Wonderful Hotel in Quito

We went to the Indian markets, several museums, the old town, and had day trips to "The Centre of the World" and Otavalo. We were lucky in that the hotel was right in the middle of the city and centre tourist attractions and very close to the old town. The old town is well-preserved and worth visiting by day and night. We took a horse and trap through the town at night; they are available outside the President's Palace.

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The prices are modest by European and US standards and seem pretty average or low for Quito. We paid around $70 per night for three of us. We had a family room, which was actually two lovely bedrooms, and our own bathroom. The owners look after your luggage if you want to go elsewhere for a few days and made a lovely job of laundering our clothes when necessary.

They have a couple of regular taxi drivers who they trust and who charge modest fees for day trips to places like Otavalo. By the way, the hotel paid for the taxi to collect us from the airport; he was there waiting for us and it took only 10 minutes to get to the hotel. We felt they looked after us.

You stay in wonderful cabins, and there are three tasty meals a day provided by a central kitchen. Beer and wine is available at a modest cost. There are clearly marked trails through the forest, most of which do not require a guide. However, booking a guide only cost us $15 a day, and he had such fascinating local knowledge.

Most of the trails take you through a secondary forest, but there is plenty of primary forest area close by. We saw an old Inca trail that used to be for people to carry goods from the coast. Apparently they would run like mad with the goods on their heads, passing them on in a relay to ensure that things like fish reached the customers inland in a fresh state.

We were really lucky one day when we went on the viewing platform near the cabins. Within 5 minutes, we saw a green toucan and managed to catch it on film!

One morning we got up at 5:30am to try some bird-watching and managed to see a couple of other toucans as well as lots of other colourful birds.

I was fascinated by the leaf-cutter ants that seemed to be busy on every trail. When we came upon one of the nests, our guide thumped the side of it with his foot, and within seconds, dozens of massive soldier ants appeared to defend the nest. The guide picked one up and held it to his shirt; it pinched hold and as it did so, he broke it in half, leaving the mandibles firmly holding the material. He said that this used to be the way people made temporary repairs to torn clothing!

Some areas were thick with butterflies of all sizes and colours. One in particular sticks in my mind, as the patterns resembled textbook drawings of cells dividing.

The dining tables are in the open air under a veranda. Around them are several feeders busy with hummingbirds all day long.