Back in Quito, Old Town

Leaving Tena the day after rafting started off just fine. We packed up our gear and evacuated the Limon Cocha in good style, hoofing it down the hill and over into the bus depot. It was a cool gray morning, and it had rained all night, but we were lucky once again and it let up during our short walk, and resumed once we were absorbed by the big Banos bus.

So it was a 9:00 bus and we were on by 8:30 and only briefly harassed by a very creepy clown (clowns in Ecuador stick nails up their noses) and finally we were off by around 9:00 and we drifted in and out of sleep, rain dripping off the windows outside, until around 10:00 we looked outside and realized we were still in Tena...or more precisely we were back in Tena for some reason. Turns out the rains had brought down a major landslide over the road on our planned route, so we had to double-back and go another way. Two hours added to our travel, and a couple of more dollars apiece paid, we finally set out north and west at about 10:30.

Another beautiful and twisty busride, accompanied in the usual style by god-awful American kung-fu type movies from the 1980's. (Who knew they even made a "Best of the Best" part 2? Really, was there a demand for the sequel?) Back up the ridge of the Andes front range, and up into the highlands, air cooling out nicely along the way, we made our way back towards Quito. Another very decent busride, our last, bringing us back to the big city, towards the end of our monthlong adventure.

Quito is huge. It's long and skinny, confined by its valley, but the valley is really long and punctuated with big, deep fingers that stretch off in many directions. Buildings fill the valley floor and spill up the walls of the surrounding hills, cresting on the steeps, hilltops and ridgelines bursting with cellphone antenna towers. A busy, bustling, vibrant city, so very different from most of what we've seen here.
Jampacked busses and electric trolleys. Heavy foot traffic on the sidewalks. Women selling roasted maize and sweet empanadas and little skewers of chicken and sausages from open storefronts. People shopping for produce and bread for dinner. We spill into the big, modern bus terminal, find some taxis and head across town towards the old city, where we'll be staying for the next four nights.

We encamp at the Grand Hotel, which may or may not have been grand at some point in the past, and settle in. The roof offers some pretty stunning views of the old colonial city, and as we wander around we realize that we've found ourselves in a little piece of Europe, transplanted across the Atlantic by homesick Spaniards back in the 17th Century.

So like an old European city center, but a bit run down, a bit noticeably shabby and worn around the edges. Great character though, and hundreds of storefronts to explore, and a lively walking center surrounded by centuries-old churches.