Quito, Ecuador

Our rendezvous point before and after our visit to the Galapagos was Quito, Ecuador, the oldest of the South American capitals. Quito sits high in an Andean valley over 9000 feet in altitude. Built on an old Incan city, its architectures are a blend of European and indigenous influences with ornate colonial cathedrals rivaling anything seen in Europe to its quaint old town which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We arrived a few days before New Year’s Eve which allowed us to participate in several of the Ecuadorian traditions for the New Year. This includes making papier mache effigies of the old year and then beating and burning the effigy to rid oneself of what the effigy represents. Max and others in our tour group bought a CoVID papier mache mask effigy and participated in the ritual on New Year’s Eve. Others dress up in Halloween costumes and roam the streets, often getting stopped to take pictures with the crowd if the costumes are really good. We watched a look-a-like Kiss band take pictures all afternoon at the street corner below our room. Finally, men dress up as women, representing the soon-to-be widow of the dying old year. They roam the streets, often begging in a high falsetto voice for a few coins from passing cars to support their destitute faux situation!

The cathedrals in town are spectacular. The architects that built Notre Dame were employed to build the Basilica del Voto Nacional which stands out from all viewpoints of the city. If you have been to Notre Dame, you will immediately recognize this Basilica as a close copy! The stained glass windows inside are breathtaking and the high walkway under the roof gives a unique vantage point as do the towers which can be climbed. Further into old town is the Iglesia del la Compania de Jesus that has a gilded alter and very ornate woodwork inside.

The other religious icon in the area is La Virgen de El Panecillo. This is a massive aluminum statue of the Virgen Mary overlooking old town from the heights of El Panecillo (“the little bread” which is the name of the hilltop she rests on). It is the tallest aluminum statue in the world, and the tallest of a winged virgin.

Old town itself is picturesque with its colorful colonial buildings and ornate rock architecture facades. In the middle of Independence Square one can find the President’s House. There we learned from our guide the story about how Ecuador came to use the US dollar as its currency (handy for tourists).

For the best view of the city one can take the TeleferiQo Cable Car to a viewpoint on the side of Pichincha Volcano. There you can see spectacular views in multiple directions of Quito and the surrounding volcanoes as well as Pichincha. You can also swing on a giant swing to get a bird’s eye view.

When in Ecuador, you of course need to see the equator, latitude zero. There are two different attractions for this, but the main monument that everyone goes to is actually NOT at latitude zero! Instead, one must go to the Media del Mundo to get to the true location. While this place is a little schmaltzy (bizarre side attractions on Amazon indigenous people, shrunken heads, Amazon animals, and a stone sculpture garden), getting to the actual latitude zero is a welcome accomplishment that is proven with a GPS display. Once there, multiple things can be done like balancing a raw egg on its end or witnessing the Coriolis effect (clockwise versus counterclockwise water swirling down the drain) mere feet on either side of the equatorial line. And yes, the water goes straight down the drain directly over the equator!

One of our final days we took a trip to hike Cotopaxi, one of the higher currently active volcanoes. Our tour bus navigated the bumpy dirt road to the parking lot near 15,000 feet and then we hiked the rest of the way to the first base camp where we were excited to top out at 16,000 feet, the highest we have ever hiked. Unfortunately we were not able to hike further up (Cotopaxi tops out at 19,300 feet) because the dangers of the volcano being currently active. In fact, three days later it erupted again! So, we were lucky to be able to even hike to base camp! Sadly, the volcano was shrouded in clouds during this hike, and we were pelted with snow on the way up, so we were unable to get a clear photo of the entire volcano. We did however get to bike down from the volcano on some questionably maintained bikes. My bike gear system exploded three quarters of the way down, so I had to ride the shameful sag bus the rest of the way!

We took one of our final days to walk down the botanic gardens in the city. While it was a time of year that not as many blooms were out, there were still many beautiful flowers and plants to see. Their bonsai garden in particular is one of the best I have seen.

We were very lucky to have an Ecuadorian friend from our Machu Pichu hike be able to join us with his father on our final day in Quito. They treated us to an up-close view of La Virgen de El Panecillo, some wonderful restaurants that had epic views of the city, and of course one last visit to the chocolate shop!

Quito has such a rich history. Its people are friendly and easy–going, and frankly we felt quite safe there even though there are many stories of pickpockets and robberies. However, the Quito government has done a good job of employing tourist police whose only job is to assure the safety of tourists. We walked all over the city and never once had a negative encounter. Quito has a unique beauty and anyone who is enamored with mountain views like Colorado has would really enjoy visiting the city.