ROUND & ROUND

It was a 40-hour journey from Quito to Lima. 4-0 hours. Because of the holidays, we couldn't get a direct bus and decided instead to tackle the journey ourselves. Bus from Quito to Huaquillas, cab from Huaquillas to Tumbes, bus from Tumbes to Lima. Aside from the miserable heat and mosquitoes, we came out all right, arriving on the eve of New Year's Eve. 

We ran errands, which seems to be our thing in big cities where amenities are more abundant, and explored around Miraflores and Barranco, celebrating outdoors at El Parquetito for dinner and then topping it off at La Lucha Sangucheria for dessert. (Their brownie milkshake is yum.) In Lima, I developed a deep appreciation for fish ceviche despite not being much of a seafood person. 

As hard as we tried not to, we rang in the new year in the comfort of our hotel room, catching up on social media to the sound of infinite fireworks until the wee hours of the morning. 

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WE HEART PTO VRS

Okay, so I have a lot of catching up to do, considering in my last post we were in Ecuador and now we're in Chile, but there's time for that later. 

We made it to Puerto Varas yesterday, hoping to rent a car and make our way down through Patagonia, but unavailabilty, border crossings, and unbooked ferries made things quite complicated. We decided to change our plan (which we're still figuring out) and the day's disappointment actually turned into a really lovely evening. The weather was pleasant, the town, which I've likened to a ski resort, so quaint, the people incredibly friendly. 

As we were finishing up dinner, the sun had just set and produced this array of pink, purple, and blue pastel hues not only in the sky, but also on the lake. The air was clear and fresh, giving full visibility to a snow-capped Volcan Osorno in the distance. 

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QUITO

Most of our time in Quito was spent in or around Plaza Grande and the rest of it was spent running errands: doing laundry, searching for a courier service, booking buses to Lima. Ah, the realities of traveling.

We found the city itself reminiscent of European cities: old and charming, crowded and dirty, colorful and busy. Many options for food are available, but perhaps our favorite was a cup of sliced mango soaked in vinegar and sprinkled with salt. 

Cab fares start adding up pretty quickly, especially in large cities like this where drivers could throw out random prices and we wouldn't know any better, not having a clue about relative distances. Some seem fair, others not so much. Figuring out public transportation goes a long way and has certainly helped us to save here and there. Up until Quito, we had become accustomed to jumping on and off buses whenever and wherever. With just a wave of the arm, we could hail any bus and with a simple 'gracias', we could just as easily call our stop. With trolleys and buses, and soon a subway, the city has a good, organized handle on its pubilc transportation system.

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