Day 21: En Quito con Grace

Today, I head home! My first stop is Quito since my flight home leaves from here.

My friend Grace and I headed to Quito together to explore the city for one day before we both left. When we arrived at our hostal "La Posada Colonial" we were pleasantly surprised to see that a place that was so cheap ($7.00 per night) was also very nice (clean and safe) and had a great staff. Once we got settled we headed out to do the four hour walking tour that was outlined in the Lonely Planet Travel Book. The first stop we made was at Cafe Frutilla to have lunch. This was a very fancy place that sold all types of foods in addition to desserts that looked so delicious. We both had empanadas and fresh juice. After we left the cafe we continued on the path that took us to different churches and through different parks. Walking around Quito I noticed that it was like a city built in a mountain. We had to climb some very steep heels to get where we were going. I didn't know if I would be able to do it, because even though I had been in Ecuador for three weeks I could still tell that the altitude affected me when I exerted myself. I was able to make it up the heels with plenty of breaks. Once we reached the top of the peak, we found an excellent artisan store where I was able to buy some great souvenirs and we also saw a church so huge that it couldn't even fit into one picture frame. As we continued on our journey we came to the Quito Observatory and toured the museum of scientific tools used to view the stars for a price of $2.00. We climbed to the very top of the observatory and from the balcony had an amazing view of the city. From the observatory we headed to the New Town (Quito is divided into Old Town and New Town). We stopped at a salon so that I could get a mani pedi for $7.00, but it didn't work out because they were closed, so we continued down the street that's considered the most modern street in Quito, and eventually caught a cab to  "El Pobre Diablo" , a restaurant that lonely planet recommended for good food and live music. There was no live music on Friday, but the food was great. Afterward he went back to our hostal and prepared to head to our respective homes the next day.