Our first impressions of Quito are of beeping horns, (it seems to be a way of telling pedestrians to jump out of the way, of asking pedestrians if they want a lift or of waking pedestrians in the early hours of the morning with a series of six or seven beeps of a horn at half minute intervals to alert them to...I am not sure what. Something you are selling?), bustle, churches and concentrations of one thing (shoe street, tourist street, stolen watches and phones street, small shops selling anything and everything street, drunk people and take away kebab and hamburgers street.)
In short Quito is disappointingly, but very predictably, like any other capital city. With slightly less regulation when it comes to the taxis. (We watch a man park a yellow 'regulated, safe for tourists') taxi very suddenly on the side of a street, then lurch out of the door, too drunk to walk properly and collapse over the bonnet of his vehicle. His friend screeches to a halt across two lanes of traffic, leaves his cab there, and wanders across the road for a road side hamburger. We resolve not to take a yellow taxi.)
If this sounds damming it isn't really. Can you tell me that the man we saw having a fight with his friend, then heading into a kebab joint to angrily try to overturn the counter might not have been a resident or tourist in London? Can you show me a place other than the more concentrated tourist areas or very posh residential estates, that is not a little grimy, congested or polluted? When I lived in London I heard sirens an average of seven times a day, somewhat more often at night. It's not very different to a blaring horn. And, incidentally, I heard plenty of those too.
Quito is a capital city. As such it has poor areas, run down areas, rich areas and party areas, and is baffling for the uninitiated, who are trying to buy something normal and dull, like soap. (In fact, to be fair to Quito, what we are looking for is shower gel. And we have not found this in Peru either. People don't seem to use it.)
Our first day, predictably, feels a little grey compared to the green mountains and cobbled streets of Cusco. Or the bright markets and indigenous peoples of Cochabamba. It is perhaps our own fault. Our plan today is to get our bearings and make plans, involving the tourist information office, and the supermarket for supplies, having been flummoxed by the most un-Bolivian market selling only some items, and not anything you would want. (In the end we discover Quito's equivalent to the markets of Cochabamba, tiny shops crammed from floor to ceiling with anything and everything. You don't browse, you pretty much just hand the friendly seller your shopping list. This is a rather nice discovery, reminding me of old fashioned English corner shops in the 1950's) but we don't discover it till the end of the day.
Tourist info and supermarkets do not a fascinating first day make, though we do soften the blow for ourselves by visiting a vegetarian cafe for lunch and a brewery on the way home.
Quito does seem a little grey and hard to be in (there is no kettle in our shared kitchen, and only one mug among several rooms full of people plus a bonus mouldy tub of what might once have been butter on the sink where the washing up liquid might normally be. It's quite hard to cook or even make a drink and although we can improvise, and have done so before, it adds to a general sense of ennui.) And eating out in capital cities is expensive.
Even so, what Quito has lacked today it has more than made up for in promise for the future. We found a dance show at the theatre on my birthday for a reasonable price, a festival of music in one of the parks, and numerous opportunities to escape the smog and get out into the rainy but lush green landscapes around the city, and watch for humming birds, pumas, condors and any other wild creature kind enough to let us catch a glimpse of it.
All we have to do is plan some trips, book some tickets, walk to some places and keep our eyes open for all those little quirky corners hiding gems that are so hidden and yet so ubiquitous in capital cities, like compensatory offerings to their smog worn inhabitants.
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