July 2015:
It's summertime, and we decided to do a big trip for our 3-year wedding anniversary. We had just spent a couple of weeks in New York to see Jenni's family and then 1 week in Texas to see my family. Our anniversary was right in the middle of the Texas trip.
Jenni asked me, "Are there any places you really want to go?" I dropped the bomb on her. I told her that since I was a kid, I'd always wanted to go to Italy to see the Colosseum (check!) and to the Galapagos Islands to see the giant tortoises.
BOOYA! We were going to the Galapagos!
We would spend 1 week in the Galapagos and then fly back to Texas for 1 more week with family before moving to Shanghai.
To get there, we had to fly into the mainland of Ecuador and then fly into the Galapagos. This will be a short post about Quito, Ecuador, because we were only there for a short time. Quito wasn't our actual destination, so there isn't a lot to say.
Landing in Quito was one of the most terrifying airplane experiences of my life. Quito is surrounded by mountains which causes lots of wind to hit the plane the whole way down. I felt like I was riding a seesaw all the way to the ground, but to my surprise, we landed smoothly without bouncing at all.
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| From our hotel room. |
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| Quito |
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| Airport.... going to the Galapagos |
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| Gotta love Latin food! |
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| Coming back from the Galapagos |
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| Beautiful! |
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| We were told that graffiti is a big part of Ecuadorian culture. |
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| Driving up a mountain pass. You might live on the edge of a cliff, but at least you have satellite TV! |
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| Maybe he does Jiu Jitsu... |
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| The neighborhoods were a little scary, yet attractive at the same time. |
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| Graffiti Everywhere! |
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| Basilica del Voto Nacional |
Before we went to Quito, I kept making this little joke about the weather there. We didn't pack any cold weather clothes, because I thought Ecuador would be blazing hot..... because it's on the Equator.. in July. However, I didn't account for the elevation, so Quito was freezing cold.... well cold anyway. All we had were shorts and t-shirts :( You learn something new everyday.
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| People carve their names (or something) into the pews! |
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| This guy was funny. He started playing "Here comes the bride" when he saw Jenni. |
As soon as we got back to Quito, we rented a driver to take us around the town. We knew we were leaving the next day and wanted to explore a bit. He took us to the basilica and through the historic district.
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| Goodnight, Quito! |
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| There is a special police unit to protect tourism. |
We were more cautious in Quito than other cities, because we read so many horror stories about people getting mugged. Apparently, muggers will throw feces on you and steal your camera while you are distracted! It's possible that those stories are exaggerated, but I didn't want to lose all of our pictures from the Galapagos. We didn't take the camera out much, but we did get to explore, shop, eat some amazing food and interact with some nice local people..... all without being assaulted with poop! That's a win in my book ;)
Quito was cool, but I doubt I would ever go back there again. I forget the name, but there is another city you can fly into, instead of Quito, if you want to go to the Galapagos. If we ever go back, I think we'll do that and skip Quito.
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