Quito, Ecuador

Today was the first official day of my 5 week South American Adventure. Admittedly, Willy and I spent half of it sleeping after our 36 hour journey over here, but it was fun and relaxing day all the same. We came to Quito as a 'base camp' for the Galapagos Islands, where we will fly tomorrow, and honestly had never heard of this city or even comprehended that I was coming here until I woke up at midday today and decided we had time to kill.

We found a large park on our city map not far from our hotel and decided to walk towards it and see what the afternoon would bring. Fortunately, it brought us delicious, BBQ grill lunch that was just...divine! We were served potatoes, chicken, beef, sausage and pork - marinated and grilled, with salad and three separate types of dipping sauces/ dressings. Oh, and popcorn as an appetiser! It was amazing, and all for only about $7AU each.

When we got to the large park amongst the expanse of narrow streets and concrete, I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure what I expected - but it wasn't what I got. It was really quite beautiful and full of happy locals. There were market stalls, lots of statues of famous people from their history and some really awesome play equipment that impressed us both! Kids were driving in around in mini cars with real engines and there were plenty of buskers entertaining the crowd. After a while we made our way back to the hotel and had a couple of beers at 'The Corner Pub' before our pre-departure meeting for our Galapagos tour.

I snapped this shot looking down one of the side streets towards one of the mountains that overlooks the city. Quito sits at about 2800m above sea level and is nestled in the Andean Valley. It is a beautiful setting for a city and one, as an Australian, I am not accustomed to seeing.