Marc & Nora ROUND THE WORLD 2005/2006 - Join us!

Hola Quito,

We arrived on the bus from Baños at the notorious Terminal terrestre in Southern Quito..."You will be robbed here" is basically what the guide books tell you so we were ueber cautious on arrival. Nevertheless we jumped straight into a taxi and headed for the downtown (Quito New Town) Marsical hotel district. Well we arrived with no robbery or mugging at a nice little hostel called Hostel Galleria on Avenida Calama.

The Marsical area of Quito was quite a surprise. Yes we expected lots of hotels but this place was full of so many really nice looking cafes and restaurants selling food all the nations of the world concentrated around the street where we were now living. We could have been in any cool downtown area of any `western` city....decent food at last! We took advantage and the few days that we spent there we ate Thai, Mongolian, French crepes, Cesar salads.....not Ecuadorian cuisine in the slightest but soooo gooooood!
But before we did any of that we had a denstist appointment to attend and with Noras right cheek swelling to the size of a small football this was now seriously urgent!! Arrived at the dentist clinic and were immidiately impressed....best one yet in South America (and we`ve seen an awful lot!!). The super arrogant dentist told Nora that her problem will be gone by tomorrow and started the treatment. After feeding her anti-biotics and injecting her in the bum with pain killers he set to work...oh yeah and he photographed her face too! You will never believe what he found in Nora`s open tooth.....he found a piece of a metal tool which had obviously broken off and been left there by a previous dentist. It was this which had buried itself inside Nora`s tooth and had re-started the infection...nice huh? At one stage of the treatment Nora felt sick but couldnt communicate it to the dentist as her mouth was held open by a mechanical device. She just started to gurgle and tears came out of her eyes. Despite all the painkillers she was given the pain was so strong that she wasnt sure whether she was going to faint or to be sick. She decided for the latter! Anyway with this removed and a lot of cleaning he put a temp filling in the tooth and told Nora to come back tomorrow for more cleaning. As we left the clinic I could tell that Nora wasnt convinced about the treatment as she was in tears and actually almost fainted with pain! Quick taxi back to the hostel and a load of ice pressed against her face to reduce the swelling.

Next day the swelling had actually reduced a little and on the second visit to the dentist he once again injected her bum with pain killers, injected her gums with anesthetic, re-opened the hole and cleaned the tooth out many times...even with chlorine! This time Nora felt a little better when we left but we still needed to get back and put ice on her face...her face was getting smaller and the stares from strangers were decreasing in their regularity.

That afternoon we did actually manage to get to see some of Quito Old town - the historical centre. Again the guide books and other tourists who we met along the way warn of the dangers of wandering these streets. Fortunately for us we found it thoroughly nice and a really charming centre with palm tree lined plazas and cobbled streets and about 200 colonial period churches. Travel between the old and new towns can be made on Quito`s really efficient, regular and cheap `trole bus`system...25 US cents per journey (Since 2000 the US $ has been the official currency of Ecuador following the economic meltdown which made it impossible to use the massively unstable `Sucre`).