How do I spend my last day and night in Quito?
I ventured out of my hotel room and explored the hotel a little bit. The Grand Mercure Alameda Quito Hotel is a beautiful hotel with a lot to offer. Consider this my personal review of the hotel. Wonderful Staff. Beautiful Hotel. Good Food. The hotel staff do their best to speak English for me or they allow me to give them my best Spanglish. My most successful strategy thus far has been to write down my Spanish instead of trying to say it and sat it wrong.
On my exploration of the hotel, I found their décor to be very patriotic. The have large prints spanning across much of the wall depicting both natural wildlife (including a beautiful portrait of Jaguar and another of a Galapagos Tortoise) and the indigenous people (my favorite is of young Ecuadorian girls holding two kittens as if they are the most amazing things in the world). The lobby televisions have videos streaming of the national bird, the Andean Condor, which is a beautiful and incredibly endangered animal. Also, in the lobby, there are two large cow-skin covered chairs.
There is also a bar inside that has a world map covering the bar. In the bar area, there is a beautiful sit down space. Right outside of the bar, there is an entrance to hotel’s personal casino. I did not venture inside considering my aversion to gambling but I’m sure it is lovely. In addition to the bar, beautiful photos, and the casino, the hotel also has a lovely, but limited library. Yay for reading!
Following my adventure through the hotel, I returned to my room to order dinner. I even ordered my dinner completely in Spanish. At some points, I had no idea what the order taker was saying, so I just said, “Si. Si.”, with no idea what I was saying yes to. Haha.
I had Consome de Pollo y Pasta for a starter, which was a delicious and incredibly light soup with peas, celery, onions, carrots, large hunks of chicken, and spaghetti noodles. For a cold $5.76, it was very good.
For my main course, I had Costillas de BBQ which is the hotels version of BBQ ribs. Surprise here is! The ribs had no bones in them and I ate them with a fork, They came with fries and a similar salad to the one I had last night with my Lasagna. I got this all for $11.53. Can’t get baby back ribs for $11.50 at home. Haha.
AND the best part, of course, was desert. I ordered Crumble de Manzana, which is like our apple crumble, but not really. It’s very spiced apples topped with a crunchy-something (I don’t know what it is, but I’d bathe in it) and served with a thin-strawberry sauce and vanilla ice cream. I ate this first, so this is especially delicious. My desert was $4.48 and I’d pay it again.
Since eating dinner, I’ve spent my time watching TV and doing something many would consider stupid. I felt the need for some sort of symbolism or peace with this place that has become my temporary nesting grounds. Every meal I’ve had here has been accompanies with a beautiful rose in a small glass bowl with white rocks in it. I felt as though they’d throw them away if I sent them back with the room service tray, so I kept them on my little table in my room.
You’re probably wondering why this is important. Tonight, I took the red rose, I received the first night here and separated 30 petals from the stem. I then took them out onto my balcony and tossed them into the wind, watching them soar through the little bit of Quito I can see from my balcony. Each petal represents one of the days I will spend here. The rose itself represents Ecuador (the Rose is Ecuador’s national flower). And why would I toss them off my balcony? To represent my journey to finally finding my own freedom.
Tomorrow marks the true beginning of finding that freedom.
Anxiously finding my freedom, it’s all about:
Love and Andean Bears,
Ashley
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