This post is a little different in that it isn’t going to be about a single city, but rather an entire country. We spent 3 weeks in South Africa and traveled around within it quite a bit, so we feel it’s fair to talk about the country rather than just Cape Town, even though that is where we spent the majority of our time.

First thing to get out of the way: South Africa is INCREDIBLE. It was our favourite stop on the trip so far, by a long shot. Practically everything about it was enjoyable, and we liked it so much that we’re already (loosely) planning a return trip.

This is going to be a long post, so here’s a quick overview of what we did before we dive into things:

• Flew into Cape Town and stayed about 5 days.
• Flew from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, shuttled to Kichaka and stayed for 3 days.
• Shuttled from Kichaka back to the Port Elizabeth airport and rented a car.
• Drove the Garden Route back to Cape Town, with overnight stops in Knysna, Mossel Bay, and Stellenbosch.
• Stayed in the Camps Bay neighborhood of Cape Town for 4 more days.
• Took a 3-day train from Cape Town to Pretoria, stopping in Matjiesfontein and Kimberley.
• Shuttled from Pretoria to the Johannesburg airport and flew out!

Cape Town

Table Mountain from Cape Town Center

After a 10 hour flight from Dubai, we landed in Cape Town in the evening and nearly didn’t make it past immigration. Because we knew we’d be in the country for a few weeks, we hadn’t yet booked our exit flight, and that didn’t sit well with the immigration officer! Luckily she was chill about it and allowed us to book an exit flight on the spot. We booked something refundable so we were able to cancel it later – it seemed they are more interested in making sure you can leave rather than if you actually will, which makes sense. After that somewhat scary moment (never again!) we took a quick cab into the city, marveling at Table Mountain at sunset on the way.

Our 5 days in Cape Town blew by. We were lucky enough to meet up with local gentleman Aaron Marshall who provided us with a damn near overwhelming list of things to see, eat and do. Some highlights:

We ate amazing food at Loading Bay, The Company’s Garden, The Potluck Club, Kloof Street House, and Chefs Warehouse & Canteen. We had some of the best pizza on the trip at Bocca. We got fantastic coffee at Origin and elsewhere. Nearly everywhere we went and at every meal we had, people were friendly and helpful, offering even more recommendations for places we had to go. This is part of why we are already planning another trip.

When we weren’t stomping around Bree St. we spent a fair bit of time at the V&A Waterfront, which is sort of like if San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf area wasn’t overpopulated with huge chain restaurants and souvenir shops. While still touristy, and yes, there are still souvenir shops, it has a much more relaxed vibe and is filled with decent restaurants at which to grab a drink and relax by the water. There’s also a mixed-use building called the Watershed which houses a rotating market on the ground floor and a co-working space and coffee shop above. We bought postcards here and snacked and drank and wrote to our friends back home. It was highly enjoyable.

While in Cape Town we also used took the opportunity to visit Robben Island, which was totally cool. It’s their Alcatraz, basically, but instead of housing scumbags like Al Capone or George Kelly, it held political prisoners like Nelson Mandela and Kgalema Motlanthe. While our guide (a former inmate himself) was a bit difficult to understand through his heavy accent, he was super friendly and answered all kinds of questions from the group. The tour was long, but the views of Cape Town from the island were spectacular, as was being out on the water in general.

Patrick on Robben Island

We had a lot of fun in our first five days and it went by super quick! Before we knew it, we were off to…

Kichaka

After a short 45 minute flight, we landed in Port Elizabeth and we took a car about an hour and a half northeast towards the outskirts of Grahamstown, to Kichaka, a game reserve that came highly recommended by friends. We spoiled ourselves for this particular part of the trip, both because it was Maja’s birthday and because we couldn’t turn down a such exceptional testimony from friends on what is supposed to be an amazing experience. We were not disappointed.

The pool and watering hole at Kichaka, where hippos hang out.

The way a game lodge works is like this: It’s basically a nice resort hotel with usual resort hotel amenities: pool, restaurant, areas to relax, exceptional service, etc. The big difference is that it’s located inside a huge park (the reserve) with wild animals roaming everywhere. The actual lodge grounds are cordoned off so you’re not in any danger of being eaten while on your way to the pool, but it’s more a “keep everything out” then a “cage everything in” sort of feeling.

Kichaka is special in that aside from being amazing and luxurious, it sits on a very large game reserve. The story we were told was that some years ago, the owner made an agreement with the owners of the adjacent game lodges (Lalibela and Bayeti) to remove the fences between them and share the land. This means that the acreage is huge – it took us 45 minutes by land cruiser to get across some parts of it, but more on that later. Some game reserves do hunting, but not Kichaka. That shit is rude as hell.

The big thing to do on the the game reserve is go on game drives. They’re included as part of your stay (it’s the whole reason people go, really) and there are two per day, both around 2-3 hours in length: One at 6AM and one at 4PM, to optimize your time around sunrise and sunset. This happens to be the best time to view animals since both the nocturnal and diurnal ones will be waking up or going to sleep. Although you may be thinking “6AM? eff that!” you would quickly realize once you’re there that you very much want to get up to do this. The landscape and environment is such that if there’s any time in your life you’d want to see a sunrise – it’s there and then.

Sunrise Giraffe

We arrived in the early afternoon which meant we were able to hop on the afternoon game drive. Our driver, Ashley, who would be our driver for every drive during our stay, was the lead ranger and awesomely chill. A former electrician, he gave up the daily grind to spend his life with animals, which is pretty damn cool. He had encyclopedic knowledge of every animal we saw, from termites to birds to the big game. And man, did we see some big game.

It’s lit fam

One of the advantages to going when we did (late April) was that it was low season – Fall was just kicking up and so there were very few other people at the lodge. In fact, our very first drive, we had Ashley all to ourselves in a Land Cruiser designed for 6-10 people. It was hot (haha, we hadn’t yet been to the Desert at this point and thought 90F was “hot”) but we lucked out and got to see a male Lion only about 30 minutes into the ride.

Just Waking Up

Shortly after sunset, Ashley pulled over and broke out the cooler and prepared snacks and drinks for us. “Sundowners” would soon become a staple of our trip. (He also did this on the morning drives, but with tea and coffee an biscuits. A+.)

Ash with the Morning Snack

Although each drive was special in it’s own way, it would be silly to recount the details of each ones, so I’m just going to share a ton of photos and let those do the talking.

Here’s some video, too:

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We were extremely sad to leave, but we know for sure we’ll come back. Kichaka remains one of the most amazing experiences we’ve had on our trip.

Garden Route

After getting a ride back to the Port Elizabeth airport, we decided that instead of flying back to Cape Town, we would drive the acclaimed Garden Route, which is sort of similar to California’s Highway 1. We rented a car at the PE Airport, and I was surprised to learned that not only could I still drive a manual transmission car pretty well, I could do it on the opposite side of the road as well! I did have a few hiccups – using my left hand to shift felt extremely unnatural at first, and I may have grabbed my door-handle by accident at one point, but overall everything worked out better than expected!

Garden Route Views

Driving in South Africa is pretty interesting. First, it’s important to note that highway driving in South Africa was quite a bit different than driving state-side. The speed limit is 130km/h, but even that seems to be only a suggestion, as we were routinely passed by cars doing 150+. Second, the shoulders are all paved and clean, and they get used. It’s customary to move aside, into the shoulder, to allow cars behind you to pass, and this happens frequently on the many single-lane stretches of the garden route. Third, and finally, you have to watch out for baboons. Seriously. We witnessed a huge family cross the highway with luckily enough visibility that we were able to slow down and avoid them, but they seem to be a major problem for drivers, as there are warning signs about them everywhere.

Maja at the Knysna Heads

The drive itself was quite beautiful. The route is about 750km, which we split up over about 3 days, so only about 2-4 hours of driving a day. We saw massive mountains and fjords (can I use that word in the southern hemisphere?) early on, and rolling hillsides and wind farms later on. We stopped to stay in Knysna, Mossel Bay, and Stellenbosch, where we stayed 2 nights so that we could do some wine tasting.

Stellenbosch itself was fantastic. It felt like Berkeley combined with a less pretentious Napa Valley. It’s a college town, with a huge university anchoring the city in the wine country just outside of Cape Town to the east.

Our BnB host was kind enough to arrange a wine tasting tour for us which worked out wonderfully. We visited Kanonkop, Rustenberg, Oldenberg, and Camberley, all of which had alarmingl heavy pours. We tried the South African-native Pinotage varietal at nearly all of them, which if I remember correctly (I probably don’t) was surprisingly dry and fruitful. Rustenberg was probably our favourite due to it’s beautiful gardens and architecture, though Oldenberg had some fantastic mountain views as well.

Camps Bay

After our short stay in Stellenbosch we drove the quick 30 minutes back into Cape Town to drop off our rental car and cab to our next AirBnb. We decided to stay in Camps Bay suburb due to it’s proximity to the beach and the fact that we really just wanted to hang out for a few days. And hang out we did. Our place was right on the main strip of Camps Bay and we had breakfast at the same little restaurant every day, and didn’t do a whole lot over the next few days. We finally got to see Zootopia (or as it’s known in South Africa, Zootropolis) and Maja went to a bird sanctuary while I downloaded Xcode updates and did laundry. It was a great time.

The beach at Camps Bay

One interesting thing we did was visit the 12 Apostles Hotel. Located roughly 10 minutes drive south of Camps Bay, this insanely lavish hotel has an awesome bar with patio that’s perfect for sundowners. Visiting cool bars inside fancy hotels we’re not staying at really seems to be our special move on this trip.

Rovos

While we were sad to leave Cape Town again, we were pretty excited by our method of transport: our first train! And what a train it was. Maja had arranged for us to take the Rovos journey from Cape Town to Pretoria, just outside of Johannesburg.

It was a trip on many levels.

We walked up to the Rovos building next to the train station with our backpacks on and were greeted with puzzled looks – surely, we couldn’t be passengers, the small fleet of porters must have thought. But yep when we told them “we’re checking in”, they quickly grabbed our bags and assisted us into the private waiting area where we started to realize what we had gotten ourselves into. There were huge couches everywhere, tiffany lamps on side tables, champagne, and even live music – a string quartet, natch. The crowd was… a little older than us. I believe we were the youngest passengers by about a decade, maybe more. The average passenger age was easily 65, and we were really weighing that down.

The Train stopped at Kimberley

The train was beautiful, even nicer than the Lilly Belle, Walt Disney’s (once) private Disneyland train car, which is the only thing I can even think to compare it to. Our room had a private bathroom and shower, queen bed, and a mini bar. The lounge car was the best though, with it’s beautiful bar, huge windows, and dark wood everywhere. It was all super over the top.

Sleeping on the train was somewhat of a challenge. The train, while beautiful, is essentially an antique, and as such doesn’t have the smoothest or most comfortable ride. The train purposely stops for about 4 hours in the middle of the night to let people get some rest, but this seemed counter-productive to me. Starting and stopping was the most jarring part – the entire car would shake violently, so if you did fall asleep before the scheduled stop, you’d almost certainly be woken up by it, and then again when it would start moving again.

The train made two stops during the days, once in Matjiesfonten, which I’m fairly certain is simply an used Wes Anderson movie set, and Kimberley, the former diamond industry headquarters. Both were sort of interesting, but not especially stop-worthy. The train was so nice, I would have rather stayed aboard.

Our last night aboard we successfully got drunk with the staff, who were all much closer to our age and quite a lot of fun. They even gave me an honorary bowtie. Good times.

Goodbye ZA

Note: If you’ve ever wondered why South Africa is abbreviated as ZA: It’s not because Saudi Arabia got dibs on “SA” or because they “ran out of letters by the time they got to the bottom of the world.” The shorthand is derived from the fact that Dutch name for “South Africa” is “Zuid-Afrika”, and with dutch colonization being a part of South Africa’s history, the unique abbreviation stuck.

When we arrived in Pretoria we disembarked to an equally fancy and ridiculous private train station and took a cab to Johannesburg. We flew out early the next day, so we took the opportunity to crash at our airport hotel and have proper showers and get ready for the long flight back to Dubai and onward to Morocco.

Our time in South Africa, just about 3 weeks, was amazing throughout. We didn’t really know what to expect but we couldn’t have been happier with our investment of time there. We really can’t wait to go back.

Buenos Aires was the first city on our trip that one of us (me) had the opportunity to visit previously. My last visit was just a quick stop-over with my brother and father in 2012, while we were on our way to (and when we returned from) Antarctica. We only stayed a couple days both times, but we found the city pretty fun. There was a lot do and we ate very well, so I was a little sad we didn’t get to spend more time there. Given that, I was extremely excited to return with Maja.

Based on my previous experience there, we decided to stay for about 2 weeks. This would be a much longer stay than any of our other landings so far. We figured the time was right for an extended stay somewhere, to spend time relaxing and to plan the next leg of our trip. We also wanted to slow down and do more things without having to fit so much into only a few days. We missed having time to read, time to watch TV, and generally enjoy vacationing.

Our room came with a cat.

We arrived on March 31st, which now feels like ages ago. From EZE (love that airport code) we took a taxi to the Palermo Hollywood district for a short stay at Home, a small boutique hotel that Maja booked for us. We (she) decided to splurge a little and so we booked The Garden Suite, a little bungalow with it’s own little pool and spiral staircase to a rooftop patio. It was so lovely, and the staff was amazing. After staying in a mix of hostels and budget hotels, it was really nice to be somewhere that felt like vacation.

After spending a few nights there, we transferred to an Airbnb in the adjacent neighborhood, Palermo Soho. It was a lovely studio apartment on the 17th floor, giving us great sweeping views of the city that let us truly appreciate how big the city really is.

Being such a huge city, there was tons of stuff to do. We mostly just ate and drank a lot, but we did some other sightseeing too. Here’s a list of some of our places:

(Hey guys. This is Maja. Patrick attempted a list of the stuff we did, but it included items like “That dumb pizza place” and “The cool bars??” so I’m jumping in to add some details.)

Restaurants

• Las Cabras – Classic Argentine food in generous portions at low prices. We got the bife de chorizo a Las Cabras – a steak with side dishes all piled onto a wood plank. Amazing.
• Las Pizarras – So good we went here twice. Inspired cooking beyond the classic steak. Different menu every night. Very friendly and helpful (and English-speaking!) staff. The first night we went their credit card machine was down, we didn’t have enough cash to cover the bill, so they told us to “just come back on Tuesday to pay.” An absolute MUST for dinner.
• Muu Letcheria – After two friends independently sent me the same photo of this highly-photographable diner, we decided to check it out. Themed as a 1950’s diner, but with artful graffiti and chandeliers made of retired cutlery (?) this place has seen brighter days. It’s open 24/7 so it would be perfect for a grilled cheese at 4am after a night at the clubs.
• Don Julio – One of the most famous parrillas (traditional steak restaurants) in Buenos Aires. Constant two-hour wait (appeased by free champagne) for the quality beef and exemplary service. We snagged a wonderful sidewalk table and ordered half-portions of steak (which we still couldn’t finish). Olé!
• Pizzeria Kentucky – One hangry afternoon we stumbled into this divey pizza chain (open since 1942) because we didn’t have the brain power to research somewhere better. We were surprised by the delicious fugazzetta – just simply dough with cheese and onions.
• Osaka Sushi – After eating mostly steak for a week, we decided to switch it up with some sushi. Osaka had great recommendations, so we gave it a go. We found it to be totally meh.
• Casa Felix – This puerta cerrada (closed door restaurant) was written up by the NYT a few years ago and has been booked ever since. The idea behind puertas cerradas is talented, passionate young chefs open their own homes to cook a set tasting menu showing their creativity and signature style. Patrick managed to get a reservation (amazing) and we enjoyed a long evening of fabulous food in a beautiful house with 16 other tourists. Well worth the effort and price tag.
• Perón Perón – Uncomfortably delicious ossobuco empanadas set in a small restaurant plastered with Peronist imagery. Best empanada in Buenos Aires.
• Las Cabreras – Touristy parrilla that we LOVED. A giant restaurant made up of tons of tiny adjoining rooms, with eclectic art, tchotchkes on the walls, and cool grandpa waiters. The steak and wine were delicious (they gave us a free bottle to take home!), but even better were the seemingly endless parade of tiny side dishes that kept arriving. Very fun evening, and great for groups.

There are a lot of tiny bowls at Las Cabreras

• Blanch – Allegedly spectacular brunch but we accidentally went during restaurant week so we were served a weak Asian-inspired pre-fixe lunch. I found the food to be boring, and the restaurant was oddly dark. Good Aperol spritz though.
• Fervor – Classic old-school Parilla. A bit formal and dated, but the people-watching was incredible. We went for a late lunch after visiting the Recoleta Cemetery.
• Fukuro Noodle Bar – The best ramen I have EVER HAD, even including Japan. Super funky, cool, small space, with walls plastered in manga. If they don’t have space for you when you arrive (no reservations) you’re invited to sip sake as you wait in their twinkle-light lit garden. Spectacular evening.

Fukuro has manga all over it’s walls. Never be bored.

• Olsen – This place would bring even the hippest of designers to their knees. Very modern Scandinavian influenced food with a beautiful garden and deck area. Set off the street behind a giant wall, this place is a totally isolated oasis. Perfect for a cappuccino wile you lounge in the sun, or a long multi-course lunch with your designer sunglasses-bespectacled comrades.
• La Fabrica del Taco – A good attempt at Mexican food. My favorite part was the walk-up taco bar built into the restaurant’s exterior. Perfect for a quick nosh after a night at da club.
• Casa Cavia – A multi-concept store set in a refined 1920’s house right next to the park. This place was a lifestyle blogger’s dream come true. It includes a parfumerie, flower shop, book shop, and an excellent restaurant in the courtyard. Everyone here was uncomfortably chic and looked very hungry. I enjoyed watching the skinny skinnies on their lunch breaks gawk at me as I ordered a lemon tart.
• El Bistro at the Faena Hotel – Designed by Philippe Starck in collaboration with the famous hotelier Alan Faena, this place feels like walking into a Kubrick film. We were the only people in the giant white dining room adorned with unicorn busts. Definitely a trippy experience.

The sundial bridge near Faena is beautiful at night.

• Dean & Denny’s – An impressive Shake Shack rip off (same menu, fonts, icons, everything). The dulce de leche milkshake is everything.

Cafes

• In Bocca Al Lupo – Italian barista owner, deliciously creative coffee concoctions coupled with warm coffee cake and a peaceful inner courtyard.
• Ninina – We went here at least four times. This bakery is the pride and joy of the youngest generation of a renowned family of local bakers. Clean lines and modern details make this place a Instagrammer’s paradise. They serve breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. We kept going back for their blueberry-raspberry scones and welcoming environment. Everything is incredible, I just wish we could have tried more.

The counter at Ninina is no joke. Neither are their raspberry/blueberry scones.

• La Panera Rosa – Generous portions and indulgent combinations like waffle sandwiches make this place a gem. They even have smiley face hashbrowns! We went for afternoon tea which included a full grilled cheese sandwich and enough pastries for a small army.

It’s not pink it’s rosa.

• Bar du Marche – I wanted to tuck this place in my pocket and take it home with me. Very tiny and very French cafe with delicious food, cheese and wine. Absolute gem.
• La Biela – Historic restaurant/cafe on the park in the Recoleta. We enjoyed cappuccinos outside while writing postcards and people-watching. The perfect place for an afternoon pick-me-up.
• LAB – This coffee shop is hip AF. Multiple kinds of beans and multiple methods of brewing. Patrick got a Kenyan bean through an Aeropress and was in heaven.

Activities

• MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) – A beautiful building and gallery full of contemporary works. We saw the Jorge Macchi exhibit, which according to Patrick was, “super cool”. The lovely outdoor cafe has delicious medialunas and horrible service.
• Planetarium – Wacky 60’s architecture that looks like a UFO landed during the Cold War. The inside is bananas, with a tubular elevator surrounded by a spiral staircase running through the center of the building. We wanted to explore every inch, but were sadly restrained to just the planetarium show, which was hilarious due to the school group of 7-year-olds screaming out the names of the planets they knew.
• Recoleta Cemetery – Of course, no visit to Buenos Aires is complete without a visit to the Recoleta. We actually visited twice – a quick stop 20 minutes before closing, and another day to take a guided tour. The tour was super useful – it was great to hear the stories and explanations behind a lot of the tombs.

Blah blah blah, these people are dead.

• FOLA – Photography museum in a warehouse connected to an outlet mall on the outskirts of town. Beautiful space, and beautiful shows.
• Botanical Garden – This place looked INCREDIBLE but was closed due to rain (?) when I tried to go.

Shopping

• El Ateno Books – The famous opera-house turned bookstore. Breathtaking interior with rows and rows of colorful books. Unfortunately the only books in English we could find were drugstore romance novels, but wandering through the stacks was totally worth it.
• Kabinett – Carefully curated very hip design store. Reminded me of Canoe in Portland.
• Editor Market – A lifestyle store providing the complete package: clothing, accessories, furniture, home wares, kitchen goods, gifts, kid stuff, and a healthy dose of hipper-than-thou attitude.

The stores in Palermo Soho offer no end of weird stuff.

Bars

• Frank’s – A glam speakeasy with amazing cocktails. A secret code is required to make it past the bouncers. If you make it past, the numerical code then must be punched into the number-pad of a phonebooth, which unlocks a door to enter a secret passageway into the bar. Worth the fuss.
• Victoria Brown – Another speakeasy with slightly less hoopla to enter. Turns out the real speakeasy is actually inside the speakeasy, through a false wall in the back corner of the bar. The bergamot lavender gin martini was pretty wonderful.
• Library Bar at the Faena Hotel – After our trippy experience in the Bistro, we moved over to the Library. My advice: skip the restaurant the head straight for the bar. Delicious classic cocktails, great bar menu, and awesome band. We bopped along to their entire set of American pop songs while sipping Zombies. Pretty spectacular evening.
• Floreria Atlántico – Enter a flower shop, go through the walking fridge type door and step down into a cocktail bunker. The food was oddly horrible but the drinks and ambiance were fantastic.

(Ok, back to Patrick.)

While in BsAs we got visas for our next location: Brazil! It only took 2 visits to the Brazilian Consulate (one to drop off our passports, another to pick them up 3 days later) and about $500. Yikes.

Funny story: Getting a visa for Brazil is a pain in the ass. You have to fill out a huge online form, upload photos of yourself and your passport, go get passport photos taken, upload your itinerary and flight/lodging confirmations – yes, you’re expected to book this even before you have a visa, which seems a little like putting the carriage in front of the horse, but hey, whatever. Then you make an appointment online to visit the consulate, but when you arrive you still have to wait in a (standing) line for 15-30 minutes to see a clerk. Once the clerk looks at your application, they take your passport and give you a little card with instructions on how to pay the fee. This was somewhat weird: instead of paying it at the consulate, with a credit card or something easy, they make you walk to a local bank and deposit cash (cash only) into a numbered account. The bank then gives you a receipt that you can use to retrieve your passport from the consulate three days later. When you get your passport back it includes a glued-in visa on one of the pages with the passport photo you gave them. Nice.

Worth mentioning: This is the “easy” way to get a visa for Brazil. If you apply from within your home country, you can do so from home, you’re required to mail your passport to the consulate for your jurisdiction, and knowing which one is which is up to you. It can then take weeks or months to get your passport back.

Brazil-curious readers note: Brazil is waiving these visa requirements for the Olympics this year. This means US and Canadian citizens (as well as Japanese and Australians) can visit, visa free, from June 1st to September 18th, for up to 90 days. I’d highly recommend doing this, since as we’ll explain in the next post, Rio de Janeiro was incredibly beautiful and very worth visiting.

While we were waiting for our visas (as well as some items we ordered online that got held up in customs and are likely never to be seen again…) we decided to extend our stay a little longer and booked another Airbnb closer to Palermo Soho’s main drag. While it wasn’t as nice as the first, it was again very cheap ($54/night) and did the job well.

We left Buenos Aires the afternoon of April 18th, shortly after sending off a package of our own items we decided we didn’t need to carry with us for the rest of the trip. Our bags a bit lighter, we took a 4 hour flight past a thunderstorm to the next location on our list: Rio de Janeiro!

Ahhh Quito, Ecuador. Unlike most travelers who come to Quito, we weren’t simply passing through on our way to the Galapagos. (We’re saving that for another trip.) Quito is a destination in it’s own right – huge and old and special for it’s history and character.

After a somewhat harrowing cab ride into town from the airport (this seems to be a common theme of our trip) we arrived at an AirBNB in the Old Town part of Quito, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here comes the small details: First, our view of Old Town was incredible.

Second, the building, like the town, was very old. As part of being so old, didn’t have windows or doors that sealed very well. This isn’t a problem from a weather point of view – despite being at roughly 10,000 feet, Quito also lies about 25km south of the equator, so the temperate year round is fairly steady at 65F/19C year round. It was, however, a problem from a light and sound point of view. Quito – at least, the Old Town – gets up very early. The sun rises at 6:15AM but even before that there are lots of dogs barking, roosters crowing, car alarms unchecked, and church bells ringing. (Old Town has 40 churches). We were both up by 7AM every day.

This schedule, while somewhat disorienting for late sleepers like us, turned out to be alright. We were able to do and see more in the mornings and get to bed early, as the district we’re in wasn’t exactly renowned for it’s safety at night. That said, I think it will be a while before either Maja or I become morning people.

Further, being up on a hill meant that every trip out of the house meant a real hike to return home. Although we had some time to acclimate to the high altitude in Bogotá, we were still winded the first few days every time we returned from anywhere.

Speaking of going out, here’s some highlights of the stuff we did in Quito, in no particular order.

TelefériQo

After trying unsuccessfully to sleep in, we grabbed a quick, delicious coffee from a cute cafe down the hill from us and decided to check out the city from above, like we did in Bogotá. Quito has something it calls a “TelefériQo”, a gondola which takes you up to the Cruz Loma lookout, next to the Pichincha Volcano. While the ride itself had lots of good views, being at the top was pretty majestic. It was about 3,000 feet above Quito, meaning it was roughly 13,000 feet above sea level. If you’re thinking “This must cause altitude sickness,” you are correct. Luckily it wasn’t so bad for us, though Maja had a headache that was quickly dispatched by some Coca Tea. If you’re thinking “That sounds like it has cocaine in it,” you are also correct. (It’s been over a week and she’s still occasionally saying “we gotta get some more of that coca tea…”)

It was a fun experience! Apparently we lucked out because the clouds were soaring just above our heads but luckily not so low as to block our view of the city. It was a really surreal feeling, knowing that you’re standing on ground which is higher than when you’re normally allowed to take off your seatbelt on a plane.

Plaza Grande

In the center of Old Town lies the Plaza Grande, which we walked through many times. It features the President’s house on one side, the oldest hotel in Quito on the other, the Archbishop’s Palace, and some other stuff that was less important. Most important, however, was the monument in the center, to the Heroes of August 10, 1809, the fine people who made Ecuadorian independence happen.

Something fun I didn’t know: Ecuador was the first South American colony to gain independence from Spain, and as such earned the nickname “The Light of South America”.

Walking Tour of Old Town / Calle de la Ronda

We took a great free walking tour of old town that took us to a bunch of cool spots we wouldn’t have otherwise seen, like Calle de la Ronda, the “bohemian” area of Old Town with lots of cute shops and restaurants, and the central market, full of super colorful fruits and locals and smells and flavors. Highly recommended.

Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesus

There were lots of churches and super old buildings in Quito, but this one really takes the cake. Inside (“No fotos, señor!”) everything is covered in GOLD. I mean, look at this place. I know those bible stories don’t all stick, but I think we can all remember when Jesus said “Build me a church made of solid gold! Gold is best!” (It was in Deuteronomy, natch).

Anyway, this place took 160 years to build, which means all of the people who started building it died before it finished. BAD ASS.

Parque La Carolina

We took a day to explore the north part of town – the modern, normal part of Quito. It was modern and normal. There was a huge mall (“Quicentro”) with lots of ridiculously overpriced cell phones. (Well, maybe not for Quito, but compared to the USA – YEP).

The best part was walking through Parque La Corolina, a big park in the center of business district. This park had everything. A Dinosaur exhibit, a dirt bike track, weird statues, cool snack vendors, you name it. After so many days of hanging out in the old town, it was nice to reconnect with regular, modern life.

Off Day

We took a day in Quito to do nothing really. We sat around and read books and caught up on internet stories and we tried to order pizza but that didn’t work so we went out and got a little dinner somewhere unremarkable. Overall it was a great day.

Jesús del Gran Poder

Although we didn’t specifically plan it, we were lucky enough to be in Quito on Good Friday. This is lucky because Quito has the second largest Good Friday March, or “Jesús del Gran Poder” in the world (Seville holds the largest). The march features “Cucuruchos”, people dressed in purple garb and coned headwear, often carrying crosses or other uncomfortable jesus-related paraphernalia, sometimes without shirts, whipping themselves. It’s all very weird, but it’s also very traditional. It was quito a sight to behold.

Overall, our time in Quito was well-enjoyed. After staying 5 days, we were happy to get out and move on to the next destination – Lima, Peru!

We didn’t have a lot of expectations for Panama, other than we knew it would be the first Big City on our trip. As one of the most populous cities in Central America (1.4 million) and a skyline like a waveform, we didn’t want to miss it.

This lack of expectations made it difficult to be surprised, but there was plenty to be both delighted and disgusted by. First, lets dispense with the bad:

• Panama City could not be described as a very clean city. The transit systems seems to have little environmental regulations, and huge plumes of black smoke coming from buses, cars, and motorbikes are very common. Although there is a good amount of trees and plant life throughout the city, there is also garbage, standing water, and power lines dangling alarmingly low from many intersections downtown. After leaving the center of the city, things get slummy pretty quickly.
• It’s uncomfortably hot and humid almost all the time. Things settle down at night, but it was routinely high-90s (35C) here during the day.
• The waterfront has a long beautiful park, but it’s unfortunately soiled by the awful smell of the low-tide right next to it. The tides in Panama City are fairly intense, as the water will retreat from the shore by a good 10-20 feet.
• Panama is not a walkable city. Sidewalks are often nonexistent, cars are given the right-of-way almost always, and crosswalks feel extremely dangerous. Combined with the heat, the smell, noise, and pollution from the streets make waking anywhere more than a few blocks away unbearable.

Those things said, I can tell you more about the greatness of Panama City:

• The architecture: we saw so many insanely cool skyscrapers, and even more beautiful colonial building throughout Panama, and especially in Casco Viejo, the city’s old town, which I’ll discuss more later.

• The people: everyone we met was friendly and helpful. We never felt unsafe, and always welcome.

• The cost: our 4-star hotel (Hilton Doubletree) was only $60/night. Beers were $3 and a cab across town was $10.
• The authenticity: This could be an effect of being out of the carribean, where there are so many tourists, but we felt like there were surprisingly few other tourists around. So few, in fact, that we repeatedly saw some of the same travelers in restaurants and bus tours. We spoke Spanish (or least attempted to) with everyone we met, and it was greeted with fast and serious Spanish responses – no one assumed we were simply gringo tourists. (But once they realized, they were happy to be of help and switch to English if possible.)

We spent 5 days in Panama City and there was plenty to do. Here are some of the highlights:

• The Canal: Of course! The sole reason to visit for many. This engineering marvel has a fantastic multi-story visitor center at the Miraflores Locks with viewing decks to watch ships pass. There are roughly 40 transits made per day (at an average toll cost of $140,000!), so there’s and good chance you’ll get to watch one go through if you decide to visit. Tip: skip the movie; it’s not that interesting and already sadly out of date. We chatted with someone who did the crossing on a tourist boat and didn’t recommend it because of how long it takes, and how much of the time is simply spent waiting. Interesting note: they are currently building a very major expansion to the Miraflores Locks they will open by the end of the year. It will allow even larger ships to pass quicker, and reuse water to be less wasteful. You can read more about it here.

• Biomuseo: A new, super cool biodiversity museum designed by Frank Gehry. Unfortunately it was so new that only about 1.5 of the 4 exhibit areas were open, and construction was still going on in the areas around it. Still worth seeing, as the 9-screen surround (floor and ceiling!) Panamarama theatre is in full operation which shows a mini Planet Earth-style film that makes for an incredible experience. (I was the only one there when I saw it, and man was it cool.)

• Casco Viejo: The old town! This is where we should have stayed. Tons of cool colonial buildings, many of which are in the process of being restored into restaurants, cafes, and hotels. We got excellent coffee at the Ace-owned American Trade Hotel – one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever been, anywhere. We had an awesome dinner at the acclaimed Manolo Caracol, and later had beers at La Rana Dorada, a local microbrewery, that were excellent. We drank and took in the city views from the open air rooftop bar at Gatto Blanco. Overall, it was a blast.

Our final night in Panama was a great one for another reason: we got to meet a friend-of-a-friend, Rebecca, who was there on a work trip. We toured the old town with her, shooting portraits in front of buildings and doorways hundreds of times our age. We joined up with her compatriots, Ben and James, and had amazing fish tacos at The Fish Market (a food truck with live music) just down the street from their hotel. After 2 weeks of being with just each other, it was so nice to yam it up with a few new friends.

There are some things we didn’t see, such as the views from the club at the 62nd floor of the Hard Rock Megapolis, but I’m happy to leave that for another time. It also would have been nice to explore some more neighborhoods, but we really needed more of a local guide – the city center felt very disjointed to us.

Because of its downsides, Panama City may not be the fantastic vacation destination some of the Panamanians might have hoped it would be. While it’s not a city I see myself returning to soon, it’s one I do hope I have a reason to visit it again.