Ecuador, Summer 2019 (Part 5 - Quito)
Our trip around Ecuador took a brief pause while we were in Guayaquil as I had to get a root canal, but a few days later we were back on the road.
On the morning of July 11, we went the offices of Transporters Ecuador, a inter-province bus company operating between most major cities in the country. We arrived five minutes before the next bus was leaving. We bought our $12 tickets to Quito, quickly bought snacks from a kiosk, and hopped on board the bus.
Since my previous visit to Ecuador, Transportes Ecuador has acquired several new double-decker buses, which means more legroom onboard. Unfortunately for us, the best seats onboard (3 and 4) were already reserved when we bought our tickets so we took the next best thing available.
The bus has an onboard entertainment system where they play movies during the trip. Neither of us had any real interest in seeing dubbed versions of The Meg or Dumb and Dumber 2, so we passed the time by watching The Blacklist on my tablet.
Despite leaving on the 9:00 AM bus, we didn’t make it to Quito until a little bit past 7:00 PM. A brief Uber ride from the grand bus terminal and we were finally at our hostel: Masaya, located smack dab in the heart of Old Town Quito. After a 10+ hour bus trip neither of us really wanted to leave the hostel for the night so we had diner at the restaurant on the first floor before calling it a night.
After a good night’s sleep, we started off with our complimentary breakfast in the restaurant downstairs before heading off to explore the historic part of the city.
We started our tour of Old Town Quito by visiting the Museo Casa de Sucre, the former home of Antonio Jose de Sucre, a hero of Ecuador’s war for independence from Spain and the person whom Ecuador’s former currency was named for. The home has been restored to give visitors a glimpse into the lives of Ecuador’s elites back in the early- to mid-1800s.
Next on our tour was La Basilica del Voto Nacional (The Basilica of the National Vow), the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas. On our way there, we passed Independence Square which is surrounded by Carondelet Palace (the presidential residence), the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Archbishop's Palace, and the Municipal Palace. This square was the location for one protest or another almost every time we passed by it.
We were quickly detoured into the Republica de Cacao store which was also home to the Cacao Museum. Entrance to the museum was free with any $5 purchase from the store. Needless to say they didn’t really have to twist our arms to get us to buy ourselves some frappuccinos.
The museum itself was extremely underwhelming. In fact I would be hesitant to even really call it a museum at all. It was merely a room with a few facts about chocolate production and a few images and old tools but nothing else beyond that.
With our sweet tooth satisfied, we continued our walk to the basilica. This is a good point to mention that walking in Quito is hard. At an elevation of roughly 10,000 feet, you are only receiving 65% the amount of oxygen you would be receiving down at sea level. This makes simple acts like walking up a hill extremely difficult.
After what felt like climbing up a mountain, we made it to the basilica. Entrance to the basilica itself is free but if you want to climb the towers you will have to pay $2 ($1 if you’re an Ecuadorian citizen).
Again, the climb up these steps at this altitude was not an easy feat. There is no shame in stopping every few floors to catch your breath.
The climb is also a bit perilous, filled with narrow ladders, creaky bridges, low ceilings, and vertigo inducing heights.
The journey is fully worth it once you get to the top of the towers as you are greeted by beautiful views of the city. From this vantage point you can truly appreciate the size of Quito. Nuzzled in a valley between two mountain ranges, Quito was forced to expand almost exclusively in a North-South direction causing it to stretch out as far as the eye can see.
The trip back down is a little frightening as there is only one way up or down either tower causing some bottle necking as people wait to go up or wait to come back down.
After a brief visit to the numismatic museum and the Manuela Saenz museum, we took an Uber to El Panecillo, a large hill overlooking the city atop of which stands a 135 foot statue of the Virgin Mary, the highest statue in the country as well as the tallest aluminum statue in the world.
