of Quito.
The grounds contain the Museo Etnográfico Mitad del Mundo, a museum about the indigenous ethnography of Ecuador. The 30-meter-tall monument, built between 1979 and 1982, was constructed to mark the point where the equator passes through the country in the geodetic datum in use in Ecuador at that time. A line down the center of the east-facing staircase, and across the plaza, was meant to mark the equator, and countless tourists over the years have had their pictures taken straddling this line. In the modern datum of the World Geodetic System (WGS84), which is used in GPS systems and computer mapping products like Google Earth, the equator is placed about 240 meters north of the marked line. This discrepancy is partially due to increased accuracy but primarily due to a different choice of mapping datum. Similarly, the line marking the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in England is roughly 100 meters from the exact zero of longitude as indicated by GPS receivers.
The pyramidal monument, with each side facing a cardinal direction, is topped by a 4.5 meter diameter, 5-ton globe. Inside the monument is a small museum that displays elements of indigenous Ecuadorian culture, such as clothing, descriptions of the various ethnic groups, and examples of their activities. Mitad del Mundo contains other attractions such as a Planetarium, an amazing miniature model of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and restaurants. On weekends, Mitad del Mundo's Central Plaza is host to varied musical and cultural presentations for tourists.
A small town surrounding the monument at the Museo Etnográfico functions as the tourist center, replicating a colonial Spanish town and called "Ciudad Mitad del Mundo" (Middle of the World City).
This was one of the reasons for me to come to Quito, I took lots of picture and me standing on the equator line, it was fun.
Our next destination was supposed to a volcano but I realized that Anthony, right? If I remember the name of the guy correctly, and his wife stayed outside the attraction area waiting for me and I was there for about 3-4 hours. I also watched the show inside the planetarium. I felt bad for them even if they did not seem to be upset. The good thing was that Anthony brought his wife, I think she was Sandra, if I recall correctly. They had some nice time together and also he felt good that he is with his wife on his day off and also making a bit of side income. May be, I do not need to feel that bad! Anyway, now we decided that the Volcano idea can be dropped as it would take long to drive there and besides, I am more interested to see the old town and all the beautiful establishments, squares, monuments and churches than the Volcano. I did not want to miss seeing the main part of the city which is a big attraction for outsiders. I have seen Volcanoes in North Island in New Zealand and also near Puerto Varaas, Chile. It was another 40 minutes drive as this place is out of Quito and a secluded area by itself.
The very first thing we went to visit was a beautiful architecture Gothic church and we went inside it was gorgeous, I took lots of pictures, it is so huge and so nice and peaceful inside! Then we drove through the city and reached to a place where all the main squares are and several official buildings and monuments and another very pretty church. We also went inside a convent that was very well kept and I had a quick tour inside that. Again the couple waited outside during the time I was inside. Anthony warned me that I should be careful about the camera as there can be pickpocketers and thieves around and they always target the tourists as they have dollars (even if US$ is the official currency for Ecuador, Da!), traveler’s checks, foreign passports, expensive camera and other gadgets. I took his advice well and started carrying my little backpack bag in the front like a baby! We stopped at quite a few stops on the way to the parking garage where he kept his car. So, I was talking to Sandra in my mui mui pokito Spanish and she was doing the same with her little sweet English. It was a 20 minutes walk and we enjoyed each other's company quite a bit. I took quite a few picture of this couple and promised them that I would email those. I am so bad, I should have done that although I am pretty sure that I still have their contact and therefore, I can do that, now, it is better than never!
After coming back to the hotel I gave Anthony the amount he asked for and I added lots of tips in that as I thought that it was the best way for me to visit Quito as I was on my own. I felt very good! I still had few hours to look around the close-by areas near my hotel and I found some good food place around. I found some amazing stores that had unique gift items and some very unique pieces made locally. In fact most of them were made out of some breakable material and I was only carrying my backpack. Therefore, I decided to not buy much except for my magnets and small souvenirs. I have to either come back here or have my friend, Mayra who is from Quito and now lives in NJ, bring some items from these stores when she visits here. In fact, it is time to leave Quito and I am flying back very early morning for my flight, already arranged a taxi and off to the airport. This is the last day of my almost 3-month long travel to South America. My mind and eyes are full of memories and images from all over South America. I started in Brazil, and then traveled through Uruguay, Paraguay (just a little bit), Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. I only saw a portion of the beauty these beautiful countries have and hope to come back some other time when I CAN but the experience I have gained will last until the last day of my life. I was lucky to be with a group and not travelling by myself, but I was also lucky that my language barrier was not a obstacle for my travelling as the tour managers in the four back to back trips I did were all great people, nice personality and extremely helpful and great resource for any and all type of information. I would suggest my travel lover friends to use GAP adventures if they feel like traveling but do not want to go through the hassel of putting the plan in detail but have an overall idea. Also, the mix in the group is very interesting, there were 65 years old in the team and also 18 years old, but it blended fine as one common goal of everyone who comes here is to see, to know, to experience new places, new culture and people from all different backgrounds. The world in your mind opens up so much while traveling that it amazes you every time you experience something new. I loved it all even if at times I felt a little discomfort, felt a bit homesick and missed family and friends but most times I just kept myself awake NOT to miss a bit of it!
My next trip is in planning stage, I am thinking Eastern Europe and Central Europe, countries or rather cities in mind are Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Bled, Krakow, Warsaw..............
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment