El Panecillo
From our condo, we had a really good view of el Panecillo in the distance on a steep hill. El Panecillo is a 200 meter statue of the virgin Mary (aka el virgen de Quito) standing on top of a snake above a globe with wings spread out. It was inaugurated in 1976. It was one of my favourite statues to see in all of of Ecuador.
Panecillo means 'a small bread loaf' and was aptly named because the hill resembled a small piece bread. The original name of the hill was called Shungoloma or Yavirac. In pre-Inca times, there was a temple built on top of the hill to honour the moon and sun. When the Spanish colonized the area, the Incans were ordered to destroy the temple and join the Spanish army.
The Panecillo is located in Centro Historico (Quito's old town district) in the south of the city and Kary I decided this would be our first place to visit on Monday morning via taxi. We were not disappointed as the views of Panecillo became more impressive as we came closer. The views of Panecillo gave us 360 degrees of amazing views of all of Quito.
On top of the hill there are some small restaurants where you could buy snacks and refreshments and also some shops you can buy souvenirs. Kary bought me a touque with Ecuadorian flag colors and I ended up wearing it most of the day.
It's election year for presidency in Ecuadory and there was a photo shoot for one of the local (but not likely to win) politicians running for presidency.
On the way back, we took another taxi and planned to visit Centro Historico but the taxi driver offered his services to hire him for the rest of the day to take us to Mitad del Mundo, and Pululahua Volcano and Geobotanical Reserve and return back to Centro Historico. We paid $50USD for about 3 hours of his time driving us around.
Pululahua Volcano and Geobotanical Reserve
The Pululahua Volcano and Geobotanical Reserve is a national park. It's a collapsed volcano with a lot of biodiversity and unique geological formations. Unfortunately, when we arrived the valley was filled with fog so we didn't get to see much. I didn't want to leave without seeing this sacred valley, so I snapped a picture of a postcard of what the valley looked like :P~ You can see more pictures of this place on google images.
Mitad del Mundo
Mitad del Mundo means 'middle of the world'. It's a neat little park in the outskirts of Quito (about an hour or so from Centro de Historico) with restaurants, museums artisan shops and of course a piece of the equatorial line which divides the world in half. Even though the equator runs through a lot of cities in the world, Quito became famous for it with this park where you can learn so much about the effecs of the equator. The park also has a huge monument and painted lines which straddled the equator which was pretty neat to take pictures from.
Let's go .. to the center of the world.
Centro Historico
We arrived back in Centro Historico in the late afternoon and were starving so we walked around to find super cheap food (because I had nothing left at the end of the day!). We made our way to Mercado La Marin which is a strip of shops where you can buy things like clothes and shoes for really cheap. We found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant hidden in a building and for $3USD, I got a plate of chicken, beef, egg, fries and rice. I was so hungry, I didn't leave anything for the mice!
We were planning on coming back to Centro Historico the next day so we decided to walk around and get a feel for the area deciding where we would come back the next day. The city definitely had a historical presence to it as we enjoyed being immersed in the colonial architecture of the old city.
By the time we started to head home, it was getting dark. We took public transportation and had to ask for directions along the way. After getting off the bus, we needed to cross a park and walk about 6 or 7 blocks to get to our condo. It was a big public park and very dimly lit. It didn't feel safe, but Kary was oblivious to this and spotted a food vendor. She wanted me to take a look at the local foods. I noticed a group of around 8 young men, all shift and focus their attention to us. It was so obvious they were interested in us and, ya we stood out as tourists. I was broke from spending all my money I had in the day but I had my bright yellow bag with my GoPro and phone inside. As we started to head in our direction, the group of guys started heading our way and that's when I took Kary by the hand and turned us 180 degrees to go in the opposite direction. The group of guys started to walk towards us and I told Kary to hurry. I spotted policemen dressed in bright neon yellow jackets when we entered the park and that's where I wanted to go. Anyways, we ended up taking the long route home, but I think it could have been bad. It pays to be aware of your surroundings. :/
No comments:
Post a Comment