At 5:30am, we all met at RDU with bags packed and ready for the trip! We boarded American Airlines flight #1234 and took off for Miami, FL at 6:05am, right on schedule. We arrived at our layover in Miami at 8:10am. We rested in the airport and got lunch around 2:00pm. Then we boarded flight #931 and took off for Quito, Ecuador at 3:50pm. We were so excited to be finally on our way!
We landed in Quito, Ecuador at 6:50pm and were exhausted from the long day of travel. The Marsella airport shuttle took us to our accommodation at Hostal Marsella, which is in a beautiful, colonial part of Quito.
We ate some snacks that we packed including: granola bars, chex mix, and pretzels. We went to bed around 9:00pm, eager for Wednesday to come.
Kevin
Kevin
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
We woke up around 8:00am and walked to the local supermarket to purchase some groceries for the week. The groceries costed approximately $55, but will feed us for the week. We walked back to Hostal Marsella and cooked a hardy breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, and hash-browns in the shared kitchen at the Hostal.
At around noon, we took a taxi to go visit and tour the Company of Jesus Church. The Company of Jesus Church is a masterpiece of baroque and Quiteno-colonial art with lavish golden altars and gilded columns, making it one of the most ornate structures in Ecuador.
We toured the Company of Jesus Church for about 4 hours until we were kicked out because Michelle and Kelly couldn't seem to follow the "No Touching" rule with some of the artwork! By that time, we were all pretty ready to leave anyways, so no one was upset. We caught a taxi and took it to El Espanol, which is a traditional delicatessen and cafe that specializes in hot and cold subs. For $24 we shared three large subs and they were delicious! After that, we headed back to Hostal Marsella to get a good night's sleep before Thursday, which we decided to spend hiking the Pasochoa Wild Life Refuge. We were asleep by 10:00pm and so excited for Thursday's adventure!
Alex
Alex
Thursday, October 4, 2012
At 7:00am, we were all awoken by T.Y., who surprised us by waking up early and cooking breakfast for the whole crew! Thanks again, T.Y., it was delicious! We purchased and scheduled an all inclusive 1-day guided tour of the Pasochoa Volcano through Latin American Travel and Tours for $150. Information for Latin American Travel and Tours can be found at: (http://www.larc1.com/ecuador/volcano-avenue/volcano-tours-1-day-hikes.html#Pasochoa_LNK). We decided to do the Pasochoa Volcano Peak Hike:
Pasochoa Peak Hike.
- This route takes 8 hours and goes through the subtropical, cloud, and mountain forest to end in the highland, where we will keep ascending to the rock pyramids where the condors live, to finally reach the peak of this ancient volcano.
- This route takes 8 hours and goes through the subtropical, cloud, and mountain forest to end in the highland, where we will keep ascending to the rock pyramids where the condors live, to finally reach the peak of this ancient volcano.
Our itinerary was as follows:
09:00 Departure from Quito
10:30 Arrival at the Wildlife refuge Pasochoa
14:30 Box-lunch at the volcano summit
15:00 Descent
17:30 Return to Quito
14:30 Box-lunch at the volcano summit
15:00 Descent
17:30 Return to Quito
We arrived back at Hostal Marsella at 5:30pm and were all exhausted from a long day of hiking. We all had such a good time at Pasochoa Wild Life Refuge! Here is a picture of us hiking:
After working up quite an appetite, we decided to go out for some local Mexican food. At 6:30pm, we went to Rosa Mexicano and had an incredible Mexican feast! Much to our liking, they were rather affordable as well; costing us a total of $40 for 7 people! We finished our food and headed back to Hostal Marsella at 8:00pm and fell asleep almost immediately when we arrived.
Kelly
Kelly
Friday, October 5, 2012
On Friday at 8:00am, we woke up to beautiful weather and decided to visit and spend the day at the historic Old Town of Ecuador! Old Town is Quito's chief attraction. It holds a dazzling array of churches, monasteries and convents dating from the early days of the colony. Known to Quiteños as el Centro Histórico, the Old Town falls into a fairly small area that can be comfortably covered on foot in a day.
At 9:00am, we caught a taxi over to Old Town and were so excited to tour the historical churches, museums, and to shop at the three different plazas! At 10:00am, we began our tour at the most famous Old Town museum known as the Museo de la Ciudad. The Museo de la Ciudad housed many archeological relics and other art that presented Quito's social history in an accessible and engaging way, we were all quite impressed! Next we headed for the Museo Manuela Saenz, which is a museum dedicated to the history of two of South America's heroes of the Independence era. At around 3:00pm, we got lunch at a food truck at the Plaza de la Independencia for $30 total. Then we headed over to visit the Cathedral, Government Palace, Archbishop's Palace and City Hall.
At 5:00pm, we took a taxi back to Hostal Marsella. We all thought historic Old Town was really cool! Once we got back, we headed back out for dinner. We went to La Vina, which is a local Mediterranean cuisine. It was fantastic and affordable, costing us a total of $45! We all believed that a place like this in America would most likely cost double what we paid! At 8:00pm, we all headed back Hostal Marsella and ate ice cream and played Monopoly until we were ready for bed. We were all asleep by 10:00pm.
Jamie
Saturday, October 6th, 2012
At 8:00am on Saturday, we woke up and headed over to Cafe de la Vaca for breakfast. We all ate well for $40. We decided that we would go rock climbing at Rocodromo, which is a local 25m high climbing facility with over a dozen different routes of all difficultly levels. We packed lunch and then took a taxi and arrived at 10:00am. Admission was $5 a person including climbing equipment. Here is a picture of the facility:
We decided to call it a day at 6:00pm and caught a taxi back to Hostal Marsella. When we arrived, we cooked dinner in the shared kitchen. After we finished eating, we finished playing our game of Monopoly from Friday night, which we all lost to Jaimie who happened to be a Monopoly expert. We were all asleep by 11:00pm.
T.Y.
Sunday, October 7th, 2012
On Sunday morning, we slept in until around 10:00am. We didn't really have anything planned for the day, so we went down and asked the receptionist if there were any parks within walking distance to spend the day at. She told us there was one about 4 miles away called La Carolina. It was a beautiful day, so we decided to save some money and take on the walk instead of taking a taxi.
At around 11:00am, we cooked a quick breakfast in the shared kitchen, packed our lunch for the day, and departed! It took us a little over an hour to walk there and were thrilled when we arrived at 12:30pm. The park was beautiful! We all agreed that it resembled New York's Central Park due to the fact that it was in the center of all of Quito's buildings. We were all very impressed by the park and it was quite the happening place on Sunday! The exhibition center at the park was holding a special event featuring live music and karaoke at 3:00pm, so we decided that we would stick around for it. We decided to walk around for a while. There were people everywhere; they were walking, jogging, flying kites, reading, picnicking, playing soccer, etc. The park had various sports fields, a skate park, a botanical garden, and even a pond with paddle boats for rent. We decided to rent 2, 4-seater paddle boats which only costed $6! We quickly learned that getting around on a paddle boat was not as easy as we thought it would be. The ladies made T.Y. and I split up between the two boats because they had secretly plotted to make us do all of the peddling!
3:00pm rolled around and we headed back to the exhibition center for some karaoke. We listened to a variety of singers who let's just say, should NOT quit their day job. We decided that at least one of us had to go up and sing, so we all tried to peer pressure T.Y. into it. Reluctantly, he gave in and agreed to sing. He chose to sing "The Way You Make Me Feel" by the king of pop, Mr. Michael Jackson. We were all surprised by his song choice, but when he started singing, it all made sense! T.Y. has an incredible singing voice, we were all blown away! When he finished the crowd begged him for an encore, so he sang "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by The Temptations. This one was even better than the last, T.Y. puts on quite a show!
At 4:00pm, we decided to eat the lunch that we packed right near the bridge shown in the picture above. After we finished eating, we decided to start the long walk back to Hostal Marsella. We made it back home around 5:45pm. We decided to go out for drinks at one of the local bars. We asked a local where a nice bar with cheap drinks was located and he directed us to Huaina. We took a taxi to Huaina and arrived around 8:00pm. We ate dinner when we got there and it costed a total of $48. After that, we headed for the bar and ordered a few rounds of beers. 11:00pm rolled around and most of us were getting pretty tired with the exception of Alex, who seemed to be having by far the most fun out of everyone! We finally decided to head back to Hostal Marsella around midnight, so we called a taxi. The bar seemed to take a toll on Alex, as she had 1 or maybe 7 shots too many. We got back to the hostal around 12:45am and fell almost immediately asleep.
Michelle
Monday, October 7, 2012
We woke up around 11:00am and most of us weren't feeling so great from the night before, so we cooked a hardy brunch and decided to rest a little while longer. Around 1:30pm, we had a meeting to discuss our plans for the rest of our trip and to put together details for our flight to Columbia tomorrow.
At 3:00pm, we decided to take a taxi to the Teleferiqo, which is a popular tourist attraction that features 18 different gondolas, which are essentially indoor ski lifts. These gondolas take passengers up the side of the Quito's western mountain range along the Pichincha Volcanoes. We arrived at Teleferiqo at 3:30pm and immediately got on the first gondola that we saw. It was really cool! It only took 10 minutes for the gondola to make it to the top. Here is a picture of the gondola:
We decided to get a few snacks (total cost: $30) and then check out some of the hiking trails, which we heard lead to more beautiful views of Quito and the Pichincha Volcanoes. We hiked a few of the trails and were amazed at what we saw.
We decided to catch a ride back down on the gondola around 5:30pm. We took a taxi back to Hostal Marsella around 6:00pm and arrived at 6:15pm. For the remainder of the night, we laid low in anticipation for the big day tomorrow. We were sad to be leaving Ecuador in a few hours, but were very excited for what the rest of the trip held for us. We cooked the remainder of our groceries around 8:00pm and then headed for bed. We were asleep by 9:00pm.
Emily
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
We woke up around 8:00am and began packing all of our stuff and cleaning up our rooms. This took about 2 hours total. After we finished, we checked out and caught a taxi to the airport for our 11:10am flight to Bogota, Columbia. We flew Aero Galapagos flight #602 and arrived in Bogota at around 12:50pm.
Financial Totals for the Week:
Taxi total: $350
Food total: $400
Admission fees total: $500
Raleigh to Quito Flight total: $4039
Quito to Bogota Flight total: $2149
Hostal Marsella Accommodation total: $336
Total for the Week: $7774 including flights and accommodations.
Kevin Burnet
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