Ecuador Part 1 - Quito

To celebrate my unfortunate arbitrary age-related milestone of 30, we decided to take advantage of Canada's centralized location and spend 10 days in Ecuador.  Our Spanish isn't great, so we booked through a company that organized our accommodation and transfers, and provided English-speaking guides to us when necessary.  (Not a tour group, just us.)

We arrived in the capital Quito - the highest capital city in the world at 2800m above sea level and already nearly 600m higher than the highest point on the Australian continent.  Cue altitude sickness on day 1! 

A panorama looking over the Old Town.  The city's built around numerous hills and valleys, and driving around is an exercise in trusting your mechanic.  There are plenty of cobblestone streets leading to Spanish-style houses with brightly painted walls.

The statue that you can just see on top of the hill in the photo above is a much bigger replica of a small sculpture called the Virgen de Quito.  Apparently it's famous because it's the only depiction of Mary with angel wings.  It's a very Catholic country - 80% Catholic - so there were churches and religious iconography everywhere.

We visited 3 of the major churches, only one of which we have photos of.  This is the Basilica del Voto Nacional (Basilica of the National Vow) which is a huge neo-Gothic style church.  

The coolest part of this church was that the gargoyles are native Ecuadorian animals - iguanas and caimans here, and elsewhere armadillos and giant tortoises.

A stained glass window from inside the church.

 Looking down the length of the church - it was really large although standard churchy-type stuff inside.

We lucked into touring the city on the day when the President was making an appearance on the balcony of the presidential palace.  You can see the guards in the Ecuadorian national colors of yellow, blue and red.

Marching guards.

Guards riding oddly-dressed horses.  There were a lot of people visiting to see the President.  This President has apparently just started his 3rd term, but before that there was a lot of political upheaval.  It was interesting to discuss the political situation with our guide.

 The Church and Monastery of St Francis, a beautiful old building.

The weather changed fast in Quito - stormclouds building over a park we visited.

The locals didn't seem to care about the stormclouds - it rained so frequently that if you did, I think you'd spend your life inside.  We ran into lots of people playing volleyball all over the place (soccer too, although that was expected).  They're playing on concrete - ouch.

Ecuadorian food was surprisingly tasty!  Here's a sample plate with pork, empanadas, fried banana and llapingachos (fried mashed potato cakes with cheese inside).

Goat stew with rice and potato.  Also delicious.

This is Part 1.  Part 2 (Galapagos Islands) and Part 3 (Highlands) are also available.