{"id":556,"date":"2021-04-02T11:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T16:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/millennialroad.com\/?p=556"},"modified":"2021-04-06T14:20:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T19:20:38","slug":"riots-in-quito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/millennialroad.com\/riots-in-quito\/","title":{"rendered":"Riots in Quito"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Quito\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chaotic and violent riots are not exactly what you hope for when you visit a new destination, but that is exactly what we got when we arrived in Quito. As the capital of Ecuador, Quito is typically a popular tourist city. When we flew into the city on October 11, 2019, it was a very different place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had initially planned to spend a week or two in Quito, exploring the city and meeting tour operators to negotiate a good deal on a last-minute cruise around the Gal\u00e1pagos Islands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were generally aware that some protests were happening in connection with a bill passed to eliminate a fuel subsidiary, but we had not heard much else about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our understanding was that the protests were peaceful, and there would be nothing to worry about as a tourist. As soon as we got into our Uber from the airport, we realized we might have underestimated the gravity of the situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Quito\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The protests had apparently started escalating within the previous days, and our Uber driver expressed an alarming amount of concern for us. Given that downtown is the central location of the government, the protestors had gathered around that area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As “luck” would have it, we had planned to stay downtown. Our driver hesitantly brought us there but cautioned that it was not a good idea to stay in the area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as we neared downtown, we immediately noticed that nearly every single business in the vicinity was closed. The streets looked desolate and were filled with rubbish. I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised when we saw that our hotel was boarded up and shut down as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Quito\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We frantically began searching for a new place to stay as our driver kindly drove us to a different part of the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we finally made it safely to a new hotel \u2013 Hotel Reina Isabela<\/a> \u2013 we let out a sigh of relief. The hotel staff was very accomodating and upgraded us to a suite (I suspect due to the circumstances). Still, we had no idea what we had in store over the coming days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government put a curfew into effect the next day due to the protests. The curfew was initially set for 3:00 in the afternoon but was later changed to a 24-hour curfew because the situation had continued to spiral out of control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n