Our group’s time in Ecuador coincided with two interesting
events: the elections and the inauguration of a new airport. We spent much of
our final day in South America in transit. Tuesday, the day we flew from Quito
to the Galapagos, was the final day that the old airport was operational. The
old airport was basically right in the city; the centrality of Fenway Park to
Boston would probably be a good analogy. It took 20 minutes for us to get from
the old Mariscal Sucre airport to the hotel where we stayed.
In contrast, the new Mariscal Sucre (yes, they kept the same
name) is further outside the heart of Quito. It took us TWO HOURS to get from
the new airport to our hotel as we returned from Galapagos. It escaped none of
us that we’d be returning to that same airport in less than 12 hours to head
home to the U.S. Of course, since we left our hotel at 3:30 a.m., there was no
traffic in Quito and it only took one hour to get to the airport.
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| Logo of La Estacion. Image: from Twitter. |
After we quickly packed our belongings for the trip home, we
headed out to dinner. It was fascinating to many of us that at 7:30 on a Friday
night, the city was hopping! It seemed as if everyone was excited to be out. We
went to a bohemian restaurant/bar/coffee shop called La Estación. It was
dimly lit, so we had candles placed on our table, standing simply atop saucers.
The décor was heavy on posters of classic rock musicians. I had a great time
there, though I kept kicking myself for having forgotten my camera back at the
hotel. La Estación gave us our first look at punk-rock and hipster Ecuadorians. They
were young and cool, and they could easily have been found on St. Mark’s Place
in New York or in Allston. One cultural difference from America: included on La
Estación’s
cocktail menu, priced at $0.40 each, were three types of cigarettes!
Dinner was delicious, and our meal was enhanced with live music. The
group mostly played Beatles songs but they had other music in there as well,
including some original songs. It was a great way to unwind after a long day of
travels, and a great last night in the capital of Ecuador. I’m ready to come
home!
I've followed your posts throughout you journey. The experience was obviously quite enriching. Your excursion was executed wonderfully, but if you had the opportunity to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
ReplyDeleteTough question, Keith! Here are two things I'd change, one small thing and one huge thing:
ReplyDelete1) Bring Febreze to help keep clothes fresh.
2) TRUST that everything will be good, and not worry so much before leaving!