So after the Galapagos we have just been chilling and seeing the sights of Quito for a few days. Yesterday turned out to be quite a busy day however with us catching the TeleferiQo cable car, hiking up Cruz Loma and sampling a few brews at Santa Espuma Microbrewery.
In the morning we caught a cab out to TeleferiQo, which is the cable car up to the base of the Cruz Loma volcano. The cable car takes you to 4050m above sea level and then you can hike the remaining 600 metres to get to the top of the crater of this dormant volcano (total of 4650m above sea level). We only hiked about halfway as the weather started closing in and the path got fairly slippery, but at that altitude a 2hour hike was still very good preperation for Machu Picchu, which we will be doing next week.
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After lunch we had to go out to the airport and pick up Chrissys backpack as TAME Airlines damaged it and then once they had fixed it they refused to send it to our hostel, or to even pay for our taxi fares out to the airport. Not impressed, dont fly TAME if you can help it.
This slight downer was made up for by the fact that we then headed over to Santa Espuma Microbrewery, which is located right on the edge of La Mariscal district in Quito. Santa Espuma has a small brewery on premesis and doesnt bottle any beers so you can only get them there. It was nice to site by the open fire and have a few proper microbrews, instead of the usual bland, light South American beers.
First up I tried ‘TunqusImage may be NSFW.
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h’ which is their Golden Ale. It has a light, pale yellow colourand a solid foamy head. There is a definite yeast smell something like bread dough or over-ripe fruit. Taste wise you can taste a slight, but not unpleasant yeast taste and only a tiny bit of bitterness. Overall a fairly solid beer by Ecuadorian standards.
Next up was ‘Puka’ Pale Ale. This had a deep tan colour and a very thick, stable head. You could smell the hops and also a dash of fruit or cinnamon. Same tastes came through, although it got hoppier as it warmed up and there was no bitterness at all, but it wasnt overly sweet.
Finally i tried ‘Yana’ which is their Porter. This was dark black and surprisingly had virtually no smell. It was very mild for a Porter and only had a slight grape taste. It did match well with the lamb rack that we had for dinner (which unfortnately was a bit overcooked).
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Heading off to Peru tomorrow and then start our trek early next week. Should have a report from Lima over the weekend.
- Shaun
