Quito and the beauty of public transport
Day 1-4 (04.-07.11.22):
Quito was our first stop during our sabbatical, and it's the perfect opportunity to not only share a little about our time in the city, but also take a closer look at the different transportation options like cab, local buses and private, regional buses.
We arrived in Quito at 4pm local time (10pm in Germany) with severe jet lag. And when you first arrive in a new city, whether you arrive by plane, train or bus, there is always the one question:
How do we get to our hotel?
We could take the public bus without knowing the route in detail, or take a cab. Sometimes in Latin America there are also small minivans that travel in the cities, called "Collectivos", but we didn't know if they are also common in Ecuador. They are built for 9 people, but mostly it seems to be an Olympic discipline how many people, luggage and animals you can pack into it. You have to have used them at least once, you will never get closer to daily local life.
Anyway, we already knew from our guidebook that the cab takes about an hour, so the bus takes infinitely longer and we were exhausted. So the decision was easy to invest the 25US$. It's always a good idea to either remind the cab driver to turn on the meter, or negotiate a fixed price in advance if you know the approximate cost. In our case our hostel offered us a $30 pickup service, our guide said $25, and when the cab driver said $25, we agreed.
Being cautious Germans we put on our seat belts, and as other travelers to countries in Latin America, Southeast Asia, etc. know, we settled in for the fun of traffic culture shock
The route from the airport to the city was very winding and mostly downhill, which we imagined to be fun on a motorcycle if it weren't for the heavy traffic and many potholes. My seatbelt opened up every time we took a turn, when it was stretched a bit, more like a homeopathic seatbelt, and overall seeing a turn signal from anyone on the road is a very special and rare event, like a unicorn. Traffic lights, lanes, and speed limits are more of a recommendation than a rule, so as long as you honk, you'll be fine because others know you're there.
Most Europeans are used to a more organized and supposedly less unpredictable flow of traffic, so it's always impressive and breathtaking to see it again after a long time. You get used to the movement of vehicles on the roads after a while, you just have to remember not to apply the same behavior at home or it could get very expensive.
We were quite happy when we arrived at our hostel in the Mariscal Sucre zone, which we had booked in advance. There is nothing more exhausting after a long flight than trying to find a hotel in a big city on foot.
Quito is 2800 meters above sea level, and we could already feel the difference. The first night we took it easy and went to a Mexican restaurant nearby. I love Mexican food and although it wasn't (and can't be) as good as in Mexico, it was good enough to ease the homesickness for Mexico.
The next day we wanted to explore the city a bit and walk around. The weather was not on our side and it rained almost the whole time. Near Parque El Ejido, we decided we were wet enough to take the bus and we went to the nearest bus stop to check the city map. As expected, it was not self-explanatory, but we understood that we were at the wrong stop for the direction we wanted to go.
We watched the passing buses carefully without success: By the time we figured out where the public city bus was going - in our head still matching what we´ve seen with what we knew from the guidebook - the bus had already left minutes ago. By the way this situation is not unique to Ecuador: figuring out if the bus in front of you is the right one just by looking at it probably only works if you've lived in the city or region for a while.
On the way to the right bus stop we remembered the info from the guidebook: there was a fixed north-south route through Quito called Trole bus. When we saw this name on the bus stop sign, we were very happy: one step further.
To get on the bus through a turnstile, you had to have exactly 35 cents. So at each stop there was a counter where you could exchange bills for coins to pay the fee. Imagine how many people they must employ just to exchange money to have minimum two people at each station (one for each direction)!
Standing on the platform, the question still remained: Which is the right bus? Does it matter which one we take, and is it going in the right direction? With 50/50 odds, the easiest option was to ask the other people getting on the next bus. The direction was right, so we got on as well. Nowadays, the risk of being wrong isn't very high either. With cell phones and offline maps, you always know where you are and in which direction you are heading.
Now to the long distance travel: Traveling between cities in Latin America is very easy. Every large or medium-sized city has at least one bus terminal where several national and even international connections between cities are offered at least daily. The comfort may vary from bus company to bus company, but as long as it's not an overnight trip, we didn't care much about the comfort. There are several bus terminals in Quito for different destinations, and we knew we had to go to the bus terminal located 10 km south of the city center to buy bus tickets to Riobamba, our next stop. Sometimes tickets are available online, or you can buy them for a small fee at a travel agency in town. We decided to buy the ticket on our own and make the one-hour drive (one way) to the Quitumbre terminal to estimate how much time we would need the next day with all our luggage, sort of as a dress rehearsal. We considered ourselves already as smart-asses and well informed, because we knew that the final stop of the Trole bus was Terminal Quitumbre.
So what could go wrong?
Well, we were on the right bus, on the right route, but somewhere in the middle of the route at another stop, the bus stopped and everyone got off. Some of the other people probably saw the question marks on our faces and told us that this was the last stop. If we wanted to continue, we would have to change buses.
Looking like lost sheep, we stood at a large public bus stop with multiple platforms and confusing signs about the bus arrival and departure zones. We walked back and forth, staring at maps and asking the people standing around us which platform we should choose to get to Quitumbre.
And when a bus arrived there, we briefly confirmed the direction with the bus driver. It was not a Trole bus, but we did arrive at Terminal Quitumbre and even faster than expected. Being able to speak Spanish really comes in handy in these situations :-).
Later we learned that there are different Trole buses. All of them travel the same route, but not necessarily the whole route, so some buses just cover the inner city part. This was a good insight that we wouldn't have come across if we hadn't driven the whole route ourselves.
With the tickets we bought to Riobamba, we returned to Quito and explored the city on foot. We walked up one of the hills that embed Quito to sit in a nice cafe famous for its views of the city, and later continued up the hill to Itchimbia Park.
In the middle of the park was a beautiful pavilion with a small art exhibit. The security staff inside the pavilion told us that it can also be rented for private events like weddings for $18000 per day/night. We figured this location was more for the rich and famous of Ecuador, and in fact we were also told that the daughter of the Ecuadorian president celebrated her wedding in this pavilion. I can think of things I would rather spend US$18.000 on, but everyone has different interests.
That same day and on our last evening in Quito, we had a pleasant surprise. On our way to dinner, we passed a busy restaurant just two corners from our hostel. I recognized it as an Ecuadorian restaurant that was highly recommended in the guidebook, but was permanently closed according to Goggle Maps. Even the restaurant's home page said "Closed because of Covid" and we never bothered to check.
That night it was open and people were sitting inside eating. We went inside and the owner told us it was the second night after they reopened and they hadn't updated their homepage yet. We were excited and both decided to go for the 4 course tasting menu. We almost managed to take a photo before each course. Usually we empty our plate and then realize that it looked really good before and we should have taken a photo. This time we got everything except dessert.
The next day it was time to go to Riobamba, and we applied our newly acquired knowledge of Quito's public bus system, paying attention to the bus names and taking the C4 to Quitumbre.
According to the bus driver there were only two stops in between Quito and Riobamba. But those are only the official stops. In reality, these regional buses stop much more frequently, at local stops, markets, or even intersections, picking up passengers, including flying vendors who sell all sorts of things along the way: Empanadas, potato and banana chips, sweets, even leather purses, USB cables, chargers and magic medicine that supposedly cures all kinds of flu, headaches, sore throats, etc.
These buses are crucial for many people, as they provide the only means of commuting between the smaller towns.
As mentioned earlier, it is not the fastest way to travel. We made the 190 km from Quito to Riobamba in 4 hours, but it is really nice to just look out the window and watch the landscape change from the busy city to the greener landscape in the highlands.
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