After Galapagos it was on to Quito on the 21st of February, the capital of Ecuador and the second-highest capital city in the world, dramatically situated in an Andean valley towered over by volcanoes. It's also well-known as the best place to party in the highlands, but luck was not on our side in that respect...
A bit of background: there were mayoral elections throughout Ecuador on the 23rd of February, and for months I've been bombarded by the gormless faces of candidates with their thumbs up (still don't understand why thumbs up = respectable candidate) smiling beneath moronic slogans like "revolution with everyone - *insert town name here* wins!". This came to a head in the last few weeks with nightly pickup truck PARADE? beeping their way annoyingly through the streets and big election parties where the candidates get on a public stage and rant for a while before they stick the macarena on and party until late. It got so bad in the final week that we were kept up until 3am two successive nights by raucous election parties - on Galapagos of all places. So much for living at one with nature.
We looked forward to coming to the nation's capital to see the election stuff coming to a head, but in the end the contrast with the crazy parties on Galapagos could not have been much starker.
On Friday 21st of June at 12pm all campaigning has to stop (good) and the ley seca, or 'dry law' comes into effect. This means that for three days until 12pm on Monday the sale and consumption of alcohol is outlawed, presumably to let the citizens think with a clear head. As a result the party/backpacker area where our hostel was was almost silent when we arrived at 11pm on Friday. Very strange. An Aussie hostel guest put it best: "I'd vote for whoever gets rid of this bloody stupid law!"
Through our stay in Quito we managed a trip north to the guidebook favourite craft market in Otovalo, to the little equator park which ended up being kind of boring once you'd had your picture taken straddling the two hemispheres, and for a stroll around the colonial old town. All well and good, but the whole place just seemed kind of subdued, and in the evenings we were plain bored with no bars or restaurants to go to.
When the results did come out, there was no great celebration to be seen, and when we did go out on the Monday night just after the end of the ley seca, it was almost as dull because 'no one goes out on a Monday'.
When it was time to leave on Tuesday we kind of wished we hadn't hung around so long waiting for the party to start, because it never did...
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