Wednesday January 25, 2017

We got up early this morning to finish packing and catch the bus to Portoviejo. We knew we would be on the road most of the day. We said goodbye to Angelo and Eric and the dogs and went down to the malecón to catch our first bus of the day. When we got to Portoviejo, we asked about a bus to Quito. We had to wait about 90 minutes for the bus, but there was a nice air conditioned waiting room available. The bus to Quito left at 10:30 am and arrived in the city at around 6 pm. During that time we saw beautiful valleys with farmland and brush, waterfalls and rivers. We also watched 3 movies with Spanish voice over. It is amazing how much of a movie you can understand without the words! When we got to Quito, we took a taxi to our hostel, for only $7. Our driver was very nice and offered a lot of advice for activities in Quito, as well as some general information about the city and the country.
We arrived at Friends Hostel, located right in the heart of Quito's historic district. We were welcomed by our hosts, including one host who spoke English. Our room is spacious with shelving for luggage, and a desk for writing. The bathroom is large and has new fixtures. This hostel is rated very highly on many internet sites, and has so far impressed us.
We headed out to a street called Morales, where our host had recommended several possible choices for dinner. We chose a place and Mike had pork with rice, potato pancakes and plantain. I had a traditional potato soup with cheese. The food was excellent. We noticed that the choices were quite different from our coastal stops. We walked back toward our hostel, and decided to stop at a cafe, right on the corner of our street, for dessert and coffee. The name of this place was Cafe Dios No Muere. It is owned by an ex-pat from Louisiana, who is loud and obnoxious. His sons were all working for him, including one boy who was about 6 years old. The coffee and bread pudding were excellent but the service was terrible. We waited a very long time for our order, and went down to pay our bill, so we would not have to wait further. Unfortunately I would not recommend this place to other travellers.
We returned to our hostel to sleep in cool comfort. The temperature in Quito is drastically different than on the coast. It was about 10 degrees when we arrived. Hoping this will help us with acclimatization when we return home!

Iglesia Santo Domingo

One of the many streets in historic section of Quito