After three weeks in El Salvador recovering from back pain, going to the chiropractor every other day, enjoying my mom, and spending some time with family and friends I was given the Ok to keep on traveling. My next destination: Quito, Ecuador. 

I left El Salvador on a night flight and got to Quito passed midnight. The problem with night flights is that is costs a lot to get to the hostel because there is no public transport and the only choice is a taxi.

As I walked out of the arrival doors I looked to see if there was wifi to get an Uber but no luck, so then I walked to the taxi counter.

As I looked for the name of my Hostel one lady came to the desk and asked for a taxi to the city center. I immediately jumped to the opportunity of sharing a taxi since we were both going the same direction. While chatting I told her about my trip and told me how she used to work for National Geographic... How cool!


At the end of our ride she ended up paying more than half the share and gave me a donation to take to Kenya! 💜

Kay and The next day,

I got to my hostel at 2am and my friend Anna, from Romania who I met in Malaysia, was already there waiting for me! Before my trip I had told her about my dates and decided to join me! How cool?

We both slept in the next morning and then decided to go walk around. We ended up in Plaza mayor on a monday morning not knowing that there were change of guards. To be honest it was a very elaborate change of guards and even the president was there and all the locals were very exited!

The President (in a wheelchair), the vice president (a woman) and some other politicians.

Fancy looking guards.

Trumpets and even horses!

After the change of guards we walked around the beautiful plaza Mayor, entered many courtyards, and appreciated the architecture. 



What I enjoyed the most in the plaza was the people watching! There were people playing instruments, shoe shiners in every corner, people selling absolutely everything all around the plaza.

An angel themed cafe, my mom would have loved it!

Quito is full of hills and its old centre is a mix of colours and white buildings. No matter where one walks in the centre one can see the hills going up and down; to one side of the city there is the "Panecillo", a huge hill with an angel looking virgin, and to the other side la "Catedral del voto".

Panecillo

Catedral del voto.

The colonial centre is simply beautiful with old houses with balconies and flowers on them. The city is super vibrant during the day, people literally everywhere, big HUUUGE busses going up and down the narrow streets, fruit vendors in every corner, Quito really had a very authentic feeling to it.

I loved seeing all the cholitas selling fruits in their traditional attires, and at times carrying a baby on the back.

Watch out for the busses!

Egg shop, candy shop, and a cute old lady!

Cherries.. yummy!

What a typical tore looks like

Meat delivery in the old town.

In Quito there is one huge street that is full of Churches, churches, and more churches! Literally we passed so many I lost count, there were so many that I didn't even take pictures of them because they all looked kind of the same: bloody jesus statues, big shiny altars, and lots of lit up candles.

A bloody jesus.

I think these are Ant eaters!

Galapagos turtles!

A penguin!

Iguanas from galapagos!

Llama gargoyles!

The famous window!

Anna taking in the view!

View from the tower!

Quito was more than just old building and churches. What was fun was to walk around and find the many parks,  and plazas, and places to eat!

A very modern plaza!

Despite Quito being very lively during the day, at about 6pm it just died! Everybody left the centre and seemed to me as if not many people lived there. I actually enjoyed having the city to myself,

El Panecillo all lit up.

Iglesia de San Antonio

Plaza Santo Domingo

Right around the corner from my hostel was a famous street called La Ronda. The first day I visited it was a monday so everything was closed and it definitely did not live up to the expectation of the "liveliest street at night in the old centre"... not even one bit!

Empty La Ronda!

Every other food place was selling "Canelazo", a hot drink made with cinnamon.

The mercado was super clean and well organised! 

They even had price signs in every stand, perfect for tourists!

The fresh juices for a dollar were the best!

We discovered our favourite breakfast: Tortillas de verde con huevo y ensalada. The tortillas de verde are a staple food in Quito, they are patties made with green plantain and sometimes a little bit of cheese inside, the ones we got were topped with fried eggs and served with a "salad" (aka red onion) and we added some avocado, of course!

Another market we stopped by was mercado Santa Clara. This one was a lot bigger and had way more produce than our local one.

Check out the pigs on the right!

We got there at lunch time... $1.25 for lunch!

More juice!

The produce aisle was dreamy!!!!!

Look at all those fruits... but DO NOT TOUCH! Those ladies are angry!

This lady seats there getting beans out of the shells.

The esoteric product aisle!!!
They literally sell herbs, oils, plants etc to cure all different kinds of stuff! They do energetic cleanses, cure "fright", also "bad air" and a bunch of stuff that i don't understand!

While in Quito we also tried lots of sweet treats! We had heard that in Ecuador hot chocolate with cheese is a thing so Anna had to try it (I decided to skip it) but instead I had some alfajores... that weren't that good!


I told Anna that she needed to try alfajores, that she needed to have alfajores that had lots of dulce de leche, that when put in the mouth they crumbled and melted. We went around Ecuador for a month and we literally tried all alfajores  we saw but none were perfect. After traveling all over Ecuador we went back to Quito and while walking around town we found a bakery and went in to see if they had alfajores... and we found THE perfect alfajor!!!!!!

Alfajor from En-Dulce! yum!

More of Quito later! 💜