Deciding where to go on our honeymoon was difficult... for Todd. Right off the bat Patty said "let's go to Ecuador and the Galapagos!", but Todd had to spend months researching every place to go in all of South America before finally deciding Patty was right from the beginning - of course! |
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The next day, we spent some time touring around town and discovered a nicer place, the Loro Verde Hotel, in New Town. Inexpensive (around $14/night), clean, with a nice proprietor. New town offered much more in the way of places to shop and eat, all in easy walking distance. |
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We spent the next few days sightseeing in and around Quito. El Panecillo (the Virgin of Quito) overlooks the city. Guidebooks warn you to be careful reaching the top, we took a random cab and had no problems. |
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Taking the bus to Mitad Del Mundo (the Middle of the Earth - the Equator!) was a bit of a challenge, but worth it. Took us a while to figure out which bus to catch and where to catch it. The route had obviously changed from when the guidebook was written, but after waiting for quite some time at the wrong place we managed to make our intent known in pidgin Spanish and people were very helpful in setting us in the right direction. |
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Our last trip before heading for the Galapagos was a day trip to the Saturday market at Otavalo. We hired a car and driver through the owner (manager?) of the Loro Verde. Cesar took us on about a 2 hour drive in his Land Rover to the market. |
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We expected it to be rather touristy, and of course found the usual repetitious displays of the same "native art", but did find quite a few interesting souvenirs. Of course it required a bit of bargaining to get the right price, but given the exchange rate we were able to get some interesting things for a small amount of money. |
We could easily have spent many more weeks in Quito, and would have loved to get out into the country or perhaps take a trip to the rainforest but it was time to get up way too early in the morning and head off to the Galapagos Islands! (or, you can always go back to the Main Menu...) |