This morning I wake up and am feeling a lot better! Today we
will finally get to explore Quito Old Town (Historico Centre). On our brief visit yesterday the area showed
glimpses of why it is so popular with tourists with the history of the area
going back hundreds of years. We get
ready and then go to the bus station to catch the metro. When we arrive in town the first thing we do
is walk to a street called La Rhonda which is a 17th century street
which has been upgraded and made touristy, well it was supposed to have
been. When we arrived we were
disappointed at what we saw, it just looked like a normal street to me! We took
a couple of obligatory photos and jumped into a taxi and headed up a hill called
El Panacillo. At the top of the hill is a large statue called La Virgin de
Quitowhich, this overlooks Old town and you can also see new town and various
suburbs in the distance. It is a
spectacular view. We thought we would
head up the hill in the morning as it was a beautiful clear day and we had been
warned that the clouds roll in over Quito in the afternoon. We then get a taxi back into town (taxi cost
US$3 each way) and have a look around the old Archbishops palace which is located
off the main plaza and has now been converted into a shopping and eating
area. We
have an empanada for lunch, these empanada’s are ok but nowhere near as nice as
the Argentinean version. After lunch we walk across the plaza to the
entrance to the Presidents Palace. Since
this current President has been elected, he has opened the Palace up for
tours. This had never been done before
by previous Presidents. We begin our
tour, which is completely in Spanish.
Luckily there was a nice local who was in the tour who could speak
English. This guy followed us and
translated the entire tour, it was a great help! We initially were not too
worried about getting the guided tour as we were just interested in seeing the
Palace but having this guy translate for us made the tour even better. Also of note was that we were the only
foreigners on the tour, everyone else was Ecuadorian. There are no advertisements for this tour, it
is for the people of Ecuador to see, but of course everyone is welcome. We only heard about it through a wee note in
our Lonely Planet.
Our tour begins with us walking up to the Ecuadorian flag
which is a very important symbol for the Ecuadorian’s. Everyone bows before the flag and then our
tour begins. We start by walking into
the main meeting room where all the Members of Parliament meet and discuss
their agendas. We then walk along the
corridor and we get to see the original legislation of Ecuador which was
written in the 1800s. We then enter the
small parlour which is not small at all.
It can fit like 40 people at the table.
At the end of the room is a private chapel for the cremation of past
presidents. We are then taken onto the
balcony of the palace where we get a great view of the plaza below. We are then taken back into the parlour to
see the silverware that has been given to the President and the gold plates and
glasses that he is suppose to eat off.
The President doesn’t use this and prefers that it is on display for the
people of Ecuador to admire. We are then
taken into the press conference room. I
really enjoyed this room as there was a painting of every President on the
wall, and the term which they served as President. After this the tour finished, with our new
Ecuadorian friend telling us about some other sites in Quito and also warning
us to stay alert as there are a few robberies in the city.
After the tour we decide to walk to another church which is
on top of a small rise in the city, called the Basilica. It is a very nice church and has bell towers
which rise over the city. We take the
lift to the top of the church, about 3 stories up. From there we continue climbing up the bell
tower. The climb is very steep but safe. As we climbed we went through the clock tower
area, we must be very high now. We walk
to the edge and have a look at the view which is stunning. This view is better than the view at the top
of El Panacillo as we are right in the heart of the city. On one side of the church the view is of Old
Town and on the other the view is of New Town.
We climb back down, tentatively, and then head over to the tower on the
other side of the church. To get to this
tower we had to walk through the roof of the church which was interesting. We then began our climb, which was outside,
up what I would consider a ladder set in concrete. It was definitely not one for the faint
hearted. When we got to the top of the tower
I felt a slight case of vertigo. We took
some more photos up here and then went down.
The walk down was probably harder than going up, once again it was very
tentative. Fantastic experience though. On our way down, on level three, we overlook
the church and then continue down the stairs back to ground level.
We walk back into the city and head to the Monastery San Francisco. We were warned by our Ecuadorian friend earlier
today that there are pickpockers in this area, so we walk quickly to the
entrance. In here we have a look around
the Monastery. The entrance is US2 each.
This Monastery has an extensive collection of religious art. We walk around then enter the church. The interior of the church is red with gold
decorations. After this we decide to
head back to the hostel after getting some groceries for dinner and breakfast
tomorrow morning. We then park ourselves
on the couch and watch tv for the rest of the night.
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