大咖福利影院

Top Ten Reasons To Prefer a City in the Quito vs. Cuenca 肠辞尘辫补谤颈肠颈贸苍....

10.聽 More oxygen in the air:聽 Avantage Cuenca.聽 Cuenca is about 1,150 feet lower in altitude, ipso facto more 辞虫铆驳别苍辞.

9.聽 Air pollution:聽 Tie.聽 Both cities have historically had low-quality air near bus routes.聽 Cuenca recently started testing some low-pollution-producing buses, and may eclipse Quito in this category if the experiment succeeds.

8.聽 Access via air travel:聽 Advantage Quito.聽 With international flights to Miami, two Texas cities, Atlanta, Lima (Peru), Bogot谩 (Colombia) and other destinations, Quito is clearly the winner in this travel category.聽 Many travelers from the U.S. have to do two days of travel to get from up North to Cuenca.

7.聽 Safety:聽 Advantage Cuenca.聽 It鈥檚 a smaller city with fewer questionable neighborhoods.

6.听 罢谤谩尘颈迟别蝉 -- meaning the ease of getting stuff done via the bureaucracies:聽 Advantage Quito.聽 Any national agency you want is in the capital .. with special emphasis on the U.S. Embassy.聽 The Embassy has notary service for U.S. documents, $50 a page.

5.聽 Expat events:聽 Advantage Cuenca.聽 The S.A. Explorers closed their Ecuador clubhouse in Quito this year.聽 Cuenca has more Expat events, meetings and field trips.聽 Quito does get credit for some new-groups' events, including the language-exchange meetings.

4.聽 Mall shopping:聽 Advantage Quito.聽 Lots of malls in the bigger city, with a special nod to the great options at Centro Comercial QuiCentro.

3.聽 Waterways:聽 Advantage Cuenca, due to its rivers and parklands.

2.聽 International food:聽 Advantage Quito.聽 It鈥檚 a big city with a range of excellent restaurants featuring exotic cuisines -- among them, Italian, Peruvian, Indian and Thai.聽 Ecuadorian cities are not known for Chinese restaurants, called chifas in La Rep煤blica -- (CHEE-fahss).聽 If you know a great one, please post on this thread.

And the #1 reason to choose Quito or Cuenca....

1.聽 Massage:聽 There are half a dozen options in Quito's Marisca-sector 辫别濒耻辩耻别谤铆补蝉 within a couple of blocks of Amazonas and Wilson, with the going price $20 for an hour.聽 Any city that offers the massage services of the wonderful Gatubelita -- at the cuartitos in the back of Dodied hair salon, Wilson between Amazonas and Juan Le贸n Mera -- gets my vote.聽 Advantage:聽 Quito.

聽 -- cccmedia, Quito resident

Hi, vsimple and cccmedia,
Thank you much for the informative observations. Altitude is important, as I discovered while in Oaxaca and wondering why I was short of breath (but acclimated in a few days).

An interesting insight, ccc, about chifas. My Hispanic and M.E. ESL students don't fancy "Chinese" fare--in quotation marks because, aside from Chinatown (e.g.,聽 in NY or San Fran), those who have lived in China know, the cuisine in the US is hardly authentic or typical of any of the provinces (Szechuan, Cantonese, Fujianese).

Regards,
PS

The elusive Chinese restaurant that serves delicious food shall be found.聽 I鈥檝e travel coming up but upon my return I will make it a priority, and a good place to begin this endeavor is Amazonas around Tom谩s de Berlanga as there are at least five or six restaurants within short walking distance of one another. Hey one of them has to turn out good.聽

Unfortunately, the lack of quality extends to other Asian cuisines as well. I haven鈥檛 found good Thai or Indian. And the places I visited sell various Asians dishes and this is a big no no for me, for example Siam Thai Sushi, or the Indian joint on Shyiris that sells Seco de Pollo in local spices, and Shawarma.

I think perhaps these places initially started selling one particular cuisine but failed to attract enough customers and as a result diversified their menus.

Alright I am happy to announce that I found a decent Chinese restaurant in Quito. It was the third one I visited since I made the pledge in the previous post, but alas something acceptable was found. I'll write about it and the other two in the ethnic food thread as I think it's more appropriate, either later tonight or tomorrow.

vsimple wrote:

I am happy to announce that I found a decent Chinese restaurant in Quito.聽 It was the third one I visited....

Don鈥檛 tease us, dammit! Spill the beans, V.

If it鈥檚 near that obscure Tom谩s de Berlanger street, please give us a reference or landmark such as a nearby stop on the Ecov铆a bus line.

cccmedia in Quito

vsimple wrote:

Unfortunately, the lack of quality extends to other Asian cuisines as well. I haven鈥檛 found good Thai or Indian.

Have you tried Indian restaurant Sher-e-Punjab on Juan Le贸n Mera just south of the Marriott Hotel?聽 I鈥檇 be interested in your opinion of the food there.

FYI, at the Punjab restaurant they usually show Bollywood music videos on the TV screens while you wait.聽 Oh, and expect free nan or rice as an 补肠辞尘辫补帽补苍迟别 with most dishes -- your choice.

Feel free to respond to my questions on the Ethnic food thread you mentioned.

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

vsimple wrote:

Unfortunately, the lack of quality extends to other Asian cuisines as well. I haven鈥檛 found good Thai or Indian.

Have you tried Indian restaurant Sher-e-Punjab on Juan Le贸n Mera just south of the Marriott Hotel?聽 I鈥檇 be interested in your opinion of the food there.

FYI, at the Punjab restaurant they usually show Bollywood music videos on the TV screens while you wait.聽 Oh, and expect free nan or rice as an 补肠辞尘辫补帽补苍迟别 with most dishes -- your choice.

Feel free to respond to my questions on the Ethnic food thread you mentioned.

cccmedia in Quito

Thanks for the tip, and yeah I'll definitely try it as I love Indian food and the location is perfect.