Latin America on a budget: Quito, Ecuador

by Justin Delaney on

Old cities are at their most pure and honest in the early morning. Before the crowds draw out to transform the peace with the trappings of modern existence, an old city seems frozen in time. Wandering through Quito in the morning feels like visiting an old stranger’s house with no one home. I inspect the pictures and look in rooms, attempting to solve the riddles my mind creates. It is lonely and haunting. Morning clouds drift though the damp cobbled streets as Indian women in black felt hats and red scarves set up their hawking stations for the day – selling loteria tickets and cigarettes and gum. Footsteps of an unseen Ecuadorian echo out across a square, and a faint motorbike exhaust burns off towards the mountains that hold Quito like a bowl. Church Bells ring and just beyond their noise, dawn fades.

Quito is certainly an old city. Originally settled thousands of years ago, many speculate that Quito is the oldest city in the western hemisphere. The Quitu tribe of the Incan civilization settled this valley between towering mountain ranges and volcanoes thousands of years before conquistadors ever set foot in South America. They built a stronghold and the Quitu kingdom prospered. When the Spaniards arrived, the Quitu decided their city would be wasted on the invaders. Led by the Incan warrior Rumiñahui, the Quitu threw their treasures into a volcano, killed the temple virgins, and burned the city to the ground.

Lucky for me, I was not an arriving conquistador. The city welcomed me into the cool night with open arms. Arriving by plane from Atlanta at midnight, I gasped a little for air as I exited the airport. The altitude is immediately evident, and my pack felt a measure heavier. At almost 10,000 feet into the clouds, Quito is the second highest capital city in the world. Locals chew coca leaves to mitigate the effects of altitude.

At this late hour, I was too tired to hassle with the cheap but efficient bus system. At about $.25 to the tourist zone from the airport, it is a great bargain. The buses marked J.L. Mera head to this popular zone, known most commonly as La Mariscal. Mariscal is occasionally called “gringolandia” or La Zona as well. It is where many foreigners find lodging and go out for drinks. It is a place of late night laughter and Salsotecas.

The seriousness and desperation of a cab driver follows a significant correlation with time of day. In the morning, a crooked smile and casual banter, but at the dead hour of midnight, these cabbies pleaded for a customer with nervous eye contact. I was someone’s last shot at the $5 fare back into town. I found a young driver that appeared to speak English, and we sped away into the empty night.

City districts
Quito is separated into several districts. Some of the most notable are Mariscal, Centro Historico (Old Town), and Norte de Quito (New Town). Mariscal is located in central Quito with Old Town to the south and New Town to the north. Mariscal plays hosts to many visitors and expats. The bar and club scene is very lively in Mariscal and hums into the night while the rest of Quito sleeps. Centro Historico or Old town is the southern part of Quito and is filled with gorgeous Spanish colonial architecture and narrow cobbled lanes. For day time strolls though history, Centro Historico is the place to explore. New Town in the north is an area of green parks and modern office buildings.

Where to stay and Nightlife
The best lodging options are found in La Mariscal and Centro Historico. Since this series is titled “Latin America on a budget,” and I was limited to a $150 budget during my weekend stay, I found a quaint hostel in Centro Historico – Hostal Quito Cultural. It is a quiet colonial hostel with a beautiful courtyard and rooftop views overlooking a stretch of Old Quito gradually fading into the hills. The nightly rate is $20 for a private room with shower. This includes a breakfast of tea, fresh fruit juice, tasty Ecuadorian bread, and an omlette. The beds are comfortable enough, but the pillows are similar to the Ecuadorian flat bread served with breakfast. My pillow had a deathly appearance – flattened with no life left. It was more a suggestion of a pillow than an actual comfort device.

My principal gripe with the Centro Historico district is its nightlife. There isn’t any. For those that want to stay close to the nightlife scene, Mariscal is the place to lay your head. The Mariscal bars and clubs pulse with energy. The sounds of Cumbia jousts with the rhymes of Lil Wayne and the night air fills with a cultural soundclash. Some of the more popular dance clubs are Bungalow 6 and Seseribo. The latter is a great place to get aquainted with the term Salsoteca.

Transportation
Getting around Quito is very cheap by cab and even cheaper by bus. Cabs are measureably safer, especially if traveling with luggage or anything of value. Buses are a notorious stage for theft in Ecuador, and most cab rides only cost a few dollars. However, for those freewheeling around without valuables, the extensive bus network will suit the traveler fine.

Food
Ecuadorian cuisine is tasty, affordable, and quick. Whether grabbing a bite at a street stall or in a sit down restaurant, it is easy to have a feast on a budget. Since I fancy myself a bit of a gourmand, I always budget a significant portion of my funds to eating. In this department, Ecuador did not disappoint and hardly put an dent in my funds.

Empanadas are stuffed with beef or delicous cheeses and served steaming in a crispy shell. Spicy soups are served as an intense first course, opening up the sinuses for the feast to follow. Crispy Guinea Pigs are blackened over fires on spits. Potatoes are ubiquitous; chicken is dark and flavorful.

For a sit down dinner, I ate at Cafe del Teatro on a square open plaza. I ordered a spicy onion and tomato based soup, cheese empanadas, corn tortillas, and half a chicken for under $6. My stomach did not so much as hesitate with its regular function and everything was delicious.

Street stalls serve some of the best food in Ecuador. The center of the Quito street food universe is Mercado Central where stalls line up and serve regional delights for a few dollars or less a serving. Locro de Papa is an excellent introductory Ecuadorian soup with potato, cheese, and avodcado. I highly suggest grabbing a bowl of this to build faith in the Quito street market enterprise. From there you can gnaw on a guinea pig or sample fritada – fried pork. The market is open from morning into the late afternoon.

Museums
Quito has a number of great museums though just walking around the “Old Town” is free and provides a worthy museum experience. Some of the better Quito museums are La Capilla Del Hombre, Museo del Banco Central, and just north of Quito at the equator, Museo de la Cultura Solar. La Capilla del Hombre houses the largest collection of art by master Guayasamin.

Safety
Like any large Latin American city, Quito is home to a fair number of thieves. In fact, on my last day in Quito, I was mugged for my camera in a heist that involved a bucket of feces.

Before heading to Quito, read my primer on the top ten types of travel theft. If any sort of theft takes place, find a police officer and file a report. Definitely purchase insurance if travling with a large DSLR camera or other valuables. Almost all types of travel theft are of the nonviolent variety and 99% can be avoided by just traveling smart.

At night, it is wise to always take cabs, espeically around Centro Historico.

Getting there
Quito is five hour flight from Atlanta on Delta Air Lines. Quito is also serviced on American Airlines from Miami and Continental Airlines from Houston.

Currency
U.S. dollars are the principal currency though centavo coins are also printed by the Ecuadorian government and used for small transactions.

My budget
On a tight budget, opportunity cost plays a prominent role. With $150 to spend over an entire weekend, I was forced to govern my choices based on the utility each opportunity would likely provide. Luckily, Quito is not a huge tourist destination and getting by on a budget was extrememly easy. I spent $20 per night on my hostel with a private room. My most expensive meal was $6, and it was a legendary spread befitting royalty. My other meals all cost under $4. Prices for food are more expensive in La Mariscal and cheaper in Centro Historico. I brought Clif Bars with me for mid-day snacks. Beers were a dollar at my hostel. I drank a few ice cold Pilseners in a rooftop hammock that overlooked Quito at night. Relaxing, but hardly expensive.

Cabs are also inexpensive. The cost to or from the airport is $5. Most fares around town are just a few dollars as well. It is very refreshing to pay a $1 cab fare.

I decided not to spend any money on museums and planned to climb a nearby volcano on the day I was robbed. Instead of paying a cab driver to chaeuffer me to the volcano at the edge of Quito, I spent the afternoon sitting in a police station feigning pleasantries with policia while covered in shit. The dynamism of travel is readily evident when best laid plans are burst asunder for unknowns.

I spent a little over half of my budget on my affairs in Quito – $86. I blew the remainder on a stuffed Alpaca made with real Alpaca fur for my fiance. At the end of the day, it is all about priorities. The best travels are those without any.

Hungry for more budget travel ideas? Be sure to check out Gadling’s budget travel archive.

Ten (more) random observations about Ethiopia

by Sean McLachlan on

When writing last year’s Ethiopia travel series, I collected twelve random observations about Ethiopia. These were interesting bits of information that didn’t fit in any of my articles. While writing my Harar travel series, I collected ten more.

1. The standard traveler’s money belt that hangs from your neck and is tucked under your shirt is very amusing to Ethiopians because Oromo women wear them. You’ll often see them digging them out in the market to get change. The above photo shows them being made.

2. The banknotes smell spicy. This is because Ethiopians eat with their hands and then handle money in order to pay for their meal. A few years of this treatment makes Ethiopian money smell like a spice stall in the market. Crisp, odorless banknotes fresh from the bank don’t seem real!

3. The currency is called birr, which means “silver.” Before coins became common, people used more practical objects as currency, such as bullets and slabs of salt.

4. Ethiopians have a unique dance called the uuzkista in which you jiggle your shoulders back and forth. Check out the video to see how it’s done.

5. I noticed that many crosses people wear are all the same bright green color. I wondered about this until one night I was walking down a dark street with an Ethiopian friend and noticed her cross was glowing in the dark. Soon I was seeing glowing Crucifixions everywhere.

6. Since most streets lack lighting, many cell phones come equipped with a mini flashlight.

7. To get a waiter’s attention, snap your fingers or clap your hands. What’s rude in one culture is normal in another. I saw a guy get kicked out of a restaurant in New York for doing this because in the West it’s the ultimate in low-class boorishness. Here in Ethiopia it’s completely acceptable, but it took me a long time before I could bring myself to clap at a waiter.

8. There’s a shortage of postcards in Ethiopia. Ethiopians aren’t in the habit of sending postcards and the fledgling tourism industry hasn’t printed many. Some entrepreneurs have taken matters into their own hands. In Gondar a local photographer wanders around the castles selling images he’s taken. It isn’t a proper postcard, but the post office accepts them.

9. When Ethiopians shake hands, they bump each other’s shoulder. If your hand is dirty because you’ve been eating, keep your hand closed and your arm straight down to signal that you can’t shake hands. Instead the other person grabs the forearm and does the shoulder bump. If both people’s hands are dirty, you touch forearms and still do the shoulder bump. Don’t forget the shoulder bump!

10. Farmers often carry water in gourds. Now some entrepreneur has come up with the modern equivalent-plastic gourds in bright colors! Some fashionable farmers are carrying these instead of bothering to prepare their own natural gourds.

This wraps up my series Harar, Ethiopia: Two months in Africa’s city of Saints. Thanks for joining me on my adventure through the Horn of Africa!

Luxury resort offers guests daily submarine tours

by Kraig Becker on

While Richard Branson races to launch his own underwater adventures, one luxury resort in the Indian Ocean is making it possible for travelers today. The Conrad Maldives, located on Rangali Island, has announced the start of daily tours aboard their private, three-person submarine that will take visitors beneath the Indian Oean to experience a world unlike any they have ever seen before.

The new submarine, built in Germany by Nemo Tauchtouristik, is capable of diving to a depth of 98 feet, while keeping its passengers comfortably warm and dry on the inside. Painted bright orange with white stripes, the craft resembles a clown fish, and features three large glass pods that run the length of the top of the hull. Those pods afford passengers a 360-degree view of underwater action, ensuring they won’t miss any of the sights around them.

While out on the 30-minute long cruise, the small sub is operated by a professionally trained pilot, who will guide up to two passengers on an aquatic adventure along the South Ari Atoll, which is a popular destination for scuba divers and snorkelers as well. They’ll explore a living, thriving coral reef, while spotting colorful fish, mysterious sting rays, beautiful sea turtles, and wandering reef sharks. All without having to get their dive certification or even get wet at all for that matter.

The price for taking this underwater excursion is $280 for one person or $495 for two.

Amazing San Francisco model built out of match sticks

by Grant Martin on



Laughing Squid pointed us to a nifty video created by Scott Weaver today. The artist has been working on a mockup of San Francisco made out of matchsticks for the last thirty five years, complete with weaving, secret passageways through which ping pong balls can navigate the structure. We’re not sure what’s more amazing, the fact that it’s made out of matchsticks, the time that went into building it or the sheer awesomeness of the model, but one thing is certain: this video is going on loop during our next Gadling happy hour.

[via Robert Reid]

Mobile farmers markets: the next “big thing” in food trucks?

by Laurel Miller on

2010 was the Year of the Food Truck, with cities from Seattle and San Francisco to D.C. taking it to the streets, literally. While street food and taco trucks have long been a part of U.S. culture in places like New York, Los Angeles, and Oakland, health regulations have historically made it considerably more difficult in other parts of the country. Eatocracy reports that Atlanta–despite its tight mobile cooking laws–now has a “hybrid” approach that enables food trucks to exist, albeit in a different form. Could 2011 become the Year of the Mobile Farmers Market?

For the uninitiated, street food technically refers to food that is prepared (cooked, if applicable) and sold from a street cart, stall, or permanent stand. Food trucks are essentially mobile street food, and can change location from day-to-day, or remain parked in a stationary spot. These are not your “lunch” trucks of old, selling flabby sandwiches and processed, grab-and-go items. Today’s food truck offers food prepared from seasonal produce and other ingredients likely sourced from local family farms.

Until recently, state and county health departments largely prohibited street eats due to fears regarding potential foodborne illness. It’s harder to regulate things like sanitation and temperature control in a non-stationary kitchen, but far from impossible. Thanks to the open-mindedness of city officials across the country, enterprising chefs and other food industry professionals have been able to give mobile food operations a shot, the most successful of which have gone on to achieve national acclaim. Portland, Oregon, has been so supportive, there are now permanent designated locations for food cart clusters.

But even as we’re becoming more of a food truck nation, it’s still an uphill battle. Eatocracy states that Chicago is just one city making it next to impossible for actual cooking to be done on-site. Instead, food must be pre-packaged, which is a buzz-kill for many budding entrepreneurs. Atlanta requires convoluted logistical wrangling (trucks selling cooked-to-order food must change location every half-hour, nor operate at more than two locations a day) as a deterrent. One local farm’s solution: focus on the raw ingredient, not the end product.

[Photo credit: Flickr user star5112]


Riverview Farms of Ranger, Georgia, has created a mobile farmers market that brings sustainably-grown produce to various locations in Atlanta. As creator Elmer Veith puts it, “We’re going to bring the farm field to the neighborhood, so you don’t have to come to us.”

Veith retrofitted a Mac Tools truck to create Riverview’s Farm Mobile. Customers enter the truck from the rear, and pay before exiting at the front. The sides are outfitted with shelves for produce, as well as the farm’s cornmeal and grits. There’s a freezer for Riverview’s grassfed beef and heritage Berkshire pork. Other offerings may include bread, pasture-raised chickens, free-range eggs, and cheese from other local food artisans and farms.

Customers get updates on Farm Mobile’s location and that day’s product via email, Facebook and Twitter. The social media aspect is a key part of the success of today’s food trucks. Yet Farm Mobile is subject to less regulations, because they’re not selling prepared food. They are, however, licensed by state authorities, and require permission from property owners to park on their land. If outfits like Farm Mobile (or Richmond, Virginia’s Farm Bus) catch on, can we expect to see more markets on wheels servicing urban areas? Greg Smith, President of the Atlanta Street Food Coalition, hopes so.

“Street food adds life and vibrancy to the city,” he says, predicting that in the future, “There will be multiple ‘food truck lots’ around the city and the trucks might move on a daily basis from lot to lot.” The Coalition, which seeks to help entrepreneurs break into the industry, is yet another sign that mobile eating is here to stay. TruxMap is an iPhone app that lets users hunt down their favorite food trucks, while dedicated sites such as Food Carts Portland are attracting legions of fans. The best way to show support, however, is to start eating on the street. Check out Eater.com, to see if there’s a food or farm truck (coming) near you.

To sign up for Farm Mobile updates, click here.