Monday, April 5, 2010

Easter Sunday

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, was our second full day here in Quito.  The altitude sickness was starting to wear off, our bags had been delivered to the hotel on Saturday night, and we were generally in a better mood (myself especially).  After breakfast at the hotel - they provide a light continental breakfast of cereal, juice, fruit, toast, coffee, and tea - we decided to walk down Madrid (literally, we are almost at the top of the hill that this street ascends in the neighborhood of La Floresta), crossing Avenida 12 de Octubre, then along Mariscal Foch to catch the Ecovía trolley line into the Old Town.

Trolley line is a bit of a misnomer.  Tram, maybe?  The Ecovía and its two sister lines are essentially double-long buses powered by electric cables from above.  They don't have any tracks or rails on which they ride, so a driver ensures that the vehicle stays on course.  I guess you could call it a cable car bus, if you wanted to.


At any rate, we rode the line past where we had anticipated getting off (since we couldn't tell which stop we were at, and our guidebook appeared to be slightly out of date) and ended up in an area we weren't quite familiar with (from looking at the map - not that we're familiar with anything).  After we realized our mistake, I told Karla that we should probably have gotten off when everyone else did, since they were probably all heading into the Old Town to go to one of the many of the churches for Easter mass.

But all was not lost! It seemed we had arrived at a hub for the bus and tram lines.  We crossed the street and sat on a set of long steps going up into one of the many neighborhoods and oriented ourselves on the map, only to realize we were actually only a few blocks away from the far end of the Old City.  Following the map and our instincts, we found ourselves exactly where we had intended, amid old buildings, cobblestone streets, bustling crowds of locals and tourists, churches galore, quaint shops - el Centro Histórico.  It is hard to describe succinctly in words this section of town.  Fortunately, Karla and I have finally gotten our Flickr account set up and you can view photos of the Old City (and other photos from our first day here in Quito), at our photostream or as a slideshow.

Karla is calling me... We are going to explore the city some more.  Our Easter Sunday story is to be continued.

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