Monday 28 May 2012

Day 63 - Otavalo to Quito, Ecuador (20 May 2012)

Day 63 – Otavalo to Quito, Ecuador (20 May 2012)

We awake to a beautiful day, typical since we didn’t have a market to go to today! We pack up our gear all ready for Quito, which is about two hours south of Otavalo.  We skipped Quito and continued north to Otavalo so we could experience the Otavalo Saturday market, the largest market in South America, definitely worth the trip.  First things first though, our magnificent breakfast, where we get the same as yesterday.  Now is the trip south to Quito.  We get a taxi to the bus station (US$1) and a bus is ready to depart so we jump on.  The bus trip took us to the northern bus terminal in Quito and cost us US$2 each.  We get a taxi into the city where our hostel awaits! We have booked a place called Hostel Backpackers Inn in Mariscal Sucre, the newer part of the city.  We arrive after about a half an hour taxi ride that cost us US$7.  Transport is ridiculously cheap in this country.  Once at the backpackers we settle into our room.  We are unsure how long we are going to stay in Quito but will see what happens, there is alot to do here but apparently we have to keep our wits about us as there is a lot of theft in this city.  We decide to have a look around the Mariscal Sucre neighbourhood.  This area is where quite a few tourists stay.  We find the main square which is full of restaurants, but the place is dead! We even check out the supermarket and that is even closed!!! We head back to our hostel and decide to watch tv for the rest of the afternoon as everything was closed! Also new town does not have much to offer and it was too late to take a bus into old town, which is the historical part of the city and plenty to do there.  We read our Lonely Planet and are happy we came back to the hostel as we read that the Mariscal Sucre is a dodgy place to wander around on Sundays.  Think we will stick to the hostel for the rest of the day! We round out the day by going out for dinner at a Texan restaurant, not the greatest meal but not too bad at the same time.

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