Our easy 1.5 hour flight from Panama City, Panama to the new Quito airport turned into 4.5 hours, making the would be short trip from Florida to Ecuador not so short. Fog rolled in quickly between the mountains surrounding the new airport, and the pilot had to pull up and circle a few times before moving on to Guayaquil and landing to re-fuel and wait out the weather. The new airport is quite a distance from downtown Quito and the Centro Historico area. About an hour ride by taxi with no traffic at 2 am, not sure I would recommend trying to navigate the public bus system on this one. A taxi however runs about $30, and we found this to be the going rate amongst hostels that once provided free airport pickup, however no longer due to the distance. Not sure how valid the source, but we were told that recommendations had been made not to build the airport in the new location because of frequent fog, but the project moved forward. Whatever the case, delays are apparently common already, so have plan B ready accordingly. We were pleasantly surprised: the taxi driver sent by the hostel waited the entire 3 hour delay for us! (He received a generous tip).
It was 4 am when we laid our heads to rest at the Colonial House Hostal, and the roosters were already starting to crow. The room was clean, the bed was comfortable, and the roosters were quickly tuned out. We woke up around 9 and opened the window to the fresh, crisp morning air, to a view out the window of the angel on the hill. Time to put on the shoes and hit the streets in search of a local cafe serving comidas tipicas (typical food -local food) with real coffee (not instant), and do some people watching.
We found one on Calle Guayaquil. A freshly made jugo natural of sandia (watermelon), filtered coffee, and a baseball sized bolon (breaded green plantain and cheese mixture) and a pastry set us back a whopping $2.50 with tax and tip. All good and we were off to the hostel to meet our hosts from Children International for a wonderful day.