Christmas Vacation Pt. 1 Old Town aka Frank's Red Hots and M&Ms

Alright so this is a long overdue post. It’s about a month late. My reason for the delay is because I wanted to make sure that I didn’t rush through the story, but rather I took my time and did it justice. As soon as we got back from our trips, we had to start school right away, which was followed by our basketball playoffs, which was followed by…you get the point. Anyway, without further adieu….

We got finished with school on a Friday and pretty much immediately all of our friends left town. Most of our colleagues decided to take the entire break to travel, see their families, or celebrate in their own ways. We had plans of our own but before  we started those, we hosted a nice expat Christmas party. There was plenty of food, wine, and laughter. Shannon’s family was scheduled to come down to visit a few days later, but I knew I wasn’t going to see mine so it was nice to have an opportunity to share in a family-like experience. I’ve said it before and I’ll reiterate it now, this whole expat international teaching community creates a very close bond that replicates a surrogate family.

Anyway, after they all left and we relaxed for the weekend we started the car process. We were determined to buy a car, and maybe even get a license in the first week of our break which was full of free time. I won’t go into too much detail about that stuff since I’ve already posted on both processes, but I will say that to assume that a week is enough time to get a license and a car in South America is to speak from inexperience.

After that week was wasted/flew by, it was time for our true vacation to start. Shannon’s family arrived on Christmas Day which was fantastic for us. It gave us a little time to have a private Christmas together but also gave us something huge to look forward to. We prepared them for their trip with cultural greetings, what to expect from the airport, and most importantly which sauces and candies we needed them to bring which were not available down here. Hello Frank’s Red Hot, Sriracha, and Peanut M&Ms!

Shannon and I have a beautiful apartment that we love, but it was not meant to accommodate 6 total people. We arranged a few months before Christmas break for an AirBNB house to rent for her family and planned on her sisters staying with us.

Local Panama Hats...The Gift that Keeps
On Giving

On the Christmas Day, Shannon went to the airport to pick them all up while I prepared a proper Christmas dinner. In an OVEN! Which seems stupid to say, but one of the downsides to our wonderful apartment and many in Quito is we don’t have an oven. We just have a stove top. As someone who likes to cook it was nice having an oven to do it with. We had turkey, ham, green bean almondine, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, and asparagus. Shannon, helping me in line with my family traditions prepared a pumpkin cheesecake. It was all fantastic.

When they all arrived we ate like kings and then went back to our place to do a Christmas present exchange. Her family all kindly contributed their animals to my family’s nativity scene per my request.  I think I mentioned that nativity set before in a previous post.

Ladies of the Family on Pichincha

The next day, we set out to show them the city. With big plans for the rest of the week or so that they were going to be there, we wanted to squish as much of Quito as possible into their visit. We went to the Teleferico and walked around the base of Pichincha which was really nice. It was a bit cloudy and they weren’t fully adjusted to the altitude yet but the views were still breathtaking and I think everyone had a nice morning checking out Quito from the top of a volcano.

After we came down from the Teleferico, we took a ride down to Old Town. We’ve mentioned Old Town briefly before in our posts but it is the colonial center of Quito. It is largely covered in cobblestone streets and bustling with street vendors, tourists, and locals alike all trying to get a sense of the city.

Old Town

Hey Five Year Old...You Missed a
Spot

While walking through San Francisco Plaza, Shannon’s sister was found and followed by a young street hustler who wanted nothing more than to shine her leather boots for .50. I think it was .50. Anyway, we took a seat on a curb and as soon as his rag touched her shoe, the rest of his merry band of Oliver Twists came out and started helping him, begging for money, and smiling with their big puppy dog eyes at us all. After completing a very thorough cleaning and shooing away the band of child laborers we went to a beautiful restaurant overlooking the city. The view was fantastic.

After lunch, we walked around the city a bit seeing the sights and

came to the Basillica, which is a beautiful gothic style (I think) church located in the heart of Old Town. It was incredibly tall and beautiful. The stained glass on the inside was flawless and looking down the main part of the church gave me vertigo worse than any volcano hike ever could have. We hiked up to the top tower, passing Galapagos themed gargoyles along the way. It was incredible. After that, we were all pretty beat and it was time to head home for a relaxing evening.

The next day, we all went to El Ejido park on the outskits of Old Town and spent some time shopping for homemade blankets, scarves, bags, paintings, and all kinds of locally made goodies. Everyone walked away with something that day, whether it was a Santa sized sack full of llama wool or a chocolate covered donut. After we left the park, we realized that we should get some rest because the next days were going to be spent in the Galapagos Islands.