Accommodation:
Colonial House Hostel. A really nice hostel. I think one of the best so far. It’s a 200 year old colonial house with lots of big rooms, an outdoor area (with hammocks and baby rabbits), a kitchen and lots of other communal areas. The staff were very friendly and let us leave our bags at the hostel while we went on our trip to the amazon (thank god as taking two surfboards to the middle of the jungle would have been a nightmare.) Only thing that would be better is a free breakfast – it’s $3.50 and yes it’s big but I can find an even bigger breakfast in the centre for $2.50 and that $1 you save can genuinely buy you quite a lot here.
Sights/activities:
Free Walking Tour
A good way to get an overview of the Old Town is to sign up for one of the many free walking tours. It lasted two and a half hours and took us round all the main tourist sites and attractions, most of which tended to be churches. The walking tour was good in giving some extra information e.g. one of Ecuador’s contraversial Presidents was murdered with an axe just outside of the Presidential Palace. Although, I think I tend to prefer walking around a new city on my own (especially as they expect a lot of tips – free is a lie.)
Plaza Grande (and Presidential Palace)
Whilst we were there the President of Ecuador was changing so the square was very busy and brightly decorated with Ecuadorean flags. In general a very pretty square just to do a bit of people watching right in the centre of the Old Town.
El Panecillo
There is a massive statue of the Virgin of Quito wearing a crown of stars and standing atop a dragon in chains, overlooking the city from the top of a hill (which you can’t exactly miss.) We took a taxi up to the top (apparently it’s not safe to walk up) and paid $1 each to walk up to the top of the monument. The views over Quito are remarkable and the monument too is an impressive sight. Although catching a taxi back down is quite hard as there are none, and because we are obvious tourists we were charged more on our return journey.
Basilica del Voto Nacional
A beautiful structure in Quito’s Old Town. It’s huge, which was kind of helpful as whenever we were a bit lost we could work out where we were by where the basilica was. It costs $2 to climb up to the top of the towers (which is about 40m high) and it definitely feels high, the steps are very vertical and they are outside the main structure (at least for the last part) so it’s not for those who have a fear of heights (Thomas couldn’t quite manage the last stairs.) My favourite touch are the ‘gargoyles’ which are traditional Ecuadorean creatures e.g. Jaguars from the rainforest, marine iguanas from the Galapagos etc. The views over Quito are also very impressive from the the top.
We did a day trip with Latin American Tours to go and see the equator line (where there’s a museum and monument.) There is really no need to do a tour – we paid a whopping $35 each for basically nothing (our tour guide was really nice but unnecessary – you can definitely do this yourself.) At the museum we carried out some experiments to show the lack of gravity at the equator line so (for instance) you are able to balance an egg on a nail (I mean I wasn’t able to but it’s possible.) 200m away is the monument marking the line of the equator, although this is actually in the wrong place and the real equator line is at the museum.
Food:
So the Old Town during the day is exceptionally busy, yet once you reach the evening everything closes. Therefore, trying to find supper is almost impossible. Fortunately we had a nearby restaurant selling a main meal for about $2.75 but this was quite a rare find (and don’t even try to eat later than 10 as there will be nowhere still open. Apparently the place to go in the evening is La Mariscal (known as the gringo area as that’s where most of the tourists tend to stay.)
However, for lunch and breakfast things are much easier and we found plenty of places doing set menus for about $2.50. One more thing to note: male a visit to one of the many panaderias (bakeries) and get the banana bread. It’s so good.
Summary:
Quito was our first taste of Ecuador. For me, the Basilica and El Panecillo were two very remarkable structures that are definitely worth going to see. The rest was maybe a bit more average. Put it this way, I’m glad I went there and it was an interesting city to visit but would I go back again? Probably not.
Wizz round the world 