After the Quilotoa loop I was looking forward to spending a few days in the same place, not lugging my heavy backpack around all the time! I arrived fairly late at a bus terminal that wasn't on my map, so took a taxi into town and ended up at Casa Bambu - a great little hostel on the top of a hill. With a rooftop terrace boasting lots of hammocks and the best views across Quito, I knew I'd be there for a while.
The reoccurring theme was Palacio del Gobierno, the grand palace where the president carries out his business. You can go inside with a free guided tour to look at the state rooms, offices and hundreds of items presented to the president by other heads of state. Free stuff is always a big draw for me - so it was the first item on the list of things to see.
Myself and Rita (from Norway) headed over at 11am to watch the changing of the guard and then visit the palace.
We were told that, due to the fact that the president had come to watch the changing of the guard, there were no tours that day. Fail. We re-visited the next morning and pretty much jogged there as we were late. We got to the front of the queue and were greeted by the guard - "welcome, can I have your passports please?"....ummmm, who carries their passport while wandering around town?! Fail number two. The next day I went on my own - "sorry sir, there is an important conference on today, no tours". Fail number three. The next day myself, Rita and Fizal (from Indonesia) rocked up for the 11:30am tour - "there is no 11:30am tour today, please come back at 1pm". We had planned to go somewhere else that afternoon and didn't have time to wait until 1pm - fail number four.
I didn't even really want to go to the palace that much but now it was getting personal. I had a sneaking suspicion that the president was waiting behind the front door, laughing at me every time I failed to enter his palace. Not to be deterred, I rocked up for the 11:30am tour the next morning and was told that there wasn't one today. I told them I'd come back for the 1pm tour. At 1pm there was a massive line so I got to the back, cursing myself for stopping off to try some weird ice cream. They let 20 people in at 1:15pm and promised to let the rest of us in at 1:30pm. Instead a large group of schoolchildren arrived and took the 1:30pm slot, so I had to wait until 2pm. I think by then they had run out of excuses not to let me in, so I presented my passport and walked through security - finally, I'd infiltrated the presidential palace!!
It was average. The most interesting things were the gifts that other heads of state had presented to Ecuador. There were golden swords from Russia, gems from China, keys to lots of South American cities, commemorative coins from FIFA and native masks from Africa. I searched for something from the UK, surely we had presented something to Ecuador at some point in time. I finally found it - some James Bond stamps from January 2008. Credit-crunch time I suppose...
The next day I climbed Mount Pichincha (4,696m) which gave me some beautiful views all across the country. I could even see all the way to the famous Volcan Cotopaxi, a couple of hundred kilometers away!
There are two ways of climbing the mountain, the easy way, winding around the peak in a upward spiral, or the hard way, straight up the nose of the peak. Obviously that was the way I chose and found myself tightrope-walking along ridges until I hit a sheer rock face that involved some serious climbing.
This would have been fun had I not had a large Lonely Planet guidebook occupying one hand. After some seriously dicy one-handed climbing I made it to the top and was rewarded with a great view.
I spent 15 minutes wishing I could fly before heading down.
Third thing on the list was to visit the Equator, which is a few kms North of the city centre. There is a huge monument built at the site where, in 1739, French geographers calculated 0 degrees of latitude (i.e. the equator). The monument is surrounded by something resembling a theme park that has no rides. It is a modern day ghost town.
Unfortunately for the French, they got it wrong (ha ha!). The real equator, as measured by GPS, is about 300m down the road. There is a smaller and much better museum that demonstrates some weird and wonderful phenomena that can be seen along the equator. The first was the water trick - a bucket with a plug in the bottom was filled with water. The bucket was placed over the equator and the water was let out. The water drained straight out. The same thing was done on the Northern-Hemesphere side of the equator line and the water swirled around anti-clockwise! On on the Southern-Hemesphere side of the equator the water swirled clockwise! If there was a trick I didn't see it - I was amazed that moving just 2 meters across the equator could have that effect!
My favourite demonstration however, was the balancing an egg challenge. At the equator there is slightly more downward force than anywhere else on the globe. For that reason it is easier (but still hard) to balance an egg on the head of a nail. It took me two attempts but I managed to do it!
I spent a day wandering around the old town, visiting the El Panecillo hill behind the town to see the Virgen de Quito and La Catedral de Quito, a huge Gothic church.
The Virgen de Quito statue can be sen all across the town and is a change from the usual Jesus with his arms stretched out statue that most towns have.
La Catedral de Quito had some great stained-glass windows. I'm not really sure why but I love stained-glass windows!
The most interesting thing that happened that day was that I noticed two sections of one of the windows had been replaced in the wrong place. I mentioned this to the staff at the church and they straight-out refused to believe it was a mistake...see if you can spot them and make your own mind up!
The rest of my time was spent wandering the Old Town, looking at the beautiful old buildings and spectacular churches, and drinking in the new town with the people from the hostel. I finally departed for the second time to Tulcan and managed to cross the border to Colombia. Thanks Ecuador, its been a lot of fun!
Here are a few random Quito pics. This piece of modern art reminds me of my good friend Steve Moody.
Nice building that houses the cultural centre.
Some cool graffiti.
A weird statue in the park next to us. If I was famous, I'm not sure this is how I would choose to be depicted.
There was a sign that said please don't climb the statue. It was impossible to resist!
The Ecuadorian coat of arms.
The room where the president has conferences.
A nice bunch of flowers from the people of Ecuador to their president. I'm not sure who could have sent it as everyone I asked said that he was corrupt and that they hated him. Maybe his mum.
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