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! 

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's Historic Center Walking Tour

I had to look this up before I wrote it. Everyone told me Quito was a UNESCO heritage site. I confirmed that Quito, because of its large the historic center, was the first declared UNESCO World Heritage Site. The historic downtown is over 40 square blocks. We might have walked only 10 blocks this day. 

On our first full day in Quito, Andre's sister took us around downtown. She is an art history teacher. She was THE BEST tour guide I could ever had. She explained to us all of the styles of the "Quiteño" art and the history of all the churches that we visited. She really should be a tour guide for anyone going to Quito. Thanks Michelle!!  

We were still feeling sick from the altitude. Some of the streets were a little steep, but they felt like walking up a big hill because of the lack of oxygen. 

We started the walking tour at the plaza de la independecia and walked towards the cathedral, down the Garcia Moreno Street. We walked into the Sagrario, towards La Compañia de Jesus which was closed until 1:00 PM. We continued walking on Avenida Jose de Sucre towards the San Francisco church. There is a museum here but it was Sunday and they were closing so we couldn't get in.

Plaza de la Independencia

Plaza de la Independecia - Cathedral right across and the Presidential Palace on the right

President's home

El Panecillo is a hill visible from most of the City. A monument to the Virgin Mary is located on top of El Panecillo. I tried to take as many pictures as I could with this landmark.

The cathedral with the Virgen of the Panecillo in the back

Ecuador's flag - looks almost the same as the Colombian flag. The difference is the symbol in the middle. The Venezuelan flag has stars

Beautiful hotel at the Plaza de la Independencia

La Compañia de Jesus

It was Sunday and there was live Ecuadorian music while we were walking around the main plazas. I loved how people were dancing in the streets and just being happy. I made a short video to remember this moment.

Coca Tea is the best remedy for high altitude sickness

San Francisco

San Francisco - inside

San Francisco Church

We walked back towards La Compañia de Jesus church. This was the only church that had a fee to get in ($2 dollars). We were not allowed to take pictures inside this church, but I used my phone to take a few. This was the most impressive church with everything covered in gold and extreme carving details everywhere. 

We decided to take a break and have some ecuadorian ceviche. We went to "Los cebiches de la Rumiñahui".  I love peruvian ceviches and this was my first ecuadorian ceviche. It was good but I still think the peruvian is better. The mix with pop corn was a little weird but the shrimp was good.

After lunch, we walked towards the Santo Domingo church and then back towards la plaza de la independecia. There was a great store across from la plaza de la independencia for souvenirs and local products located in the City building.

Santo Domingo

Plaza de la independecia from Venezuela street

La Basilica - we couldn't walk any more at this time