Places to visit in Quito

[BARRY KELLY]

My wife and I are spending several days in Quito next week on the front and back of a visit to a condo we have purchased at Jama Campay. Looking for suggestions for must see places and restaurants in Quito. While in Quito staying at the Hotel Quito, so that will be our base of exploration.

[SUZAN HASKINS]

I love Quito, and I’d recommend a guided tour of Old Town – -there is so much to see and so much history that going with a tour guide is the best. I’m sure the hotel can hook you up but if not, contact Julieta Muñoz at Nuevo Mundo: julieta@nuevomundoexpeditions.com. Besides Old Town, you might want to go to Capilla del Hombre, the home and museum of famous Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamin. And a lot of tourists enjoy Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world and equator museum. Or you can take a day trip to the market at Otavalo, especillay a treat on a Saturday.

As for restaurants, right across the street from Hotel Quito is one of my favorite carnivore haunts, a place called Hunters. Another excellent (and expensive, for these parts) restaurant that is just a few blocks away is the Peruvian seafood place called Segundo Muelle. And for sure you should go to Plaza Quinde at Foch and Reina Victoria and sit outside and people watch. They have heaters if it is cold or rainy…

Here’s something I wrote about Old Town:

Two of the highlights of Old Town are La Compañia de Jesus Church and the Basilica del Voto Nacional.

La Compañia is one of the great baroque masterpieces in all of South America, built by the Jesuits between 1605 and 1765. The intricately carved exterior façade is unbelievably detailed, but the interior will take your breath away…almost every inch is decoratively covered in gold leaf. The place glows!

The Basilica, on the other hand, is a neo-gothic marvel. Instead of gargoyles on its exterior, you’ll find animals indigenous to Ecuador…tortoises, iguanas, sloths, and more. The nave itself is beautiful with its giant multi-colored stained-glass windows and 24 chapels. But be sure to go to the third-floor café where you can climb a metal staircase inside the clock tower and even farther up into the bell tower, the tallest in South America.

From there, you’ll have a bird’s-eye view of Quito, including El Panecillo (“Little Bread Loaf”), the famous 200-meter high hill, topped with a statue of the winged Virgen de Quito. And on a narrow wooden walkway with rope handrails you can even walk through the open space between the ceiling and the roof of the church, several stories above the center aisle. But beware — the walkway bounces dramatically if several people walk on it at once.

After all this excitement, make your way to Plaza San Francisco, a sweeping cobblestone plaza that’s home to Ecuador’s oldest church, the imposing whitewashed Monastery of San Francisco. You can grab a hot chocolate or coffee and a bite to eat at Café Tianguez, beneath the church. Tianguez means “market” in Quichua and you’ll find a top-quality artisan shop here that winds catacomb-like into the bowels of the church and is filled with uniquely embroidered textiles, rich wood carvings, and masks, ceramics, and other pieces inspired by pre-Columbian artisan traditions.

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