Quito - The most in the middle you can get

The bus journey from Latacunga to Quito was great as we had the best view over the active volcano Cotopaxi for about half of the way, which made us feel like we didn't really have to spend $40+ to go on a tour or go there ourselves to get a closer look at it. 

The journey to the capital of Ecuador only took about less than 2 hours and was cheap, but the taxi from the terminal was not. It took us an hour to get to our hostel in the new town. Yes, Quito has an old town, new town and our favourite area which we discovered the first night (Mariscal) is in the middle and we spent our 3 days in Quito in each of these areas.

La Mariscal

We just happen to find out about the cool-ness and chilled out atmosphere of the hip area La Mariscal, when we were looking for somewhere to eat. We realised that the majority of all veggie restaurants in Quito, were all here and had to explore it straight away when we arrived to Quito. The area has lots of art and creativity is just flowing. It also seems to be a big nightlife here.

Because it was a long walk from where we stayed, we quickly discovered how easy the bus system in this city is. There are 3 or 4 different lines that runs through the whole city, with plenty of buses all the time so you never have to wait around. The best part? It's only 25 cents to go as far as you want. The worst part is how every bus is ridiculously crowded and apparently pickpocket-ing is very common so everyone wears their backpacks on the front. 

We made it through the madness of the bus anyway and went in to one of the many bars to watch a football game, before hunting up the location for one of the vegetarian restaurants; El Maple. 

The menu was jaw-dropping, and so were the prices for some of the meals unfortunately. A main meal was between $4-$10 (even more if you wanted to veganize some things, like changing to vegan cheese and also if you wanted fries instead of salad to your burger) and the portions weren't huge. But still, you gotta give it to them. It's not often you find somewhere where they offer vegan cheese to your burger, or soy mayo.. 

We went crazy after not having to had anything to eat that day and spent our daily budget on trying many different things on the menu, like the soy hot dog with guacamole, the double vegan cheese burger, the oriental sandwich (with tofu pattie!!) and as a dessert; the vegan cheesecake.

Yep, food coma was a fact after this and it was hard to find the energy to stand up and catch a bus back to the hostel.

Mitad del Mundo and New town

The next day we felt that it was time to finally go to the middle of the earth; the equator. There are tours you can pay a lot for to go on, or you can do it the budget way like us, and simply find it yourself. 

From new town, we took a bus from the line that goes up Avenue America to the last stop (Ofelia), where we changed bus to one that said "Mitad del Mundo" and was hard to miss really. In all it took about an hour or more the get to the little village of Mitad del Mundo. 

What we knew before coming here is that there is this huge monument that was built in the 1970s to mark where the equator is and where the latitude is 0. We also knew that (and it's kind of funny) a few years after building this monument they discovered that it hadn't been put at the right place! The "real" latitude 0.0.0, is actually 240 meters away from where the monument still is. 

What we didn't know was that there are two different owners for these two different places. So if you want to see both the fake and real one, you have to pay to entrance fees.

So because we thought that both equators were gonna be in the same area, we headed straight towards the big monument, as we could spot it immidately when we got off the bus. We paid $3,50 to get in to realise that the real equator was in the park next door where we had to pay $4 to get in.

I would tell people not to go into see the monument close by as you can see it properly from the outside and just go to the hidden real deal close, pay the $4 which even includes a guide. It was even less people here. 

Back in new town, especially close to or hostel, we found it hard to find any vegetarian restaurants nearby. So we were stoked when we ran into a vegetarian Chinese lunch restaurant which was open when we were starving. 

Ming Yuen had a set menu option for only $3,25 which included soy milk or juice, soup and your choice of 5 different items for main. It was soy soy soy good. They had plenty to choose between and we were full for hours after that meal.

Other that I don't have much to say about new town. There are a few nice parks where we probably would've gone for a bike ride if we would've had the time as there seems to be loads of bike roads throughout the city.

Old Town

On our last day in Quito (and Ecuador) I finally discovered a way of getting a (almost) flat white in the morning. I found these cans of soy milk with different flavours in a supermarket and added that to the morning coffee. It was so lush with coconut flavoured coffee! Such a brilliant start of the day.

We took a bus all the way to the other side of the city; Old Town, where all the cool old buildings are, but where it is very common for tourists to lose their valuables..

We decided to walk up the about 850+ steps to the viewpoint El Panecillo as soon as we got to old town. A good decision, since the weather changed faster than my mood swings.

This is the deal with Quito and being so close to the equator; the weather changes before you know it. It is said that you get all the four seasons in one day, which we really witnessed here in old town. We walked up all the stairs sweating under the heating sun and walked down in the worst hail storm I've ever experienced. Thunder, lightning and heavy rain and the hail actually hurt on the skin.

But before we knew it, the thunder had passed and so we went straight to the Govindas restaurant (Hare Krishna restaurants that you'll find almost everywhere) that we'd heard great things about. We arrived a few minutes before their lunch started (they serve lunch for $3 between 12-3pm) and accidentally ran into the vegan food table from heaven, in the Oki Eco Market, a tiny store which is located within the Govindas cultural complex. 

We just couldn't resist this. Especially after being told by the really friendly woman who was working there (and who never seemed to get annoyed even though I asked about a million questions), that more than half of the food on the table was vegan, including some desserts and cakes! We only took a glance at all the different foods and the decision to ditch the lunch next door was given. The food here changes daily, but there were stuff like veggie burger (for just like over $1), seitan kebabs, tofu wraps, empanadas, falafel, soy meat patties and much much much more.

 So we simply got a plate and were able to fill it up with whatever we wanted from this table and then take as much as we wanted from the salad bar (and holy moly did I take advantage of that and loaded up my plate with mainly lettuce and sauce. Just three words: soy mayonnaise dressing!!!! and plenty of other sauces apart from the veggies to choose between, like garlic sauce and pesto)

These two big piles of food came up to only $8 and if I could I would go back and eat here again without hesitation. Knowing that we couldn't made me sad, so I felt as if I just had to by some food for later on to take away. In the meantime I will keep on dreaming about that too-good-to-ever-forget table of delicious food.

Although we had a very serious food coma for hours after visiting the Eco Market store, I couldn't resist to go into the chocolate shop Republica del Cacao, with plenty of different vegan dark chocolates. I only have to take one step into the store to realise that I won't afford a single item here, so cheekily enough we took advantage of all of the free tastings. And it was LUSH.

I could've easily spent more time in Quito, just because of all the amazing vegan food choices. You definitely need alot of time (and appetite) to eat your way through the city. But for now, I am preeeeetty excited to leave Ecuador and see how they're doing in Costa Rica. Pura Vida!