Ecuador - a first impression

I got into Quito late. Almost 12 hours late, to be more precise. After spending the night in the Guayacil Hilton (4 hours of sleep in a very nice bed) I arrived at the Quito airport at 0700 and made my way down to the Mariscal to find a cold dinner on the table in the room and a very sleepy Lulu in the bed.

After catching up on some more needed sleep next to my sweetie we awoke and ate the leftover, cold dinner for breakfast and headed out to see the Mariscal area of Quito.
I like the Mariscal. There's so much life there amidst the cafes, bars, discos, restaurants and wacky hostals. It as colorfully vibrant as much as it is vibrantly colorful. Well, enough b.s. wordplay - get on with the story...

Lulu played tour guide for me and her new friend, Mary, around Quito on Sunday in miserably overcast, cold and cloudy weather. Saw some nice churches and the old town with a large statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking everything.
Monday saw us waking up early and heading by coach up to Cayambe, a small village at the foot of a BIG mountain of the same name. We drove up a very precarious road that scared the hell out of Lulu a few times (me too, admittedly) and when we finally got to the "parking area" our driver did this f'd up 5 point turn to get the van pointing back down the mountain and seemed to be trying to back off the cliff. I'm sitting there yelling at him to stop, that Lulu's scared and that we want to get the F' out and let him turn around w/out us in it. He was laughing the entire time and said he thought it was funny. That dick.
The hike up Cayambe proved to be little more than half an hour. Not a long time, but when you're at 4000+ meters (12,000+ feet) and were on the beach 2 days before - let me just say... it ain't easy. I was sucking wind like a chain smoker does walking up two flights of stairs. But I made it to the glacier. Not having packed my cold weather hat, or my extra fleece to save weight and space, I was freezing. Stupid! It was short lived misery in the end. Only walked up to the glacier for about 10 minutes, snapped a couple of photos and left for the warmth and comfort of the car.

The rest of the time before the Galapagos cruise was spent in Quito searching out a boat to cruise around the Galapagos on. But that'll be for the next entry...