Quito

After the very nice stay at Posado Mirolindo, I decided to try my luck with a hostel and opted for TheSecret Garden Quito (also related to The Secret Garden Cotopaxi). The Secret Garden was voted best hostel for solo travelers and with a $10/night shared room rate and an upstairs deck, it seemed worth a try. While at Posado I overheard a couple mention using Uber for their trip and decided I would try the same for the ride between Posado and Secret Garden (almost an hour). Advantages of Uber: 1) I don’t have to worry about the lost in translation issues and 2) I know exactly how much the ride will cost. My driver was a young man from Venezuela (who was excited to tell me about his family in Houston) and the ride was great. We attempted to talk slowly in each other’s language and understood about 20% of what each other was saying – but sometimes it’s the thought that counts. Arrived at The Secret Garden in about an hour and got settled in. The Secret Garden is in the San Blas neighborhood near Old Town. Described in Lonely Planet as a safe during the day but worth taking a taxi at night neighborhood, I embarked on my first scavenger hunt abroad to find a padlock for my locker at the hostel. A few shops and experiences with Google translate later, I found the lock, secured the 10 lbs of technology I’m lugging around (why???) and headed off to the Jardin Botanico de Quito.

The Jardin was lovely. The boast 100’s of varieties of orchids, though few of them were blooming on my visit. It was however my first real venture out to start exploring on this adventure I’ve started and I really could have been glad doing just about anything. On my walk back, I felt much more physically strained than I thought I should have at which point I decided I must be in much worse shape than I realized. It wasn’t until phoning a friend and sharing this with fellow travelers at dinner that I realized I was really feeling the altitude. Quito turns out is at 2,850 meters (yes – not feet) which is about 10,000 feet above sea level. Turns out that was the source of most of my exhaustion and it takes about 24-48 hours to acclimatize. I really did laugh at at my miss on the elevation. Thankfully it was solved with lots of water and some Excedrin and patience. I ended the day with such enormous gratitude, awe and wonder that I was really abroad, really traveling and really free.

Spanish learned: padlock = candado

Traveling lesson learned: Always ask the taxi driver how much it costs before you get in.