Quito

So in case you haven´t heard, it took me longer to get here then anticipated. I was suppose to connect through Houston on Monday but due to weather we were grounded in Alexandria Louisiana (that´s right, look it up!) for about an hour and a half. By the time we landed in Houston, my flight had taken off over an hour ago. There is only one flight a day from Houston to Quito so I had a full 24 hours to wait so I headed to my hotel! The next day went smoothly, my flight was extremely full as I wasn´t the only person to have not made it. We arrived in Quito late, around 11:40pm and once I cleared customs and realized my bags weren´t there it was almost 1am. My transfer to my hostel was there waiting and before I knew it I had arrived in the historical part of Quito. In true travel fashion, I was awake bright and early the next morning and started on my Lonely Planet walking tour. Unfortunately due to exhaustion and what seemed like an insurmountable climb up I swear a mountain to the Basilica, I opted to retire for the day and headed back to my hostel for a 3 hour nap. Fortunately my hostel is very centrally located in historical Quito so I am never that far away from it! The buildings in Quito are really magnificient, the city is so old and it has so much personality. Some of the smaller streets actually remind me of Europe a bit. The buses pass the hostel frequently and you will often hear "red off the red nose reindeer" to alert people that they are coming. As with some SA countries, if you want a bus, you merely step out and flap your arm around like a crazy person. No matter the speed the bus is travelling in, it will stop. Thursday morning I finally received my bags and then finished my walking tour which took me up into the new part of Quito. Thursday evening I headed to the bus terminal and caught a bus to Baños.