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
One week before thanksgiving, I was a little desperate to get out of town. It had been almost 3 months since we got back from our honeymoon and I was anxious to get out of town. I looked for months for small trips out of Tampa that didn't require me to take any days off. We were almost ready to take a 4 day cruise to Cozumel until I worked a crazy week and got the perfect excuse to compensate those extra hours with 3 days off during thanksgiving week. Since I had Thursday and Friday off, I only needed 3 days to get out of town for one whole week. My boss was OK giving me the days- I wasn't sure I could ask for any more time this year. I checked flights to Quito and LAN had great fares. We left Saturday November 19th and stayed until November 26th. It was only a 3 and a half hour flight from Miami. The pain is always the drive to Miami (4 hours) and that the highway is so boring!!! I loved LAN's airplanes and the personal TVs for each passenger.
Arriving to Quito was beautiful. Flying over the Andes mountains and volcanoes covered with snow was an incredible sight. I was dying to get my camera out but had already been given the warning to turn everything off. Quito is located in the middle of the mountains and the airport is in the valley between them.
Photo Credit: wikipedia
Vacations always go by too quickly. My husband is from Quito and his family and closest friends live there. This was my first trip to Ecuador. I was excited to see his hometown and try all the foods that he is always craving. I knew that some of my favorite Colombian restaurants were in Quito. No wonder why I gained 7 pounds in just one week!!
Our first day was just dinner with Andre's family and then we went to a bar with some of his friends. I felt a little sick that night. Everyone said it was the altitude. I didn't think it was since Bogota is located at 2,600 meters above sea level and Quito is at 2,800 meters and I never get sick in Bogota.
The next morning we were going to the historic downtown for my first tour of one of the largest historic centers in the Americas.
I turned 30 while I was doing the Hawaii series and I didn't want to interrupt them (until a trip was really big news to break the series). During my 20s, I was convinced that I needed a "before I turn 30" bucket list. I always imagined that I would be in a different place by the time I was 30. Since I'm got married in August, the plan that I had for years to go to Bora-Bora for my 30th birthday did not happen. I had no vacation days left. The French Polynesian Islands are on the top of my bucket list, but not this year. I had some friends drive from Miami and we celebrated my birthday during Halloween weekend.
After a bad new year's eve I made a resolution to visit at least one new Country (or at least place) every year. This year was all about planning our wedding in my hometown of Cali, Colombia and our honeymoon in Hawaii. Those are 2 of my favorite places in the world, but I was failing my resolution to visit one new country in 2011. Being 30 and with that bucket list half empty, I needed to at least do something about the resolution that I haven't failed in 6 years. I looked for plane tickets to visit my husband's family in Ecuador during the holidays and they were at least 3 times more than going during thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is an american holiday, so traviling outside of the US is still considered low season. If you try to travel inside the US is even more expensive than traveling during Christmas. We decided to travel to Quito for one week and take advantage of my 2 paid holiday work days. I was lucky to get the time off. The past month has been probably one of the busiests months of the whole year at work. I will post the pictures from the Ecuador trip in the next weeks.
Our last half day in Hawaii we spent the day snorkeling at the beach by the hotel. All the guests are allowed 1 hour of free rental snorkeling equipment daily.
After out last swim, we checked out and drove to the airport which located around 1 hour away from the North Shore. We said good bye to Hawaii and got ready for a 8 hour flight to Chicago, a 3 hour layover in Chicago, and finally a 2 and a half hour flight to Tampa. Hawaii is too far away to go every year, but I know that we will be back!!! I was worried that maybe Andre wouldn't like it or that he would not consider Hawaii worthy of the long flights. He said it was better than he ever imagined. That was the same feeling that I had when I traveled to Hawaii for the first time. Pictures don't show how amazing it really is. If you are considering a trip to Hawaii, you wont be disappointed.
I'm so sorry that I have been slacking with the Hawaii posts. We went away for one week to Ecuador and leaving means a lot of work before and after taking the days off. I think I'm finally catching up with everything and I can continue with the last honeymoon posts.
This was our last full day in Hawaii. The honeymoon was coming to an end. The whole time that we were in Hawaii we heard a song in the radio that I couldn't get out of my head for days after we got back. We decided to upgrade our rental car for a convertible for the last few days of our honeymoon. We listened to a really good local reggae radio station while we were in Hawaii. I wish that there was one in Tampa.
The view from our room
The first stop was Sunset Beach, my favorite beach in Oahu. We stayed for a few hours and then we drove to the town of Haleiwa for lunch.
Sunset Beach
On our way back, while we were driving on Kamehameha Highway (83) we saw a crowd at the same beach were I saw a huge Hawaiian green sea turtle 3 years ago. Here is a picture of the turtle from my previous trip to Oahu. We stopped to see what was going on. We finally saw turtles up close during our trip. We didn't see any of them laying in the sand, but there were 4 or 5 swimming next to us. I'm sure that they didn't want to get close to the sand because of all the people standing on the beach.
Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles
We spent the late afternoon and our last night in Hawaii at the Polynesian Center. We got the ticket for the Ali'i Luau and the evening show. This was a different show than the one I saw 3 years ago. The Polynesian Center is definitely worth a day's visit, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time.
At the Luau
We only had half a day left on our honeymoon and we were not ready to leave Hawaii.
