Last Updated on December 11, 2017
I was surprised by what I was reading on my Kindle. “Set in a picturesque valley some 2,800 meters above sea level, Ecuador’s lofty capital sits just 25km south of the equator. Its historic Old Town is a splendid maze of cobbled streets, colonial architecture and churches, dazzling attributes which helped it become UNESCO’s first World Heritage Site (along with Krakow) in 1978.”, marveled the author in the Independent article about Ecuador I was reading while enjoying my very first cup of scrumptious Ecuadorian hot cocoa.
The article made Quito seem like a gem of a city, a town so beautiful that it would sweep me off my feet. The problem was, I just didn’t feel it. I had spent three days in Ecuador’s capital, my first stop on my trip through the country, which is usually enough time to make me fall for a place. But Quito and I, we just didn’t connect.
I was a bit wary of visiting Quito, after hearing stories of robberies, people throwing feces from church towers to distract you so that they can take your belongings (see here, here, here, and here), and Quito being a bit sketchy all around.
The cab driver who brought me from the airport to my hotel (a great opportunity to practice my rusty Spanish during the 45-minute ride) put me at ease, however. Quito had gotten much safer over the past few years, he assured me. I had nothing to worry about.
And so I excitedly took off on my first exploration of Quito, headed straight for the Old Town. And it was pleasant, yes – I just didn’t think the churches and the architecture that I saw there were ‘dazzling’, and I also wouldn’t call it a ‘splendid maze’. Lofty – yes, I could agree to that, because Quito is, at 9,350 feet (2,850 meters), the second highest capital in the world – only La Paz, Bolivia, is higher. Was I missing something? Upon returning to my hotel, I did some further research to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, and through Alex in Wanderland (who also wasn’t the biggest fan of Quito), I learned about a free walking tour.
The next morning I joined about ten other travelers on a tour of Quito’s Old Town, this time with commentary from a local, and including a few spots that I had indeed missed. Did any of them wow me though? Unfortunately, I still didn’t love the city, but I have to say that I am glad I joined the walking tour because it gave me a much better understanding of the Ecuadorian culture and some insights into the life, history, and politics of the country.
Our guide Andrea took us to the central market for example, where she gave us an introduction to the local fruits, and where I was excited to learn that one of my favorite Colombian fruits, lulo, grew in Ecuador, too, but was known as naranjilla here. Andrea introduced us to several other Ecuadorian specialties, whetting my appetite for the Food Tour the hostel offers once a week for only $10(unfortunately).
The walking tour also brought us to my biggest oversight: The bohemian La Ronda neighborhood with narrow cobblestone alleys and colorful houses, which I found more charming than any other part of the city I’d seen so far.
But even with Andrea’s lovely introduction to Quito, I still wasn’t too impressed. It didn’t help that it was raining every day during my entire stay, which means the city was always covered in a layer of clouds and the temperatures were in the 50s – too cold for me to be comfortable. Instead, I never left my guesthouse without my rain jacket and a scarf.
As for my taxi driver’s comment about Quito having become much safer, Andrea still warned us that it wasn’t a good idea to walk up El Panecillo Hill, on top of which the 45-meter-tall Virgin of Quito thrones over the city, (made of seven thousand pieces of aluminum!) a popular sight for tourists, but apparently not save to walk to. My guidebook had also warned to walk up this hill.
Overall I felt like there was just not a whole lot to do in Quito. I visited almost all of the churches, including the beautiful, ornate Neo-Gothic Basilica del Voto Nacional which turned out to be my favorite, and where $2 bought me admission to the bell towers, which offered great views over the city, albeit the cloudy skies never went away for long enough to make it a truly stunning view.
Just a short walk from the Basilica del Voto Nacional church was the Centro De Arte Contemporaneo De Quito, the Contemporary Art Museum, which, I was happy to find out was free to visit. For an art lover like me, it turned out to be a highlight of my visit to Quito. During my visit they had a photography exhibit about a native group in the Ecuadorian Amazon, which was superb, as well as the ‘Tres mil leguas de algodón’ exhibit by Ecuadorian artist Fabian Patinho for which he photographed women who were comfortable in their bodies in underwear in an intimate setting and then turned them into acrylic paintings.
As I walked out of the museum, I noticed that the walls across from the museum were covered in murals and graffitis – the best ones I’d seen so far! The street art felt like an added bonus to this artsy morning.
I almost made the same mistake Alex In Wanderland made to skip the ‘New Town’, but after reading in her article that she regretted waiting until her last night in town to check it out, I decided to head over there to see how it compared to the Old Town. Again, it didn’t blow me away, but it was nice to see that there was an area with lots of restaurants, bars and nightlife, something I hadn’t seen to the same extent in the Old Town, and as I ventured further away from Plaza Foch, the main square in the New Town, I found especially the little plaza Borja Yerovi with its colorfully painted houses and murals delightful.
I even decided to stay in the new part of town upon returning to Quito so that I’d be right by some nice coffee shops and bars, and maybe check out the nightlife. I congratulated myself on that decision when I stopped in Quito for the second time a few weeks later.
To be honest, I wouldn’t have come back to Quito had it not been for a mountain biking tour of Cotopaxi volcano I wanted to do. Since this particular tour only runs on weekends, I didn’t get to do it during my first visit, but I really wanted to climb at least one volcano in Ecuador, so why not go for the second highest active volcano in all of South America? Cotopaxi is one of the highest volcanos in the world, reaching a height of 19,347 feet (5,897 meters).
Again, the weather gods weren’t on my side when I returned to Quito, but I tried to make the best of my volcano tour. On a grey and rainy day, our group of six piled into a minivan, and when we arrived in Cotopaxi National Park, the volcano was hiding behind a massive cloud. We drove up until a parking lot to do a short climb up to Refugio Jose Rivas at 15,953 feet / 4,864 meters – the highest point you can climb to at the moment. Summiting hasn’t been possible since August 2015, when the volcano woke up and started spewing ash again for the first time in thirteen years.
As we were making our way to the Refugio, it started snowing, and what started out as light snow turned into a considerable snowstorm by the time we reached the top. The snow turned into rain when we descended again, ready to hop on the mountain bikes, ruining the experience I had been very much looking forward to.
We arrived at Laguna Limpiopungo at 12,566 feet (3,830 meters) completely soaked, muddy and chilled to the bone. The flora and fauna of the Altiplano, which I had admired when we were driving through the Altiplano that morning, was barely visible in the rain, and I couldn’t even bring myself to take out my camera and snap a picture of the lagoon, which is popular with birds and would have made for the perfect place to end our tour at. This was certainly not the mountain biking adventure I had been hoping for, but I guess you can’t be lucky all the time.
When I was dropped off in Plaza Foch, the center of the bar scene of Quito’s New Town, after the tour, I knew I had made the right decision to stay in this part of town: the plaza, which had been quiet the night before, was bustling with people, the coffee shops and restaurants were all busy. It was Friday night and I was determined to make my last night in Quito a memorable one.
I found a lovely vegetarian restaurant, El Maple, and right across the street from it, a fantastic artisanal German micro-brewery, Cherusker Cerveceria. On the same street (Joaquin Pinto), I checked out The Lucky Charm Pub, and around the corner Finn McCool’s Irish Pub, which happened to be right next door to Radar, a gay and lesbian bar. So while I didn’t grow fond of Quito during my two visits, I felt like I ended them on a good note with a little taste of Quito’s superb nightlife.
Have you been to Quito? What did you think of Ecuador’s capital?
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