Some adorable family members were trekking through Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia and I decided to hook up with them for 48 action-packed hours in Quito, Ecuador.
It would, naturally, not be possible without Insel air Aruba, on-time direct flights; unfortunately, there were just five passengers on board on the return, so please, read my column and then go to Ecuador, so we don’t lose the route!
First impression? A state-of-the-art, modern, spacious and efficient airport. I huffed and puffed getting off the plane and Googled the elevation. No wonder. It is almost 10.000 feet, 2,850m. Breathless I headed to the Change Booth and discovered that Ecuador has a dollar economy, the only such country in South America.
That surprise experience was compounded by the new web of incredible highways, complemented by expensive and complex infrastructure. Driving in Ecuador is very easy; it feels like Europe, with wide, well lit lanes, giant roundabouts, clear road signs, tunnels, toll booths, bridges, over- and underpasses. Who knew?
Ok, the city itself is annoyingly congested, but once you leave its boundaries it’s a piece of cake to navigate.
We visited Otavalo, a town blessed by three gorgeous volcanoes with eternal snow caps. Cotacachi, 4,995m, Imbabura, 4,630m and Mojanda, 13,986m. The town is known for a spectacular Artesan market which we visited, mixing with hundreds of charming small vendors from the neighboring communities in traditional dress making a wealth of jewelry pieces, ponchos, scarves, crocheted and embroidered, while taking care of babies, socializing and having lunch.
We visited Lago San Pablo in that area, a collapsed volcano, elevation 2,670m and enjoyed tea overlooking the serene, quiet, snowy peaks.
Cascada Peguche is in the neighborhood, an 18m waterfall within a protected forest of very tall eucalyptus and cedar trees. The mosquitoes were not happy with us. We were equipped with a good repellent. We also beat the burning sun at her game, being slathered with sunscreen. Reminder, equatorial sun in no joke. It’s merciless.
Lunch at a no name mom & pop dining room in town, $6, consisted of traditional potato, cheese and avocado soup, sautéed trout, a few salads including cabbage and red beet, and boiled potatoes. Our yummy, nicely plated, homemade meal was accompanied by fresh passion fruit juice.
We also stopped for coffee and buttery, slightly salty, bizcochos at Cayame, a roadside panoramic spot. These bizcochos are world famous, I am told.
The following day saw us posing for silly pictures at a tourist trap, the equatorial museum which pays homage to the 18th century European engineers who visited Ecuador to mark latitude 00*00’00”. As it turned out they marked it in a slightly-off location, but never mind, the Mitar del Mundo monument is huge and impressive and we took a lift to the top to admire the view north of Quito. We also had hot chocolate with marshmallows at the Cacao Museum and snoozed a bit in the darkness of the planetarium, during a so-so Big Bang reenactment.
A seventy mile drive delivered us to the volcanic hot springs of Papallacta, high in the Andes, 3,250m, where we spent some hours in the steaming open air pools. The rural mountain town features a number of termas, we picked a popular one, $3 per person, and if we ever return to that piece of paradise, we will pick the Papallacta Spa & Resort at the end of the mountain road, a boutique hotel with gorgeous jungle grounds and manicured thermal pools, $8 per person, and might even consider staying overnight.
Did I mention that on the way up we stopped at an unfinished mom & pop restaurant/shack with chicken, babies and dogs crawling the dining room floor for a $3 lunch – the customary three course with fresh yellow tomato juice, thin chicken soup flavored with herbs, sautéed river trout, mashed plantain and boiled potatoes.
Back to Las Termas de Papallacta: Having traced the hot water line to its remote source, hidden in foliage, across river beds, deep in the forest in our beaten up rental, we turned around satisfied, to drive back to Quito, early in the evening.
Once we emerged from the forest, the recently carved-into-the-steep-mountain-side highway was completely engulfed in thick fog, visibility less than one meter. We inched forward, and I prayed. I become religious in hair-raising moments.
And naturally, as soon as the fog eased in lower elevations, our front tire blew to smithereens. All that was left was a black gummy paste and I was standing on the highway with my phone’s flashlight playing emergency road warning triangle, while the guys changed the tire, into another one, equally flat and gummy.
So we ditched the rental, and took at taxi back to Traveler’s Inn, where we were staying — an excellent choice, clean and cozy, great value for money, manned by a caring, helpful host.
In the evening hours, we walked the Historic City Center, so clean, so well kept, so dramatically lit, a 300 city block square with 300 eighteen-century churches, convents, cathedrals and monasteries. The Spanish conquistadors were consummate builders, and Quito takes good care of its heritage.
At Calle La Ronda at the edge of the historic quarter, within the Bohemian, fun street with music and bars, we found some more traditional food. All restaurants look the same at Calle La Ronda, and serve the exact same food but it is a gorgeous, romantic street.
What did we eat? Tamales, corn wrapped stuffed wonders. Empanadas de Viento, fried and sprinkled with sugar, also empanadas de morocho, and popcorn as garnish for soups; choclo, the dry roasted corn, the quintessential locro, potato and cheese soup, floating an avocado moon; plantain mashed, fried, sliced and stuffed, sometimes with cheese; hot chocolate, tasty coffee once I learned to control how much milk they poured into it, papaya; three kinds of banana including the sweet midget ones, tart gooseberries, fresh squeezed orange juice, maracuya and guananaba juices, fresh river trout, slightly salted queso fresco, the bizcochos that melt in your mouth, scrambled eggs for breakfast.
We noticed street food is king, and at night entire plazas were dedicated to local chefs who serve out of uniform stainless steel kitchens, lined with meat pinchos on the charcoal grill.
Why go? Because the countryside is gorgeous with 4 distinct regions, the Amazonas, the Andes, the Galapagos Island, and the coastal communities, all different, all colorful, and amazingly affordable, just over three-hours from here….