Quito - Ecuador

Free Walking & Food Tour in Quito

Middle of the World

Yesterday I arrived in Quito. What immediately strikes me is that Quito is cold! And I mean really cold. A well-known taxi driver from my Couchsurfing friend Adriana picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at her house. Once inside, I met the other two Couchsurfers who are currently staying with her. Both of them had obviously not stepped out of the house yet, even though the day was almost over. The apartment was quite dirty compared to my European understanding of cleanliness, and it was freezing because the windows didn't close properly. In the kitchen, I found food leftovers covered in mold, and there were constantly people coming in and out of the apartment who were clearly Adriana's friends. I couldn't bring myself to take a shower because there is only cold water in the apartment. Not exactly relaxing at 10 degrees Celsius outside (it's about 2℃ at night here). Later, I met up with Adriana and we had a delicious dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. I didn't feel up to going to a club, so I let the taxi drop me off back home. The night was restless, but I still started the day somewhat refreshed.

I decided to do a Free Walking Tour of the Old Town of Quito. These tours, which exist all over the world, don't cost a penny, and you get lots of great information about the city and learn about the culture of the locals. We ate a lot (!) of traditional sweets (Ecuadorian chocolate, sesame balls, salty bananas, and figs with cheese, to name a few) at the local market and admired the architecture of the churches. At the end of the tour, you can give the guide a tip, but you are not obligated to. The tour was great, even though it rained from time to time. Later, I decided to take a trip to the 'Middle of the World' - Ciudad Mitad del Mundo. This tour truly lives up to its name, as you literally walk between the two hemispheres of the Earth right along the equator line. In fact, our guide demonstrated with a sink that the water drains directly down on the equator line, without forming a whirlpool. Just a little less than 1 meter offset on the southern or northern hemisphere, the water drains in the opposite direction. It was crazy to see and is due to the magnetic forces of the Earth. By the way, in Quito, the sun always rises exactly at 6 am in the morning and sets at 6 pm in the evening due to its location. At the chocolate museum, we tried various chocolates with cherries or passion fruit and admired the impressive Skunk Heads, which are still worn as jewelry by the Inca tribes today as a memory of their deceased loved ones (wow, these are real human skulls boiled down, shriveled up, with actual hair and wrinkled skin!).

In the evening, Adriana cooked an amazing dinner for me. It consisted of caramelized onions and caramelized chicken breast with rice.

The next day, I went on a trip to the Cotopaxi Volcano with 11 others and a tour guide. This volcano is located at an altitude of 4800m and its summit is covered in snow. We started at 7 am and drove about 2 hours to the Cotopaxi National Park. There, we began the trip with a really good breakfast at a bakery. We had pancakes and many other delicious treats. After that, we drove up to about 4300m and hiked the rest of the way up. It was quite exhausting, even though we only had to overcome about 500 meters in altitude. When we reached the top, it was super cold and I was relieved to reach the refuge hut. There, we had hot chocolate to warm up and some snacks to regain strength. The descent was much faster. At about halfway, we were given mountain bikes, and I experienced the highlight of my day. It was such a great experience riding down the mountain on a bike. So many endorphins :) under the bright sunshine, we cycled steadily downhill to a beautiful lagoon. There, we took a short break, and we ended the tour with a hearty lunch. It was a wonderful day!