October 8 & 9- Being a Tourista in Quito

On Monday we decided to explore the very large park near the modern section of the city called Parque La Carolina. It is several blocks long and one block wide and has biking and walking  paths, soccer fields, a bike and skate board park, a couple of snack bars and a very extensive Botanical Garden.

At the far north end, there are several statues of rather large people enjoying the fresh air. They make me look rather tiny and ,dare I say, slim.

 

Uwe posed beside some rather large bicycle statues.

 

After walking the length of the park, we went into the Botanical garden- entrance fee $3.50- rather high for Ecuador.

 

There were many paths leading around the native plants, very nicely done.

 

Near the middle there were a couple of green houses- one contained hundreds of varieties of orchids- something that Ecuador is famous for.

 

Here are some close-ups of some of the very colourful.

 

 

And they also had some species of plants very familiar to us from our years in Arizona- Cacti

 

Here are some very large tropical plants- Ecuador does have a portion of the Amazon within it's borders.

 

The next day we took the Quito Tour Bus. Yes, I Know, in your home city you would never do anything that hokey but when travelling......

We bought tickets for the 12 O'clock bus priced at $12/person for the three hour ride.

 

First we headed down several of the very busy streets- I swear Quito's traffic is worse than Toronto's- and at least 1/2 of our 3 hour ride will be sitting in traffic- LOL

 

We passed by some very cute neighborhoods that we will have to come back to explore- that's part of the fun of riding the tour bus- exploring new places you have yet to visit. We next went to the Historical section where we live and stopped by an awesome church.

 

The church, Iglesia de La Basilica, was started in 1892, took 100 years to complete and is the largest church in Ecuador. Since it is only several blocks from our rental, it is definitly worth a return visit.

 

Our bus passed several other churches and squares including Plaza Grande where the President's Palace is.

 

Our next stop was El Panecillo ( the hill & statue at far background of photo). I have no idea how our bus driver negotiated some of these VERY narrow streets.

 

At the top we had 20 minutes to walk around, take pictures and do some local shopping. We did buy an oil painting of Quito including this hill & monument. He started price at $65 but we beat him down to $39!

The views of Quito were 360 degrees- really exceptional!

These are views to the north.

 

 

 

And the statue- Virgin Mary with wings- very strange.

 

And more scenes to the south, east and west.