Middle of the World in Quito – Two Weeks in Ecuador

This post is the last of a five part series, “Two Weeks in Ecuador.” Over spring break, I traveled to the middle of the world with my friend, Stacie. The trip included a one-week session with G-adventures Travel and the other half backpacking around on our own. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Arriving in Quito

Arriving at the airport in Quito was slick. Since we didn’t have checked bags, we were out the door within ten minutes. The ride from the airport to the city is a standard $25 taxi and took about forty minutes.

The road took us around the mountain and into the city. I was excited and energized by green countryside. My first impression of Quito was of a modern city yet with a distinctive Andean flare. We went straight to our first hotel to start our trip with G-adventures, a small group travel company. That night we met the group that we’d travel with for the next week. Immediately we felt at home with this energetic and hilarious group of travelers from around the world.

Where We Stayed

Our first two nights in Quito were at the Hotel Cruz Loma, part of our G-adventures itinerary. Here we had a comfortable stay with simple included breakfast, laundry service and solid wifi.

At the end of our trip, we spent three additional nights in Quito at the Friends Hostel in the historical center. We initially had some trouble with our hostelworld booking. The manager told us there was a “broken pipe” and our room wasn’t available. Fortunately, the next day they  solved the issue by placing us in a quality alternative. The location was great, right near many downtown places of interest and the view from the breakfast patio showed a cityscape of the Panecillo Hill. On top, the statue of the Virgin Mary stands 41 meters tall and guards the city.

Overlook of the City

Quito is a Ecuador’s capital city and also its most populated with about three million residents. It extends through a long valley in the Andes mountains. The city is so long, it takes an hour to drive from one end to the other, almost 90 kilometers. However, it’s only about five kilometers across because of the encompassing mountainsides that limit the city’s growth.

Plaza Foch

Yeah, say it aloud. It’s funny. We spent a couple of nights around the Plaza Foch with all its cafes, bars, and restaurants. Our very first night in the country, we had our first Ecuadorian meal at a small, older restaurant on the second floor of one of the buildings. I had my first bowl of Locro de Queso, a potato and cheese soup served with avocado. One can’t go wrong with cheese and potato, yum.

Later in the trip, we spent a night out drinking and dancing with both of our friends from the G-adventures trip and my longtime friends from Venezuela.

La Ronda

La Ronda is a social street near the historical downtown of Quito. The historical buildings have been restored and maintained since the 1700s. One rainy night, we sipped canelazos and ate pizza in a hip restaurant. Everywhere on La Ronda offered canelazos, a traditional cocktail with cinnamon, sugar and a lot of aguardiente, served hot for the chilly mountain weather.

We popped into an amazing chocolate shop. The Swiss and Ecuadorian couple uses the finest cocoa with incredibly flavorful combinations. I tried the passionfruit truffle with just the right balance of tart but sweet passion fruit and smooth chocolate. I’m still drooling over it.

The street is actually named Morales, but not many really know that. It’s filled with lore from the old Spanish days of singing serenades below balconies. The story went that if she waved a white handkerchief, the gentleman was in luck. If not, he was doused in cold water, or worse, the contents of the closest bedpan.

Centro Historico

There was much to see in the downtown area so we took a Free Walking Tour to learn more. Quito’s downtown area is a UNESCO site and is one of the best preserved in Latin America. Paul, a proud Quiteño, has been giving walking tours for five years and provided us with a background on the city and the culture.

Quito’s history has a strong influence from the Spanish Catholicism. Buildings in the city center were influenced by the central patios of the Andalusian architecture. There are tons of old churches from the Spanish missionaries influence on the city. The Basilica towers above the city with its neo gothic spires designed by a Parian architect. For those brave enough, not me, there’s a great view of the city from the top. Another church, Compania de Jesus, is almost completely covered in gold leaf.

The Spanish missionaries worked hard to convert the indigenous population to their beliefs. They highlighted connections between the Christian God and the Pachamama, or Mother Earth. In the church of San Francisco, statues used in street processions were still on display. They used real hair with sheep’s blood to create a lifelike recreations of Jesus and his friends. The arms were movable which, Paul explained, shocked many Kichwa into following the Catholics. The Catholic influence still shows today. During Holy Week, the purple hooded Cucuruchos process through the downtown without shoes to repent their sins.

The main plaza contains the government palace, the oldest church in the city, and a monument to honor Ecuador’s Independence. Here Paul told the story of the region as a Spanish colony, then Simon Bolivar and the “Gran Colombia,” and finally Ecuador’s road to independence. Because of Holy Week, we were able to enter the Cathedral. The building of the church started within days of the Spanish’s arrival and the “discovery” of Quito in 1534. Despite 400 years of volcanoes, earthquakes and fires, the church is still standing, including it’s local flare on the mural of the Last Supper with the twist of guinea pigs for dinner.  

Paul took us to Ecuador’s central bank to explain more about the economy. He described the financial crisis in 1998-2000, which led to the use of the US Dollar as the main currency. This time period led to an estimated three million Ecuadorians migrating to other countries. Nowadays, the major industries are tourism, roses, cocoa, bananas and oil, as well as continued income from remittances.

Paul was filled with all sorts of tidbits about Ecuador. He told us about the coca leaves sold on the streets and how they’re good for altitude sickness. He said that coca plantations are banned but that Ecuador remains a transit country for the drugs between Colombia and Peru. Later, he pointed out two contrasting hotels right on the Plaza San Francisco. The Casa Gangotena costs over $400 a night right next to the Hostel Sucre which charges almost 100 times less.

A Bit of Venezuela

One really special part of visiting Quito was the opportunity to reconnect with friends from when I lived in Venezuela. It has been fifteen years since I studied abroad in Merida, Venezuela, and almost ten years since the last time I visited. My heart was filled when I spent time with Eduardo, Rosa, and Leyby after so many years.

Due to the economic and political situation in Venezuela more than four million people have left the country and almost half a million have migrated to Quito. We chatted about the insane inflation, the shortages, and lives of those still living in Venezuela. We talked about the factors that lead to the current situation and thoughts about how the country could regain stability, safety, and quality of life for Venezuelans.

So many Venezuelans living in Quito means delicious arepas, my favorite meal. Leyby recommend “El Chavo” for enormous arepas with all the yummy sauces. We also caught up over a round of cuba libres, piña coladas, and margaritas.

Teleferico

A visit to Quito must include a trip up the cable car. We finally caught a clear, sunshiny morning so we hurried to grab a taxi to the base of the cable car. We got our tickets ($8.50) and waited in a short line for our turn. The cabins were small, a maximum of six people, which freaked me out a bit. As did the sinking feeling when the cable went over the pillions.

The cabin slowly rose up as the city shank below us. Even at the top, we couldn’t see both ends of the city down in the valley. The altitude at the top reached 4,100 meters. The air was thinner but we were already quite acclimated. At the top, we checked out a few of the closer viewpoints but there were also trailheads for hikes into the paramo and the Andes.

Mitad del Mundo – Middle of the World

For me, the trip to the equator line wasn’t a highlight of a trip. But, it’s basically a requirement. It’s the most visited place in Ecuador. Here there’s a $5 entrance fee to visit the whole park. We walked through a few of the small museums. The best was Guayasamin museum. It highlighted the works of painter and sculptor of Oswaldo Guayasamin. His work focused on indigenous and mestizos of Latin America and demonstrated the poverty and political clashes. Today his work continues to be appreciated around the world.

The yellow line follows the equator all the way through the park with a huge monument in the middle. We took the elevator to the top for a good view. Inside the monument, there’s a museum of Ecuadorian culture, gastronomy and geography as each floor descends through the regions of Ecuador; costal, highlands and the Amazon.

Food in Quito

It was at the Mitad del Mundo that Stacie finally found cuey to try. The guinea pig, or cuey, is a delicacy in Ecuador but isn’t readily available on menus. She ordered quarter of the rodent with one paw sticking out, which really didn’t amount to much meat for lunch. I just stuck with the locro de queso, potato and cheese soup.

While on our walking tour, we learned about a few unique foods served on the streets of Quito. He showed us signs for guagrasinga, a soup made with bull’s head; nervio, bull’s penis; pata, soup with a hoof; and, yaguarlocro, a soup made with blood.

We went for one evening of fine dining and a fancy food experience at Urzo. The tasting menu took us on a tour through Ecuador with each course including choices from the costal, highland and Amazon regions. We traveled through four courses of unique flavors and creative spins on traditional foods. My favorite was the dessert with a plantain french toast, cocoa infused ice cream and drizzled with a coffee liquor.

On our last morning, literally on the way to the airport, we did another free walking tour. We met Katie, from Strawberry tours, in the San Francisco Plaza. Long before the arrival of the Spanish, this location was the first market between the products of the coast and the highlands.

Katie took us to the new San Francisco market with rows of fruit, vegetable, meat, and medicinal plant stalls. We sampled juices prepared with alfalfa, orange, tree tomato and carrot. She pointed out the bowls of pork lard on the meat counters; along with any part of the pig you’d like to take home; hooves, tongue, intestine, or stomach. She ordered pieces of fritada, chicharron, and cuero; all pork skin but fried and dried in different ways.

We visited the veggie stall to learn more about the produce. Most of the stalls had onions, tree tomatoes, yuca, broccoli, cucumbers, herbs, and fava beans. These products all grow well above 2,000 meters, which is key in Ecuador.

Lastly, we visited the fruit stalls packed and stacked with bright colors. We sampled a few fruits from each of the main families. The passion fruit and taxo fruits come from the passiflora family and contain seeds tightly packed inside. From the cactus family, we tried dragon fruit, pitajaya, and tunas. The fruit stalls also sold papaya, mango, guava, cucumber, teluyo, umbilla, and strawberries.

¡Adios!

After three days in Quito, and two weeks in Ecuador, we returned to the airport for our flight back to Guadalajara. It was such a great trip with amazing friends, stunning views, delicious food, and cool new experiences.