Ecuador - Quito Day 3

Monday January 23, 2017
Today we had the official city tour of Quito that was included in our tour package with CNH.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the rest of our tour group was staying at the hotel with us so the guide met us there in the morning with a small bus.  There were 12 people total on our tour but a few chose not to go on the city tour since they had seen most of the city already.

We started by going up the TeleferiQo which is a cable car that goes up to the side of Pichincha Volcano, one of the many volcanoes surrounding Quito.  It was a really beautiful, clear day so the view was wonderful at the top.  Our guide took us off the main trail on a sort of hidden overlook that was great and I never would have found on my own.  We saw one of the surrounding volcanoes erupting which the guide said was rare to be able to see since it's usually cloudy.  I'd definitely recommend this even though it's a super touristy attraction.  It was pretty cheap and the top has a coffee bar, bathrooms and a nice little walk to go even further up the volcano.

Riding up in the cable car

One of the volcanoes surrounding Quito

Another volcano, you can see it beginning to erupt

View from the other side of the overlook

Brandon and I at the overlook

After the TeleferiQo we went to the Virgin of the Apocalypse statue.  It's a 150 foot aluminum statue of the madonna.  I guess it was interesting to see and the view from the top is great but our guide didn't really tell us anything about the statue.  There are some plaques inside but they mostly discuss how the statue was built and erected and not really anything in-depth.  I learned more from the Wikipedia entry I just read than our guide honestly.

The Virgin of the Apocalypse

A view of Quito from the top

Another view from the top

After visiting the Virgin statue we went to the old city again and visited a chocolate shop.  We had a mini presentation about processing cocoa pods to chocolate.  The woman was talking impressively fast and rushing through everything but it was around lunch time and I was pretty hungry so I guess it accomplished the goal of selling chocolate!  High quality chocolate and cocoa beans are a big export of Ecuador and it was delicious but there is still a soft spot in my hear for a good old processed Hershey's bar.

The chocolate shop was located in an alley with a bunch of artisan shops that seemed like a tourist trap.  There was a store selling only spinning tops that our group wanted to stop in.  I waited outside.

Lunch was pretty late (1-2pm I think?) at a hotel whose name I don't remember.  There was an option for shrimp or steam and I chose the steak.  It was terrible honestly.  It was way overcooked and it was wrapped in raw bacon.  Even dessert was horrible.  It was stewed apples which tasted like they were boiled in cheap wine.  I would saw this was probably the worst meal of the trip!  Lunch was in a nice courtyard though and it was a relaxing atmosphere and they had wifi so there were some redeeming qualities.

After lunch we visited a few churches that we had already seen.  I was about church-ed out at this point though and kind of ready for the tour to end.  Then we went to a panama hat store and I was definitely ready for it to end.  Then we went to a plaza to wait for the bus which was a really long wait because I guess the bus driver wasn't answer his phone?  Who knows?  The last stop was a basilica in another part of town that I had been wanting to go to because it was interesting Gothic architecture unlike most of the churches in Quito.  The guide gave us a mini tour and then let us just walk around.  Apparently the church was modeled after Notre Dame which was cool since I'm going to Paris in a few weeks and will see the real deal.  I really liked the stained glass and the fact that the gargoyles were animals from Ecuador.

Stained glass at the Basilica

More stained glass at the Basilica

Brandon and Jeremy in the choir box

Galapagos Tortoise gargoyles

Anteater gargoyles

Marine iguana gargoyles

This was the end of the tour so we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.  For dinner we went to Theatrum which was in a large (presumably) old theater.  It was actually really cold in the restaurant but the food was delicious and the service was great.  I was having a lovely time and then a mariachi band showed up to play for someone's birthday party and it was loud and totally crazy and I was a little annoyed.  The servers were all watching the band I guess and service became really slow towards the end of our meal.  Anyway, overall it was a good meal and I would recommend the place.