January 15th and 16th, Quito Ecuador

Panoramic view of Quito

I joined this trip as a late replacement, filling the spot of a student, whose plans had changed at the last minute. A group of 15 students, joined by 3 faculty from the University of La Verne, were traveling to Ecuador on a Tropical Biology January term course. The main attraction for most was going to be an excursion to the Galapagos islands, but a significant portion of the trip was also to include time on the mainland, both in the highlands, as well as the amazonian lowlands. With Kat's prodding, I jumped at this incredible opportunity. I would offer my experiences in the field, particularly with tropical ornithology, and I would bring my camera gear, to serve as the trip's unofficial photographer. I had a job interview with Citrus College scheduled for the day after the departure date, so I headed down on my own to meet up with the group partway into the trip.

The flight in to Quito was smooth sailing, except for the fact that we had to leave the house at 3 am in order to make my 6 am flight. After connecting in Miami, I landed in Quito at about 7:15pm. To my surprise, the anticipated wall of tropical humidity and heat was, instead, a refreshing blast of cool air. Normally when I travel, I spend a lot of time researching and familiarizing myself with the area, but with all of my attention focused on my job interview at Citrus and the Galapagos portion of the trip, I am a little embarrassed to admit that I did most of my learning firsthand on the ground. Thus I was surprised to learn that Quito is at 9350 feet in elevation, which explained the cool, thin air. Kind of like being in Breckinridge, CO in the Spring. I was met at the airport by our trip coordinator, Daniel, who then gave me an incredible tour of Quito at night. Daniel was in the Peace Corps here and after a short time back in the states, he decided he liked it better in Ecuador. After his tour of the city, I started to understand the attraction. The city of Quito is rich in historical significance, being the first city to declare independence from Spain. The old town is an amazing array of cathedrals and plazas, and at night everything is lit up in dramatic fashion. We stopped for a quick felafel (go figure) as most everything else was closed, and then he dropped me at the Hotel Folklore. It was described as a hostel, so I was expecting a bunk bed and a shared bath, but was pleasantly surprised to have a clean, private room with my own bath. I called home, another fortunate and unexpected perk of this hotel, and hunkered in to sleep off the jet lag.

The next morning I had a simple breakfast of oats, toast, and bananas and planned my day. Daniel had given me a few suggestions, so I grabbed a cab outside of the hotel to La Virgen de Quito, El Panecillo, a statue of a women, crowned with stars, bearing chains, and complete with condor wings. The statue sits atop a hill, giving a great 360 degree view of Quito and the surrounding volcanoes. The city sits in a valley and it's span was impressive. Daniel told me there are around 3 million people in the city and from the top of the statue, I could almost see all of them.

Virgen de Quito, El Panecillo

Centro Historico, from the top of the hill

The cab driver was a nice older guy and happily chatted me up about the history of the region, and how the statue is on the site of an indigenous sacrificial oven, where the sun was worshiped and spirits were sent directly to the heavens. The name Panecillo comes from little bread, which somehow also related to the oven. So far my Spanish is a little rusty, so much of the details of his tour were lost on me, but it felt great to find a nice local to talk to. He then dropped me off on the historical center, were Daniel had taken me the other night. It was Sunday, so the streets were cordoned off to create a walking mall and the cathedrals were full of worshipers. Even though the signs said no tourists during services, I snuck in to a part of one of the services and was blown away by the grandeur and ornate detail of the cathedral. The pillars looked like they were covered with hand carved woodwork and everything seemed to be covered in gold. Although others were taking pictures, I decided to respectfully follow that rule that was clearly posted on the entrance. Next, I headed over to the botanical garden, which sits inside a huge city park. On the cab ride over, the driver asked if we could make a short detour to pick up his wife. When we pulled up, I noticed she also had her two small kids with her. There obviously weren't any car seats, but I still scooted over to make some room in the back. Not to worry, the driver told me, as all three of them climbed into the front passenger seat of the small cab and we resumed our trip to the garden.

The garden turned out to be great, well worth the $2.50 for admission. Broken into zones, they had some neat natives from large trees and ponds to cactus and an orchid green house. I also saw my first birds of the trip, although I was underprepared again, having left my binocs in the room. One that I wish I had had a better view of was a magnificent hummingbird (Black-tailed Trainbearer) with a green body and a 10 inch tail. Near the garden was a vivarium, which housed some of the countries snakes, frogs, turtles, and a caiman. I headed back to the hotel feeling pretty happy about my introduction to the area and awaited the return of the rest of the group, who had arrived two days prior and had been off exploring Otavalo.
The group arrived in the late evening, we divvied up the rooms, and we all headed out for some dinner. We ended up in a trendy new place in the newer part of town, where we got some pretty decent food, were overcharged even by American pricing, but were overall happy. The students all shared stories of their trip to date, their bartering successes and failures, and their impressions of Ecuador. Overall, everyone seemed excited by what they had seen so far and were eager for the upcoming adventures. A few were a little worse for wear, having endured a packed schedule, the biting sun (a combination of being at the equator and at 9000 feet) and strange foods. Poor Jeff was suffering the worst, after brazenly eating a cherry from a fruit stand. Jeff skipped dinner and ended up sleeping about 18 hours before finally feeling better the next morning.