WEEK THREE: BUENOS AIRES

TUESDAY OCTOBER 16th and WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17th

What a great week in Columbia! However, this flight was a LONG ONE! We left the Bogota airport at 9:36  pm on Tuesday and arrived at the GRU airport in Brazil at 5:31 am on Wednesday. The flight was not very smooth and we were all pretty tired by the time we got to GRU for the 2 hour 29 minute layover. We all ended up falling asleep in chairs in front of the gate for our flight to Buenos Aires. If Kevin wouldn't have snored himself awake, we would have missed the flight! We were the last people to board in our groggy haze and luckily were able to pass out again on the flight from GRU to AEP in Buenos Aires. We landed right around 10:50 am on Wednesday. Thankfully, the house we had rented has an amazing property manager: Ruben. We talked to Ruben before we left on our trip and had already set up his friend's car service to pick us up at the airport.

Jacob came and picked us up in his van. He was such a joy and it was comforting to have a smiling face as we drove to our rental home the Carlos Calvo Escape in the San Telmo barrio of Buenos Aires. Jacob also had a suprise for us: Ruben had told him all about us being college kids traveling around the world and he wanted to help us out. He wouldn't take our money even though we insisted! The cobblestone streets welcomed us as we pulled up to our home for the next week. Time had flown by over the ride after hearing Jacob's anecdotes of life in the capital city and suggestions for what to do. What a beauty of a home it was! 

The outside of our building

After exploring the house and it's great bedrooms and living spaces, we found the best room of all: a fully stocked gourmet kitchen! TY had already shown us his great cooking skills in Ecuador so we put him to the test again. His sandwiches hit the spot! Everyone was so tired from our 11 hours of traveling and the great sandwiches put us over the edge. We all fell asleep, AGAIN! Kevin and his snoring was once again our saving grace. We all pulled ourselves together and get ready to go out on the town around 7 pm. 

Being in San Telmo, there is so much culture to see. We got a late start and none of us were really hungry or felt like clubbing. We just looked at the interesting arctecture and art and roamed. 

After a few hours of strolling around, we all headed back to the house and called it a night. What a great first day! We didn't spend any money at all and really dipped our toes into Buenos Aires. 

THURSDAY OCTOBER 18th 

Something smelled sweet and inticed everyone down to the kitchen on Thursday morning. Alex had made muffins! This fully stocked gourmet kitchen was quickly becoming our best friend. Today, we decided to walk over to Puerto Madero, another barrio in Buenos Aires. It was a four block walk and quite beautiful weather in the 60s. Puerto Madero is along the waterfront and has many beautiful boats and boat museums as well as churches. We spent hours touring them all. 

We decided to stop for lunch at a restaurant we had heard about around town called "Happening". The food in this area was pretty pricey but very worth it. We stuffed our faces! We all had a great laugh when Emily got sauce on her face but no one told her. 

Our meals ranged up to $50 American dollars each with tip but we justified the splurge by how much we were saving on attractions. All together we spent $300 on this late lunch. We also stayed chatting for a long time and bonded as a group.

After this lunch we walked across the Puente de la Mujer bridge. This swing bridge gave us some great views of the city and we all enjoyed our walk even though Michelle was a little timid about being over the water! We took some great pictures and ended up staying to watch the sunset. 

Still being full from our lunch of decadence and trying to watch budget, we stopped at a market on the walk home and bought cheese, crackers and wine for $50. We went back to the house and enjoyed them in the living room. 

FRIDAY OCTOBER 19th

We have been doing alot of solo sight seeing but wanted to see more of the whole city and get to know an insiders perspective so we decided to book a bike tour of Buenos Aires. Luckily the bike tour departed from San Telmo so we walked over to meet our group. We started off at 10 am and the tour lasted 7 hours. Our tour guide knew English and was so help. Ron goes next to Jacob on the list of friendly faces we've encountered in Buenos Aires! Our all enclusive tour included snacks, water and lunch. We got to try traditional yerba mate tea. 

We also stopped for lunch at a place that Ron knew the owners and they treated us like royalty! We got to eat Bondiola sandwiches which are pork shoulder. 

We got to stop by the La Recoleta cemetery and pay our respect though our resident fraidy cat Michelle was scared! 

We saw the statue of General Jose de San Martin and saw how important he was to the Argentine people. Ron bowed his head and said a small prayer. 

Though Ron gave us alot of opportunities to walk around, our butts were pretty sore by the end of the day. Jaimie was pratically limping. Overall, we had a great day on our bikes! 

This full day bike tour cost us $90 American dollars per person so $630. 

Details of the tour can be found on http://www.bikingbuenosaires.com/index.html and we took the Ultimate City Tour. We found the tour via google. 

When we finally got back to our barrio of San Telmo we decided to get a few drinks to fend off our sore behinds. Ron suggested a small bar and told us that we HAD to get a Fernet and Coke because it was what all the locals drank. 

What Ron forgot to mention was that Fernet has a very bitter taste! Kevin practically spit his on to the floor and Kelly compared the taste to tar.We asked the bartender why anyone would put themselves through this kind of torture and he explained that Fernet was founded as a medicine in Italy and that the Argentines drink it because it does not give you any kind of hangover. We all ended up splitting a bottle of wine and some appetizers after struggling down the Fernet and Cokes. Our bar tab for the night was $60 American dollars and we walked back to our house (stumbled back in some people's case!). 

SATURDAY OCTOBER 20th 

After a few weeks of being on the road, we were all starting to feel a little homesick. Memories of NC State and Bruegger's bagels had us wanting a taste of home. Alex heard about a cool service called Quiero Bagel. Diego, the owner, toured around New York talking to bagel makers and perfecting his recipes. For just $14 American dollars, we had a dozen plain bagels delivered to our door! http://www.quierobagel.com

After carb loading on our delicious bagels we decided to hit San Telmo on foot again but this time in the hunt of antiques. At the first store we stopped at, the owner must have known right away that we were tourists. TY and Kelly struck up a conversation with him in spanish and found out that there was a huge market on Sundays in San Telmo and the street is blocked off. As to his suggestion, we held off on our antique shopping until then and made our way over to Palermo for boutique shopping. Palermo soho is the hip place to be in Buenos Aires and we soon saw that by the prices in the boutiques. There were many name brand shops and expensive stores. We stopped in a particularly cool one called 28 sport. 

28 sport makes all of their shoes by hand and ensure that every pair is unique. Only one color is made in each size ever. http://www.28sport.com

We also stopped in Calma Chica and Alex got a cowhide rug which is very popular in Argentina. It cost her $200 American dollars. What a score! http://www.calmachicha.com/

Michelle got a beautiful dress for $80 American dollars at a boutique who uses textile scraps. http://juanadearco.net/

TY got his girlfriend some good smelling soap from Sabater Hermanos, a homemade soap botique run by siblings.He got two bars for $12 American Dollars. http://www.shnos.com.ar/

We stopped for a late lunch in Palermo at a parrilla called La Cabrera. We had to wait in a long line to get a table but were served complimentary champagne. From getting know our waiter and looking around us, we saw that this place was very popular with tourists. http://www.parrillalacabrera.com.ar/

The wait was worth it! The serving sizes were huge and quite delicious. 

After stuffing ourselves full, we looked down at our watches and realized it was almost 9 oclock! The long line and full day of shopping had made us lose time! We decided to hit up the night life of Palermo and found a bar with drinks for only 5 pesos until midnight (only about 1 American dollar!). http://www.sugarbuenosaires.com/

We danced and drank. We even met some girls from North Carolina! They had both just graduated from UNC but that didn't stop Kevin from trying to get his flirt on! We left Palmero around midnight and went back to our house in San Telmo. 

SUNDAY OCTOBER 22nd

We decided to head out to the legendary market in San Telmo early Sunday morning. It is legendary for a reason! The streets were filled with people and vendors. We saw alot of people selling mate cups that are used to drink yerma mate tea like we had tried on our bike tour. Emily bought one for $3 American dollars. 

We found out that the market is officially called the "San Telmo Feria". We were amazed by the street preformers and musicians. A mime even pulled Kelly into his show! 

As we kept walking, the fair became a little overwhelming. The streets were narrow and the crowd kept growing. 

It was tough to kept the whole group of seven of us together but we ended up covering alot of ground in one afternoon. Other things sold at the fair were antiques, vintage jewelry and other knick knacks. The vendors loved our American dollars and cut us some good deals. 

Kevin bought a knit cap for $5 American dollars. 

Michelle bought a vintage Argentinean license plate for $7 American dollars to decorate her apartment. 

Around lunch time we found a temporary parrilla and got some choripan sandwiches. The smells of the vendors in the street were too enticing to resist! For all of us to eat it was $45 American dollars. 

The crowds were getting a little too large for comfort so we decided to walk back to the house, relax and stash our shopping goodies. On our way out we bought some Alfajore (caramel sandwich cookies) to snack on back at the house for $12 American dollars. 

After laying around for a few hours, we headed back out to the streets. After most of the vendors shut down, the town square becomes a dance party. Everyone in town comes out to tango! 

We danced into the night, only stopping to eat a quick dinner at a cafe for $65 American dollars. We finally stumbled home around 2 AM sad that we only had one full day left in Buenos Aires. 

MONDAY OCTOBER 23rd 

On our last full day in Buenos Aires, we took the subway over to The Buenos Aires zoo for one last day full of fun. The subway ride cost us $10 American dollars total. We purchased the deluxe zoo tickets for $34 American dollars each or $238 American dollars total so that we could see all of the attractions. 

There were all kind of different animals, a boat ride and an aquarium that we got to see with the deluxe ticket. The animals were not as far away as they are in American zoos so we got to get up close and personal with them. 

During our visit to the zoo, we grabbed lunch at one of the kiosks for $45 American dollars total. We took another subway ride home for another $10 American dollars total. 

After getting ready back at the house, we decided to get ready and go out for one last night on the town. We decided to go to Club Bahrein in Centro. It is set in a 100 year old bank and has three levels. One is a funky restaurant, one is a boho bar and one is a techo dance floor. We took a cab totaling $30 American dollars. We started with dinner and drinks totaling $120 American dollars in the yellow bar. 

Then, we made our way up to the funky room for dancing. This club in the city center had a much younger crowd than the other bars we had gone to. We got a real feel for the young, hip soho vibe of Buenos Aires and it was a great way to round out our trip. http://www.bahreinba.com/home.html

We took a $30 American dollars cab ride home. 

TUESDAY OCTOBER 24th

We were all dragging our feet Tuesday morning, not wanting to leave beautiful Buenos Aires. We packed up our bags and said goodbye to our beautiful rental house. We called up our wonderful driver Ron from the beginning of the week to get his suggestion for a good place to have brunch and to arrange a ride to the airport for later in the day. Ron kept with his trend of over serving and offered to come to brunch with us and show us one of his favorite places! He picked us up at the house and took us to Malvon: a confectionaria with delectable pastries, pancakes and other treats. 

Malvon was an old people's home in the 1930s and is still beautiful. http://www.malvonba.com.ar/

We ate for $12 American dollars each totaling $84 American dollars. Ron then took us to the airport to make sure we had plenty of time in customs and security before our 6:10 PM flight to South Africa. What a wonderful week in Buenos Aires! 

Week two - Bogota Columbia

TUESDAY OCTOBER 9th                                                  Total Budget after Ecuador = $40,221.14

After an amazing week in Ecuador we arrived in Bogota Columbia right on time at 12:50 pm. We had a little issue when one of Kevins bags didnt arrive with us but the airline said they would have it delivered to our hostel by that evening or early morning. We converted some of our money to Columbian Pesos before leaving the airport.We made our way to the Transmilenio terminal right outside the airport. We decided to purchase a week long ticket considering how affordable it was- $1750 Columbian pesos per day or .85 American cents, totaling $36.75 for seven of us for seven days! Here are some pictures of the system. It travels everywhere in Bogota and runs M-Su 5am -11pm and Sundays 6am -10pm.

As you can see it is very crowded. We crammed in and thankfully Kelly and TY are fluent in spanish and helped with the  navigation to our first hostel.

www.gobrt.org/Transmelino.html

Our bus ride took about thirty minutes . Our stop was about a 3 minute walk from our hostel . We checked in and explored our accommodations. Our first accommodations were at Masaya International Hostel and Events. We were greeted with a complimentary cocktail of rum and punch and showed to our rooms.We chose three rooms , two with 3 double beds and one room with a double bed. We decided to draw straws to see who got the room to themself and Michelle did a victory dance when she picked the winning straw. 

  Tha accommodations were great ! 

www.masaya-experience.com

After unpacking we decided to go to a local market and do a little shopping for snacks. Daily breakfast was included in our accommodations so we figured we'd just grab munchies and drinks and have either a a large lunch or dinner out .  We spent $ 53,951.98 pesos, equaling $30 american dollars at the market. By this time we were all hungry and decided to go out and grab a bite for dinner and discuss plans for Wednesday. We decided to be adventurous and try some local fare. We asked some of the others staying at Masaya what was close , good and cheap. Mona's was suggested. After a five minute walk we arrived and were shocked at the portion sizes:

This is called Pollo y carne a la plancha. it is a heaping meat platter paired with roasted baby potatoes, patacones (flattened fried plantains), and everyone’s favorite, arepas. We ordered two platters and shared them . Total for this feast was a shocking $12588.79 columbian pesos, a mere seven US dollars! After stuffing ourselves we discussed our plans for Wednesday and decided on going to a bullfight in the afternoon. We headed to the Hostel and called it a night around 10:30pm.
Emily

Wednesday Oct 10th

We woke up around 9:00 am and enjoyed our complimentary breakfast . They had fruit, eggs, several meats , beans and rice. They also served super strong coffee . We decided to go walk around some shops to pass the time before we headed to the bullfight. We split up into groups and decided to meet back at the hostel at noon. When we returned Kevin's bag had arrived . We made our way to the Transmilenio stop and took it to the arena known as the Santamaria. Once we arrived we were taken aback by the size of the arena.

Jamie was so thankful that on June 14th 2012 Bogota's mayor Gustavo Petro outlawed the killing of bulls in bullfights. The arena was transformed into a center for cultural education. We learned alot about the history of bullfighting and the battle to outlaw the killing of the bulls.Several demonstrations were done over the past few years to ban the killing of the bulls.
(byebyebullfighting.org)

After a full morning of shopping and an educational afternoon at the arena we felt like letting loose a little bit.
(Total spent on shopping and Bullfight came to $107,862.07 pesos or $60 American dollars shopping totaled $48,531.65 pesos or $27.00.) We went back to the hostel to inquire about things to do. We grabbed a snack and freshened up before heading out to dinner and a night of exploration. 
Alex had heard about an awesome place called Andres DC-  Andres Carne de Res is an experience. Not just a restaurant or a club, but a wild nightlife destination for Bogotános. We took the transmilenio there around 7:00 pm ordered food and let loose.

We all had a blast and around midnight we got a cab and headed back to the hostel.Our cab driver got a little annoyed because we were all singing , red solo cup,  at the top of our lungs. Our cab ride cost us $17983.00 pesos or $10 US dollars. Our night out of dinner, drinking, and dancing had cost us $116,835.45 pesos or $65 US dollars. Way cheaper than it would have been in the US. We were beat and headed to bed . (www.andrescarnederes.com/)
Kevin

Budget Update

Total remaining after Bogota Columbia= $37,526.89 Budget for each country after Ecuador = $6,254.48
Emily


Total Pre-trip planning for ALL flights and accommodation: $58,528.86
$100,000-$58,528.86=$41,471.14/7=$5,924.45
Budget for each individual country excursion= $5,924.45
Michelle

Off to Ecuador!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

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

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

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. 

Tour Includes: 

Transport

Entry fee to Pasochoa Natural Park

Specialized Guide

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 

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

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:

Since none of us have climbing experience, we had to take a 2-hour training class before we could use the facility on our own. We all passed the assessment at 1:00pm and we were ready to try it on our own! First, we ate the lunch that we had packed and then we headed back to the climbing walls. Emily was absolutely terrified of rock climbing, so it took quite a bit of peer pressure and reassurance to get her up the wall. We were all so proud of her for getting to the top of the blue wall(shown in picture). 

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:

Once we arrived at the top at around 3:45pm, we were amazed by the breathtaking views from the altitude of over 13,300 ft! There was a lookout platform at the top that was complete with coffee, snacks, horse rentals, and even oxygen for those struggling from the thinner air. Here is a view from the lookout platform:

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