Quito is located near the northern part of Ecuador at an elevation of almost 10,000 feet.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g294308-Quito_Pichincha_Province-Vacations.html
We arrived around 10:15PM and breezed through Immigration and Customs. I had been a bit worried as we had Uwe's new stereo system packed in one of our four suitcases ( did I mention my husband is an ardent stereophile!).
Our landlord for the month, Liliya , and her taxi driver Louis met us and took us to our home for the next month. After a 20 minute taxi ride through a deserted city (it was after 1:30AM by then) we arrived at our condo. It is located in the Historic District and though in an older building it was fully renovated and perfect for our needs. Poor Louis carried our four suitcases up 3 flights of stairs- no elevators.
The next morning we checked out our surroundings. Below is our view looking southwest, very scenic, lots of hills.
And here is the view the other way.
We took a walk around the La Ronda neighbourhood where our condo is located.
Many pedestrian only streets
And many many squares and beautiful churches- actually a great place to live for our month.
Now you are probably asking yourself- WHY QUITO?? Since we already own a beautiful condo on the beach in Salinas, why come here?
We have decided to use our lawyer to help us get our residency permit and he is located in Quito. Yes, I know you can do it yourself now but since our Spanish is next to non-existant and the rules seem to change daily, it is worth the expense of a lawyer to us.
So on Wednesday, we took all our hard- won translated documents ( see previous post) with us to visit Sebastian and start the process. Since we live near the south part of Quito and his office is near the north, we decided to try the public transportation trolley system. We had a map and with Liliya's help figured out the route.
Here is one of the many trolley stations- very organized but very very full- I can now relate to sardines!
We found his office- right behind one of the newer malls- with no problem. So far all our paper work looks OK- we'll find out once he presents to the authorities. We'll need to meet again next week.
On our walk back up to catch our trolley taking us home, I took some pictures of the streets around this much more modern part of the city.
This is the view of Avinedas Naciones Unidas looking east and next west.
On Sunday, we wanted to go to an Expat type hangout to watch NFL and after some research found Finn McCool's Irish Pub. Again we had to take a trolley ride to get there- Quito is a very large city- over 2 million population.
Uwe and I and our first draft beer.
We had some great comfort food- Fish & Chips for Uwe and Shepard's Pie for me.
And great way to end our first week!
Thank you for sharing. Maybe someday Selina will need to come visit you in Salinas. :o)
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