My Favorite Place in Quito, Ecuador

My husband's family lives in Quito, Ecuador. We traveled for 10 days during the holidays last year to see them. This was Emma's first trip to Ecuador and my second one. This trip was only 20 days after coming back from Colombia and I also took a short work trip in between. I was exhausted! 

One of my biggest fears about traveling with Emma is that she will get sick. We arrived to Quito on Christmas eve and Andre's niece got sick that night. The day after we arrived, Emma got sick with a nasty virus that felt like the flu. She had a high fever for one day and after that she started to get better. I got sick the following day and Andre survived. He wasn't that lucky, he got e-coli and ended up in the ER one day. As you can imagine, we didn't do much. The only thing that we did was to spend an afternoon in the historic downtown. This is my favorite colonial downtown and I wanted to take some pictures of Emma and walk around after recovering from our tropical virus. 

Just like it happened in Colombia weeks before, Emma wanted to be carried just by me. I was prepared with my ergo baby and I walked around all of downtown with Emma on my back. She even took a nap there. The altitude in Quito is 2,900 meters and I felt sick most of the days that we were there. It was hard, but I was happy to be out after feeling sick for several days.

For new year's eve, you are supposed to burn the "old year" at midnight. We did this in Colombia too. It's fun to make it and also to burn it and make some noise to welcome the new year. Some people make a full size doll and fill it with fire works. In Ecuador, you can buy a mask and use it for your año viejo. Some of those are local politicians. You can see the masks for sale on the pictures below. 

We don't have any plans to go to Ecuador in the near future, but I am sure we will be back soon. Hopefully we won't get sick again! 

Chao Quito

Our flight to Miami was scheduled at 6:00 PM which meant we had some time to say good bye and do one last thing. Before leaving we both wanted to eat a Hamburguesa El Corral. This is a Colombian chain restaurant that makes the best hamburgers that I've ever had. I never eat hamburgers unless they are from this place. We had a kid's size burger as our early lunch. Andre drove me to El Jardin (shopping center) and I was surprised to see several stores of my favorite Colombian clothing brands. After our trip to Cali for our wedding I was disappointed that I couldn't buy anything because we were too busy. I am a quick shopper and I was able to buy a few things in less than one hour. 

We got ready for our second lunch at Vaco y Vaca before going to the airport. I had a steak with rice and salad. Steak is one of the things that I can't eat often because I don't like it too much. I also had my last cup of Juan Valdez coffee. 

It was very sad to say goodbye to Andre's family. We spent a week with them and we were not ready to  leave. I hate goodbyes and the airport makes it worse since there are some many people around you doing the same. I always cry and seeing them cry didn't help. I know that we will be back in Quito soon and I am happy to do so. Quito is a beautiful City with many things to see and do. The New York Times published this 36 hous in Quito article which I found completely true. We will try to always fly with LAN from now on. Our experience with them was wonderful and the personal screens made the flight short. We decided to spend the night in Miami since our flight arrived at almost midnight. The next morning we drove to Tampa and got psychologically ready to get back to work the following day. 

Quito Day 7, Cotopaxi

This was our last full day in Quito. We woke up early to drive to the active Cotopaxi Volcano. Unfortunately, there was a lot of traffic getting out of the City and Andre had never driven there before. We missed the entrance a few times. The signs are very confusing and when we asked for directions (twice) they sent us in the opposite direction. We knew that the Cotopaxi gets cloudy in the afternoon. The roads were extremely nice and in very good condition. The problem was that we kept seeing the volcano, but could not find the entrance. Our only reference was that if we reached the town of Latacunga, we had to turn around. 

Getting out of Quito

Getting cloudy

Getting close to our destination

We finally reached the entrance by 1:00 PM. We started to drive towards the base of the volcano. We decided not to drive the extra hour to the base of the volcano because it was raining. I was sad to turn back but I knew that it was a bad idea to drive a small car in a muddy road. 

The entrance to the Cotopaxi National Park

Tour guides anyone?

This is where we turned back. From this point is 1 hour drive to the base

Restaurant offering Coca tea for the high altitude sickness

My failed attempt to visit the Cotopaxi

Cloudy Cotopaxi

Zoom in of the Cotopaxi

This is what the Cotopaxi is supposed to look like. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it up close. I had a glance when we were driving on the highway before it started to rain. We will return in our next trip and hopefully we will have better luck with the weather.

First sight of the Cotopaxi from the highway. Photo Credit: Alan Falcony

Cotopaxi. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

After we got back, the storm was already in Quito. This was very heavy rain and we were lost again. This was our last night and we had plans to go out with some of Andre's friends and his 2 sisters. While we were waiting to be picked up, there was an earthquake. It was only a 4.0 magnitude, but I haven't felt one in a LONG time. I got dizzy, then scared, and I couldn't stop my nervous laugh. This is very annoying to every one who is really scared. Thankfully nobody was scared as mild earthquakes are common in South America. 

On our last night we went to a restaurant/bar called La Naranjilla Mecanica. This was a hip place with unique decorations and comfortable couches. We order food, had a few drinks and went to sleep at around 1:00 AM. I found this bar in the list of Lonely Planet's things to do in Quito.

We only had a half day left in Quito and we did not want our trip to end.

Quito Day 6

The closest shopping mall to where we stayed is El Bosque. Most days we went there to get some Juan Valdez coffee. We also loved a movie store that sold cheap DVDs. This day was a day to relax. We woke up early, had lunch at home, went to the mall, shopped for Ecuadorian candy and snacks to bring back home. We might have brought at least one carry-on full of chocolates and food. 

View from El Bosque' food court (Quito's airport is the long-flat-green area)

Juan Valdez, El Bosque

Later that day we spent some time with Andre's family. That night, we had an invitation to a meat fondue at one of Andre's friend. We had a good time. I enjoyed listening to their childhood stories. Andre's friend was supposed to drive us to the Cotopaxi Volcano the following day. That night we found out that he could not take us. Since we only had one last full day in Ecuador, I was disappointed. The Cotopaxi was the one things that I wanted to see during this trip and I was going to have to wait. Andre got directions from his friends, and he said he knew how to take me there. I was excited for the following day. I have never seen snow!! Actually, I have but I was only 3 years old. I don't remember anything but there is a picture to prove it. 

Quito Day 5-Part 2, La Ronda

After a busy day around City, we headed out with one of Andre's friends to La Ronda. This is a narrow street in the historic downtown where the colonial houses have been renovated into bars, restaurants, shops, and hostels. Apparently this has always been the bohemian street in Quito so the bars are not new. I wanted to go back during the day and take better pictures of this beautiful street. Unfortunately, we didn't have many days left in Quito and we did not return to the Center. It was a cold night like most nights in Quito. The days are warm when it is sunny, but the nights are always cold.  Make sure that you always carry a jacket if you are staying out all day.

La Ronda, Quito

Tiny doors and balconies

While you are walking La Ronda, there are poster-like signs with the history of the street in English and Spanish. 

I found this great map in the official Quito Travel Information Website. There is a lot of information for anyone that is planning a trip to Quito. The website is also available in English. 

La Ronda Street is the orange line. Photo Credit: http://www.quito.com.ec/

After walking La Ronda for about one hour we decided to go to El Panecillo to see the City from this hill.  La Virgen del Panecillo, is located on top of the hill and it is visible from most of the city. The downtown looked beautiful from el Panecillo. There is a restaurant located in el Panecillo called Pim's that has a beautiful view of the City. The churches and streets are all very well lit. I gave up with night pictures and all of these were taken with my iPhone. I love instragram and how it makes poor quality pictures look better. 

La Virgen del Panecillo at night

After looking at the Virgin we went to La Mariscal to have dinner and some drinks. This is the main tourist night district in Quito. There are lots of bars and restaurants in this area. The Quiteños call it "La Zona" or the zone. We decided to go to La Plaza Foch to the third floor to Sports Planet. While we were waiting for our dinner, I went downstairs to the Juan Valdez to find a cute t-shirt. There are 11 Juan Valdez Cafe locations in Quito and that made me very happy. One of those was very close to us and most mornings I had my daily coffee from there. I could not have asked for more. 

My daily Juan Valdez cappuccino

Quito Day 5, Part 1

As 2011 comes to an end, I can't help but think about all the great experiences that I had this year. It was a slower travel year for me but it was definitely a good year. The year started in Colombia along with my whole family. This was the first time in 12 years that we were all back home for New Year's Eve. I got married in August, and saving my vacation days at the beginning of the year only left me with a few trips to Miami for my Bachelorette Party and for a Luis Miguel's Concert to avoid boredom in Tampa. We also made several trips to Orlando and Jacksonville. I got married in my hometown in Cali, Colombia and it was a lot of work to plan it from far away. I had my mom helping me a lot otherwise we couldn't have had the party that we had. I wrote a series of post about Cali, Bogota, and Cartagena for some of my friends that were traveling to Colombia for our wedding. Our honeymoon was in Hawaii. I had already been to Oahu in 2008, but I was in love with Hawaii and happy to return. We visited Oahu and Kauai. Now I am in love with Kauai. After our honeymoon I had to come back to work and I thought that I wouldn't be able to ask for any more days off. Luckily I worked crazy hours in October and I was able to ask for 3 days off in November to travel to my husband's hometown of Quito, Ecuador. I turned 30 this year and was mortified to get old. The worst part of turning 30 was the anticipation. We also moved to a new apartment just before the wedding and honeymoon. We stayed in Tampa for Christmas and NYE. My family is all here so we are together, but it is not very exciting to be in Tampa. I miss the fireworks and the people on the street just being happy because it is the end of the year. I always miss Cali in this time of the year mostly because of La Feria de Cali (The Cali Fair). La Feria is the end of the year celebration that happens every year from December 25th to December 30th. There are concerts, parades, the best full fighters from the world come to Cali, the country clubs have parties with the most popular singers and bands, and the whole City participates in this massive party.

Ok, enough about 2011 and back to our Quito trip... This was probably one of my favorite days in our trip. We started the day by visiting the Guayasamin Foundation. Oswaldo Guayasamin was an amazing Ecuadorian artists. I call him the the latin american Picasso. His work is very impressive and his old house in Quito was converted into a museum. We were informed that in 2012 they are moving the museum to La Capilla del Hombre. I bought a nice print for me and my mom and many post cards that I'm planning to frame.

Fundacion Guayasamin, Quito

Inside the Guayasamin Foundation

After visiting the museum, we had lunch at Astrid & Gaston. I've been wanting to go to this restaurant in Bogota for several years. When I found out that they had one in Quito I asked Andre and his best friend to go. Astrid & Gaston is originally from Lima, but they have restaurants in all of the Capitals in Latin America. This is THE best peruvian restaurant chain that you can find. If you haven't tried Peruvian Cuisine, I highly recommend it. I had one pisco sour strong enough to make me laugh for a while. I ordered my favorite Peruvian dish, Lomo Saltado and also a ceviche as an appetizer. Astrid & Gaston did not disappoint. 

Astrid & Gaston, Quito

After our lunch, we stopped to see the Guapulo Chruch on our way to get a traditional dessert.

Guapalo Church

We drove to Cumbaya to try one of the traditional Helados de Paila. This is a handmade sorbet made of real fruit by rotating a copper pan in ice. I love all the tropical fruit flavors. They taste like a frozen fruit juice on a cone.

Helados de Paila

We were trying to go to El Panecillo to see the Virgin up close and to see Quito from the hill. We got lost and got stuck in rush hour traffic so we gave up on our trip and headed home. We tried to spend every day with Andre's parents from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM and after that we went out. This night we had plans to go with one of Andre's friends to La Ronda, a street in The Historic Downtown famous for its night life. I will blog about this night in my next post. 

Happy New Year!!!! May 2012 bring you love, health, and happiness!