A Visit to Cumbayá

We decided a day trip to Cumbayá might be nice for a Saturday afternoon.  On our way there we stopped at Bike Stop and I found a really nice used Felt hard tail that I'm going to buy on Monday.  The sales guy spoke perfect English - turns out he had gone to Colegio Americano!  And he had been in Denver to see the new Orbea 2013 line a few weeks ago.  I'm psyched for my new bike, I can tell from a super short test ride that it's gonna be a great climber.  I might even take it back to Denver at the end, we'll see!

So after test riding my bike we hop on a green bus heading to Cumbayá from the corner of Eloy Alfaro and Granados.  We had no idea where to get off so we stayed on thinking we would see the reservoir and know that it was time to get off.  Nope, that didn't happen.  Sung asked a couple of teenage kids and they told us that we were way beyond Cumbayá so we immediately got off.  But as we got off the dude that we were supposed to pay had disappeared so we handed the driver some money.  We weren't sure how much it was so we gave him $0.75. He drove away so we figured it was close enough.  As he drove away the guy who was collecting money ran and jumped back on, who knows where he had gone?  Things like that always seem to happen here.  So we cross the street and decide we should just grab a cab back to Cumbayá since we didn't want the same thing to happen twice and end up back in Quito.

Of course the cab that pulls up is unmarked so we're a little hesitant to get in.  He says $2 and we say sure, okay.  Turns out he had lived in San Francisco for 25 years but was originally from Ecuador.  He gave us a free tour of Cumbayá and was super friendly.  He showed us the rails to trails path that I'm planning on using for some of my longer runs.  He also showed us the park and finally brought us to 'La Esquina' which is this open air place with a bunch of restaurants, coffee shops, and of course a pirated DVD store.

This is the trail head of the Chaquiñan (means 'trail' in Quechua), it's located right near the parque central which is surrounded by bars and restaurants. They rent bikes right there ($5 for an afternoon).

We also stopped by the park - nice open space, it was a beautiful sunny day!  With just enough breeze to keep us cooled off.

We were thirsty for some dark beer (as we always are) so we headed into the English pub for a pint.  It was PRICEY!!!  $6.25 for a pint, $13 for a burger.  Happy hour is 2 for 1 on 'cerveza de barril' (which I think is their microbrewed beer) and coctails, starts at 4, not sure how late it goes though...

Dark beer!  It was decent, not as good as Turtle's Head in Quito though.

European football

Turtle's Head was closed even though it was after 5 when they were supposed to open.

We headed to La Esquina to a sushi restaurant called 'Yoshi San' which turned out to be just okay.  The spicy tuna roll was good but our specialty Kamikaze roll was really bad, the crab was all watery and the outside wrap was some mysterious green leafy plant that didn't resemble the normal seaweed outside.  Strange!  The gyoza was disappointing also, it was deep fried and again - strange!

We had a super easy time getting home, jumped on a green bus heading back to Quito and paid the guy $0.35 each when we got on.  We successfully jumped off at Eloy Alfaro and got on another local bus who dropped us right at the bottom of our stairs.  We were proud of ourselves for navigating that! 

Below is a map for reference on Cumbayá, it should help with knowing when to get off the bus.  We couldn't find a single tourist map of Cumbayá online so I figured I'd create my own mini one.  So the bus will descend down and down and down into the valley.  The bus will probably stop at the Megamaxi and then it will keep going past the large traffic circle.  After the traffic circle get off at one of the next stops.  This will get you close to the park, the trail head, and to La Esquina.

Overall I liked Cumbayá, people were super friendly, it seemed safer (I know, that's exactly when pickpocketing happens, when you let your guard down), a great little day trip.  Excited to do my long runs and then finish with a dark beer at Turtle's Head, I'll just have to time it right so I finish well after 5!