The Cuenca airport is very small, and we were soon through security and waiting in the departure lounge for our 7:45am flight.
Avianca Airlines wanted a ridiculous $40 USD ($55 CAD) to include a carry on bag for the 45 minute flight. I mean, we only paid $53 USD ($73 CAD) for each of us for the flight to begin with! So you're allowed a "personal item", which didn't have any weight limit, but did have the size limit of a small backpack. So we decided to gamble (if caught, we would have to pay $60 USD to include a carry on bag), and wore as many of our clothes as possible to make the bag look not very full despite being slightly over the size limit.
We gambled, and won! They didn't even look at our bags. So we're going to be making the same gamble on our flight from Quito to Manta tomorrow. We don't have to worry about our onward flights to Mexico City because they include a carry on.
Above the clouds.
Ruth had the window seat, and all of a sudden she says "oh, look at that!"...
It was a beautiful view of Mt. Chimborazo.
Ecuador's highest mountain peaking up through the clouds.
6,263 meters (20,550') high!
Very cool!
Quito airport is located 40 kms (26 miles) from the city center, so it's quite far. Even though taxis are typically cheap in Ecuador, they want around $30 USD ($41 CAD) to take you from the airport to the city. Everything I read says that the public transportation is crowded, but it's only $2.45 USD ($3.35 CAD) per person so for the price difference we'll put up with the crowds.
LOL... the bus was almost empty!
The guy drove like Mario Andretti though... I thought he was doing pretty good, but one lady even spoke up and asked him to slow down.
We dropped our backpacks at the Baltico Hotel ($31.50 USD, $43 CAD per night) because we couldn't check in until 1:00pm, and went out exploring.
Quito has pretty hectic traffic.
We hadn't had any breakfast and we were starved. The guy at the hotel had recommended Encebollado, the same thing our friend Chris mentioned the other day, and said we should go to the market for the most authentic and best price. So we did!
It's essentially a tuna fish soup.
Or you can pay an extra $1.50 to have it with shrimp as well.
It was yummy and filling!
Scenery along the way.
Fancy wooden doors!
Heading up to the Basilica.
Nice mural.
We got sidetracked by a lady offering free samples of chocolate based drinks and things. She reeled us in by giving us a lot of free samples of everything!
A chocolate fountain.
Chocolate based gluten free beer!
It was actually really good... but everything was really pricey. The chocolate beer was $5 USD ($6.85 CAD) per bottle! We did end up buying a bag of chocolate tea... it was really good and tasted somewhat like an unsweetened hot chocolate.
Us in the chocolate drinks shop.
The basilica is quite impressive.
The want $2 each to visit the basilica, and another $2 each to climb one of the towers for the view. We decided to pass, but we think we'll go back today for the tower and view if the skies clear up a bit. We looked at photos online, and we think we'll pass on the interior.
More fancy doors.
Yikes!
The old astronomical observatory is across from our hotel.
Our room.
Nothing special. It'll do.
We relaxed during the afternoon rain. It came down quite heavy at times, with some good lightning.
Then we went out and got some more cash, and went for dinner at a place where they advertised an entirely gluten free menu. We shared a plate of four tacos. It was a bit pricey though, and just okay. We wouldn't go back.
Slept well. Out to do some more exploring of Quito today. Again, calling for afternoon rain and only a high of 17C (63F).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Decent deal on this Shark Upright Vacuum
And in Canada...
No comments:
Post a Comment
There are more comments on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TravelwithKevinAndRuth