welcome back to our channel he's stephen i'm andie and we cannot wait to show you where
we're going today if you're new to the channel welcome we're stephen and andie caffeinated
travelers of the u.s. and beyond when our lives changed completely in 2020 we decided
it was our sign to spend as much time as possible enjoying what matters you guys this is our
first truly international series i mean we recently did a vlog from st maarten but we
hardly got to see or do anything while we were there and we certainly didn't have any
kind of cultural exchange given the limited amount of time we had now we're about to leave
the u.s. and north america for two whole weeks and we have so many awesome plans for this
trip we're so excited
i think it's finally time we tell them where we are you ready for the big reveal welcome
to ecuador!
over the next several weeks we'll be sharing our adventures in ecuador including an uninvited
guest in the amazon rainforest we're both a little freaked out now we're supposed to
be up in three and a half hours and i don't think we're going back to sleep some incredible
snorkeling in the galapagos islands and starting right here in the capital city of quito nestled
in the andes mountains shortly before we came here we got a really wonderful surprise from
our travel agents angelica and christian at terra sur travels and they are treating us
to a private tour of quito for our first day here this is going to be wonderful so our
driver here fausto has just come to pick us up
and we are gonna go check out the city now
so we started our morning up at the panecillo that's like a little bread you know that actually
is a volcanic dome you know also basically saw the shape and said oh look at that that
mountain looks like like bread you know a small bread like a little bread so that's
why they named that hill panecillo that means little bread and in addition in former times
they had a temple to adore the sun you know so it was a really important hill for our
ancestors it's the hill that has the virgin on top of it looking over the entire city
she's the icon of quito and she is protecting the world from the serpent or the devil and
now we're in the old town and we're going to walk around here and get some of the history
of how this city grew
okay guys welcome to the area of the old town right now we are in la ronda street one of
the traditional streets here in the old town but what is really attractive here in the
old town is also to see what is the urban art that we got on the murals here so this
mural is really interesting because it tells you a little bit about traditional people
from the street starting from this guy carlos michelena one of the performers you know on
the street he makes theater in some of the main squares in town we got this guy that
is a person he still made and he's a really good player with the trompo a traditional
game that people used to have when we were children you know now nowadays the new generations
they don't know too much about it on the upper part we got a magician that also was performing
on the streets and something interesting that we got here is this lady that basically they
used to sell something that we used to call ponche it's a traditional sweet that the people
carry in a small box you know and they used to sell a traditional sweet so most of these
what you can see is traditional people from the streets of quito
a lot of our tour of the old town focused on the catholic heritage of the city a result
of spanish colonialism
fun fact the gargoyles on the basilica del voto nacional represent local ecuadorian wildlife
like turtles condors monkeys and puma
at the monasterio museo del carmen alto we learned how the carmelite nuns supported themselves
by selling homemade products through a rotating door style window since they couldn't be seen
by the public fausto used to come to this very window when he was a child to buy wine
for his grandmother obviously at that time everything was very peaceful and even the
nun said you'll win even if you're a kid but now is forbidden to sell alcohol to the children
what is this one this is roasted peanuts with sesame seeds oh yum oh thank you that's really
good
oh that's good let's buy some of those
all right now we're going to check out this franciscan church here in the plaza of san
francisco and we're going to go up to the top and get some amazing views okay i am standing
facing the wall here stephen is back there
and it sounds like his voice when he talks is coming out of this wall hi everybody how
you doing can you hear me now oh the original verizon oh my gosh that is trippy it's awesome
don't forget to like subscribe
hit that bell for notifications oh this is so cool the acoustics are insane i love that
look at this picture from 1860 with the towers ah that's cool the original ones and then
those fell off in an earthquake
after the earthquake
so as you can see all of the beautiful city of quito here that one particular area over
there is a protected area because there are no structures it's just trees so that's providing
all the fresh air how amazing
okay we're here at a place that's really well known for its empanadas so we're gonna get
a little bit of lunch some coffee and then we're going to the equator
you guys this is such a special trip for us because 10 and a half years ago stephen and
i took our first international trip together and it was right here to quito so this is
so special for us to be back and for it to be the first international series that we
get to share with you all i kind of can't believe we're here right now so this is really
cool for us because the last time we were here we found out that when we took our picture
on either side of the equator it wasn't actually the equator there was an expedition of scientists
who came to ecuador and they determined where the equator actually falls going across this
country and they designated a space the center of the world or the el mitad del mundo so
we went and visited that on our last visit and we got our picture taken on either side
of the equator and then we found out that turns out their instruments were maybe just
a little bit off and uh with more modern gps it was later determined that the actual equator
is about 200 meters away from where we took our photo and we are there today so now we
actually get to be at the equator we visited a museum which has several exhibits about
ecuador and other countries along the equator
since the equator runs through the museum site we finally got our photo on the actual
equator and we participated in experiments like trying to balance on the equator with
our eyes closed and trying to balance an egg on a nail which they claim is easier to do
on the equator than closer to the poles
all right you guys we didn't get into our hotel until about 2 a.m last night and we
had to get up very early this morning for our tour of quito we're just getting back
from an amazing day out with fausto and now we're going to give you the real room tour
check this spot out welcome as you can see we kind of exploded last night pardon the
mess it's really nice it's got everything we need this big bureau tons of storage we've
got a great bathroom in here and all of our junk all over the place and wait for this
here's the big instagram reveal oh yeah look at this garden we have right outside our room
nice little private patio this place is really wonderful and definitely the type of place
that we like to stay this was arranged for us by our travel agents terra sur travels
and they're based here in quito so we reached out to them as soon as we knew that we were
planning this trip and one of the things we really loved about them was that they focus
on local businesses and eco or conscious travel so they booked us in this spot it's great
they have all these messages about helping to conserve water and energy things like that
and it's owned by locals we love a cute little bnb something local they give us breakfast
in the morning we had a fresh cooked omelet this morning it was wonderful so whenever
possible we do encourage you to do the same you can go through a travel agent they will
know all the local businesses or you can book this place where we are it's called casa aliso
and i'm going to show you around the rest of the place as well
okay it's day two here in quito it's actually our fourth day but days two and three we went
on day trips to mindo and cotopaxi which are amazing and we will be showing you those in
the next couple of weeks so in the meantime now we've got one day left in quito before
we head to the amazon but first we're gonna go meet our travel agents christian and angelica
and get us some brunch i knew it was you guys right away i'm andie hi i'm chistian how are
you angelica this is julio stephen hi how are you nice to meet you
it's okay pal i know so we just finished a really wonderful brunch getting to know angelica
and christian a little bit better hearing some of their travel stories and uh getting
some last minute tips before we head to the amazon and the galapagos yeah and they gave
us this awesome little gift bag as we mentioned they're an eco-conscious travel agent so all
the gifts inside are eco-friendly like this reusable water bottles for the both of us
we got these bamboo toothbrushes very cool no more plastic toothbrushes yeah and some
deodorant natural deodorant yeah it doesn't have all the aluminum and nasties in it yeah
that's going to be really good and also it's really good to use products like that when
you're going to very natural places like the amazon or the galapagos we also found that
back when we were in the virgin islands they really wanted us to use chemical free products
there especially sunscreen that way you're not rinsing off chemicals or hard metals that
can be in some of these products into their ecosystem so we'll definitely be using those
things over the next week and a half while we're traveling to the amazon in the galapagos
on our first day here we realized quito is the city with million dollar views and before
we leave we're going to get the best view of them all
it's beautiful up here isn't it gorgeous
the views up here are incredible but just that bit more of elevation and we're feeling
it so i'm so glad we still have the coca candies from yesterday at cotopaxi because i mean
if we didn't have these i'd probably have to go right back down pretty quickly
steady as she goes here you are ma'am dos cafes you guys this is really like having
a coffee on top of the world it's incredible it's pretty fantastic
and speaking of coffee we want to thank our friend cy from cy's escapes for today's coffee
thank you so much cy this is so exciting to be able to share these incredible views with
you and speaking of incredible views definitely check out cy's channel and his instagram cy's
escapes he's got some amazing imagery he has some videography and photography from some
incredible hikes and outdoor adventures and if you're into this sort of thing which i
think if you're watching us you probably are you should definitely check him out because
his work is just amazing so cy thank you so much this buzz is for you
okay so one of the main attractions here is this swing that looks like you're swinging
out over on top of quito it just looks like you're swinging into nothingness so we really
wanted to see that so we came up one more level from where we were at with the cable
cars and we thought it wasn't too much farther than that it turns out it's all the way up
on this other hill i don't even know how you get to it but considering the elevation which
by the way is no joke we're gonna take a pass on that swing today
well as you can see we found ourselves a nice little spot here with a fantastic view in
the clouds in the clouds hopefully the weather holds just a little bit longer but after this
we're just gonna chill for a little bit maybe grab a bite to eat and then we catch our ride
to the amazon gonna be a long drive yes it is but please tune in in the coming weeks
to see all of our adventures in mindo cotopaxi the amazon and the galapagos it's going to
be so awesome to share all that with you guys can't wait to show you all that please subscribe
hit that bell so that you know when these videos go up and thank you so much for watching
our quito adventure guys we'll see you next time