Quito, Ecuador

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After several stressful, hectic and socially active days we left San Francisco on 28th October at 1.25am to fly to Quito, Ecuador. That we made the flight was quite an achievement considering that we were still delivering important documents for storage with our good friends Tim and Sarah right up until 9.30pm on Saturday night!!

Consuming a chicken sandwich and a Fat Tire at Cafe Il Fornaio (the only place still open at SFO and a situation we would soon regret) we boarded the plane for our flight to Quito via El Salvador - San Jose, Costa Rica - Quito; arriving exhausted at about 1.30pm. Breaking all of my normal rules for avoiding jet lag, we sank into a deep sleep only to awake at 6.30pm feeling very, very crook.

Within hours we were both suffering from an unpleasant case of "Traveller´s Stomach" - all within hours of leaving home!! Despite the inauspicious start to our trip, the next morning we ventured out to explore the very Spanish section of "Old Town", Quito.

Quito is nestled in a valley between several volcanoes and the old town, built by the Spanish during the colonization, is very picturesque. Many of the Old Town´s public buildings and churches were constructed on the ruins of ancient Incan structures as part of the effort to convert the local population; eg. Catholic churches were built on Incan Temples as part of the missionaries plan to get the incas to covert to christianity.

In Plaza Grande we were lucky enough to witness an interesting Ecuadorian political feature - every Monday a crowd gathers and the President and his staff appear on the balcony of the President´s Palace to acknowledge the people and wave at the crowd.

We then visited a number of colonial churches filled with religious artwork from various Masters of the Quito School and spent some time people watching in the Plaza San Francisco (felt very at home here :-) ).

After returning from the Galapagos (which you´ll read about in another entry), we had a couple of extra days in Quito so we decided to brave the weather and head up the Telerifiquo (cable car) to the 4,100 metre summit of Volcan Pichinicha.

The views of Quito from 4,200 metres were great (luckily the weather cleared) and we began to appreciate the true size of the city. Not letting our occassional shortness of breath get to us, we decided to rent a couple of horses and go for a trail ride around the base of Pichinicha - for $5 this was a great deal and a lot of fun!

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Photos

Old Town, Quito
Plaza Grand in Quito

Presidential Palace
Every Monday the President of Ecuador addresses the people in the Plaza Grande

Plaza San Francisco
View from the Plaza of San Francisco

Cathedral La Campania
This church is gilded in gold leaf

View of Quito at 4,100 metres
View from the top of the Telerifiqo, Quito

Horseriding at 4200 metres
A trail ride around the base of Volcan Pichincha

Comments

[Jennifer]

Quito
Isn't Quito great, good to see you guys on some Ecuadorian horses. The view from the telerifiquo is so beautiful. Did you get a chance to go on one of the crowded ecovia red buses that go along 6 decembre?? truly a squeezy experience!! Love Jen