A quaint town called Quito.

Oh yeah, found out the big guinea pig thing is called an Agouti.  Poo, tried to upload a pic for you, but the internet is too slow.

So after Monteverde I spent a couple of days looking around Quito and thought it was a cool little city.
Except for the repeated warnings from the hotel guy about catching taxi's everywhere after dark.
So during the day I wandered about, but my evenings were pretty quiet as I was staying in a hotel, not a hostel so didn't really meet anyone.  Although a room to myself was nice for a change - and $7 a night, who can argue with that.

One day I went on the Teleferiqo which is a big ski-lift thing that goes to the top of a mountain called Cruz Loma which overlooks Quito.  Amazing views and from the top of the Teleferiqo you can hike to the peak of Cruz Loma.  Hiking to the peak had been my original intention, but I should have given myself a couple of days in Quito first to get used to the altitude.  The top of the Teleferiqo is 4100m and when I got to the top and had a bit of a walk around I found myself getting a splitting headache and out of breath all the time.

So no hike to the peak for me.  Instead I had a walk round for a couple of hours then went back down into the city and went to check out the 'Jardin de botanico'.

The Quito markets are also amazing.  A lot of fantastic knitted ponchos and jumpers, all made with soft snuggly wool, not itchy wool and seriously cheap.  I thought I would have my bucks until I got out of Quito to Otavalo which is a couple of hours away and apparently has the coolest markets.  As well as hand craft there are food and animal markets and all the locals dress in traditional dress.  It sounded good for a look, but was not to be as when I got out to the bus terminal there were no buses.

So instead I went to the National Museum and had a wander about the Old Town of Quito.  The Museum had a great history of the area and the development of the various cultures and how they made things ie. gold, silver, copper, ceramics.

Really there is a lot to do in Ecudor and I would have liked to go to the Amazon, Otavalo, Cotopaxii, Banos, etc.  But I was just getting a little impatient about the Galapagos as it's somewhere I've ALWAYS wanted to go. I will fly back to Ecudor to go overland to Lima so should be able to check out a bit more of the country then.