Finally underway! After 14 hours of actual travel (and untold additional hours of stressful pre and post travel wakefulness!) our tour begins. The good and the bad about the first 10 days of our travels is that we have booked the whole Celebrity tour. WE go where they want us to go, when they want us to go. For the first time in a long, long time, Ed and Cathy are braking their steadfast rule (borrowed from Anthony Bourdain – Thank you Tony!): Don’t get on that bus!
But, sometimes, you just gotta take the easy way – and, quite honestly, since the Machu Picchu portion of this trip is pretty much self service (even though it is a “tour” per se), Ed and Cathy figured this one time wouldn’t kill them!
So – up and out for breakfast in the Atrium Café. No exercise this morning – Cathy has a bit of the Altitude Sickness (just a minor headache and some wooziness the night before, and then a little acid indigestion that she is treating with Mate de Coca tea – its not all that bad with enough Splenda!) and Ed decided to wait until the afternoon. Breakfast is a full continental with hot and cold buffet – great selection of fruits (which Cathy even tried! Taza and something that reminded her of a cantaloupe with an interesting – read weird – texture), breads, anything you’d want.
As they were eating, the hostess comes over and asked if they were Mr. and Mrs. Stevens. The bag had arrived! Grand celebrations all around as Ed and Cathy rushed to the bell station to retrieve their precious Galapagos bag! A great sigh of relief! Now they trip can go on as planned! And talk about service? To come and find them in the restaurant? Just great!
Bag secured – they finally retrieved me (I’m getting a little lonely up here in the room, plush as it is, all by myself) and off we headed to find Maggi and Richard. Met up with them in the café for another cup of tea and coffee, then out to the portico to wit for the city tour.
Tour buses left at 9 am. – unbeknownst to us (we were outside enjoying the fresh air and having a smoke – well – Maggi was smoking!), the rest of the Celebrity group congregated around the lobby around 8:45 and suddenly, we turned around, and the whole horde was coming towards us – already broken up into groups. Oops! We’re the outcasts already – and we’re not even trying!
We latched onto a Celebrity guide – Javier – who told us to go to bus #4 – we ran – hoping to avoid a few of our slower moving compadres. We were rewarded with a very congenial group of 23 other who we pleasantly shared the rest of the day.
Javier is an excellent guide – he gave us the overview of Quito. Located in the middle of the Andes, Quito is situated in a valley at about 2800 meters. It is the 2nd highest capital in South America, after……. It’s a long city, stretching for 45 miles, but only 10 miles wide, basically stuffed in a crevice of the Andes with Volcanoes and majestic peaks presiding over its 2 million inhabitants. As the 2nd largest city in Ecuador (Guayaquil is the largest), Quito is the governmental center where 8 presidents have been in office in the past 11 years. Not exactly the most stable of countries! There is currently no Parliament, but a new President is in office that everyone hopes will pull the government together.
The weather is very changeable, and in the wet season (which is now) rainy and cloudy. They say you can experience every season in one day in Quito – and we find this to be true as we experience glorious sunshine and warmth in the morning (it is beautifully sunny and about 65 degrees in the am - just enough for the fleece, but eventually you didn’t even need that), cloudy and cooler skies toward afternoon, then cold, chilling winds – and rain in the evening!
First stop is the main cathedral of Quito (the name of which completely escapes me! Forgive me – but the travel weariness has set in and my notes are not as complete as I would like Ed and Cathy are of little help here – they are also feeling the travel affect – or they just aren’t paying attention – whatever – the first Quito day is a little sketchy!). It’s huge, and cold and of little interest. But, we do have 10 minutes to ourselves, so we all head down to the catacombs. Now those were really neat. Just amazing the monuments and memorials people leave for the deceased. Some are beautiful, some are heart wrenching (particularly the children’s tombs). We wander for a bit, then head back to the dreaded bus!
Back on the bus we headed toward the old town, through embassy row and the business district. Our next stop is the presidential palace – an old colonial structure where we could look at the courtyard through locked iron gates (to gain admittance even to the balustrade, you had to pass through armed guards). At the entrance to the courtyard, there were 2 royal guards on platforms. They reminded everyone of the royal guards of England, just not as rigid or controlled. We looked at a miniature model of the presidential palace and heard more about the government and coups and the adoption of the US Dollar as the official Ecuadorian currency (and how at the time no one was happy with the conversion because it caused huge inflation).
Back through the balustrade, we headed toward the Iglesia de Jesus Jesuit church. This church is magnificent with more gold leaf than you could imagine. The whole inside of the church really just sparkles and almost glows with the gold. The church has a lot of Moorish influences from symbols in the gold leafed ceiling to the traditionally Moorish domes in the sanctuary. There are lots of sun lights, all positioned to catch the sun at specific elevations so that it will reflect directly on the altar. It was truly awe inspiring, and with no photos allowed – you’ll just have to take our word for it!
Another interesting feature is the vestibule, so to speak, at the entrance. It is an entryway with a wall directly in front of the doors with symbols signifying the sun god, Inti. All traditional Ecuadorian churches are built in this fashion – with homage to Inti, the main god for the Ecuadorian people, situated in front, but separated from the church. This allows the Ecuadorian people to still give thanks to the Inti god, along with the Christian god.
From the Jesuit church, we headed to the Franciscan monastery for a quick tour. Cathy almost started an international incident when she took a picture of Richard talking to a little boy trying to sell crayons made of tree branches. The boys (a little one with shoe shine equipment who kept hounding Maggi) started in on Cathy asking for money for the photo. She said no of course – she was taking a picture of her friend Richard, not the boy. They went on hounding them for a while, but let up a little bit after a while. Richard surreptiously handed the shoe shine boy some pennies and we quickly scurried away to the monastery.
Surrounding a lovely fountain and garden area, the monastery is a huge complex with grand white lime stone (maybe) walls. We toured the choir room that looked out over the sanctuary (while a service was going on), and marveled at the wood used to build the entire structure. Cathy found the door handles on all the doors fantastic – they are in the shape of a map of the whole convent. You will always be able to tell where you are from the door handles! After wandering about for a bit, we finally boarded the bus and headed out of Old Town and up through the city to the Crater restaurant, past the Equator. The drive took about 35 minutes and the bus wound through little streets, now teeming with people, out the major Pan American highway which provided views of the city. Quito is jam packed together in those 10 little miles of width. Houses and apartments on top of each other, following the rough terrain of the Andes valley. As we headed further out of town, there was quite a bit of new construction, from the looks of it, higher end apartments/flats for sale, perched right on the highway and overlooking the town. One sign promoted 2 or 3 bedrooms for $37,500. A steal!
Past the Equator (the middle of the world town), we followed the highway up a steep incline, back into the altitude again. A sharp turn to the right, and our 50 passenger bus was off roading up this dirt track, ending in a little teeny courtyard of the Crater restaurant. A tourist stop for certain, it did have a magnificent view of the volcano crater and we were lucky enough to be there before the mist and clouds completely overcame the view. After photo op’s, with yours truly finally getting some fresh air and a look at the Ecuadorian scenery, our little 12 person group trekked into the restaurant and sat down at a long table. We all got to know each other a little better. There was Anita and Peter (from Virginia Beach of all places!!!!), Ellen and Michelle (Mother and daughter – from CT and DC, respectively), Barb and Maggie (sisters from Chicago) and Helen and Dick (from Sacramento). Meals were served, beer and water drank, mist watched from the window, and then the bus ride back down to the Middle of the Earth.
It had warmed up nicely in Quito, but now the weather was turning again. The wind picked up and the rain threatened. We all trudged up a very long path to the Equator monument and 00’ 00” line. Pictures, wind, lots of people, we headed inside to the museum, only to find the elevator was broken. The museum houses a history of all the regions of Ecuador, on 9 floors! The only way to see them all was to walk it. Cathy and Maggi weren’t inclined to do it – especially Cathy with the altitude thing going on – but Ed said he wanted to do it as a test for MP. How can you argue? So our little troopers all began the ascent. It actually wasn’t that bad (ha! I’m just riding, so what do I care, and let’s face it, I’m from Bavaria, what do I know from Altitude Sickness? I get sea level sickness!!!), and the museum was pretty interesting looking at all the variations and differences between the people of Ecuador. Trooping down was much easier and the gang got their equator stamps (on a piece of paper since none of them had their passports), then headed to a gift shop before boarding the bus.
The prices of local crafts, even in the tourist shop, are quite reasonable. In the first shop, everyone bought postcards and stamps for their passports. $2 for 2 stamps and 2 postcards, or 2 stamps and 1 poster/picture. Cathy scored a great necklace and earring set for $3 in another shop. It’s a deep red color and in the shape of square fangs almost. When asked what type of stone, the girl tried to explain it wasn’t stone, but kept pointing to a figurine on a shelf.. Couldn’t understand her, so Cathy and Ed figured it was that composite material that they use for figurines, not ceramic, but the cheaper stuff. Anyway, they started calling it Lucite, and Cathy was very enamored with it for $3 – what the heck. Richard was unsuccessful in his search for a post office.
Back on the bus and back to the Marriott. A few hours of rest and then on to the group dinner and show. Before resting up, Ed, Cathy and Richard went to check out the out the Marriott Gift Shop (again reasonably priced) in search of Coca candies for the altitude, They were out of the candies, but Ed and Cathy spied some little figurines made of Tagua – a vegetable root that is hard enough to carve. Aha! The light bulb goes on. This is the material from which the necklace and earrings from the Equator are made. The shop girl was saying Tagua! Well, now, Cathy’s even happier! It’s a real native product – and she was happy when she thought it was Lucite!!!
Gym for the gym rats (Cathy survived, Altitude sickness is obviously getting better), nap for Richard and Maggi. Everyone met up again in the lobby for the dinner bus. The skies have opened up and the beautiful day is no more. But the bus ride is dry and it’s a quick sprint into the Theatrum for the dinner show. Don’t know what else is in that place, but the Celebrity group was seated in an upstairs room, packed with large tables and a few other smaller groups. We were joined at our table by Anita and Peter and Meryl and David (from outside of London).
Dinner was good – we had chosen our meals at the beginning of our tour that morning – Richard and Ed – beef, Cathy Chicken, Maggi pasta. Food was very good, surprisingly enough. The only down side was that wine was not included in the price. Bummer. But Maggi and Cathy split a bottle and were fine. The show as an opera singer, which didn’t really please Cathy all too much. He was nice and had a lovely voice, but after two or three songs, (what in the heck is he singing?) she was really bored. He then redeemed himself with Oh Solo Mio, I did it My Way and Over the Rainbow. Not exactly opera fare, but very nice to listen to – and something Cathy actually recognized and enjoyed.
The rain had stopped as we left the Theatrum, we boarded the bus and headed back to the hotel bar for a night cap. Bags had to be out by 5 am, and Javier had said we could call the bus boy and have them taken down to storage until the morning agricultural check instead of leaving them out all night. Both C&E and R&M did that. Ed was concerned with the bus boy kept pointing to the other 2 bags left in the room and saying storage. Ed kept saying no, we’ll bring them down later, these 2 you have go to Celebrity on the boat tomorrow. Yes sir, yes sir. He handed Ed 2 claim tickets and took off with the bags.
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