Sights in Quito

My wife, Barbara, and I traveled from Sacramento, California, to Quito for two weeks in January ’06. Our trip in the Ecuadorean highlands started with a 4-hour flight to Houston followed by a 5-hour flight to Quito, landing at midnight. Flights in and out of Quito are scheduled early and late because of its elevation at 9,000 feet.

We stepped outside the terminal and hired a taxi to our hotel for $5. Ecuador conveniently uses the U.S. dollar.

We stayed the first six nights in Hotel Los Alpes (Tamayo #233, Quito; phone 593-06-2561110 or e-mail alpes@uio.satnet.net), well located toward the southern side of New Town and a quarter block from the U.S. Embassy. We paid $50 a night, including breakfast (add on 22% for any lodging or meal in Ecuador); we booked it from the U.S.

In addition to comfortable rooms, it had an excellent restaurant where tasty dinners could be had — $7-$10 for a main dish.

A short walk across Parque El Ejido took us to the closest trole stop; the trolley is an articulated bus run off of trolley wires and thus in dedicated lanes down the middle of the boulevard. There are covered stations every few blocks where you purchase your token and enter the bus across a ramp. Rides are 25¢, but seniors over 65 pay only 12¢.

The trolley runs south into Old Town, where the best first stop is Plaza Independencia, known locally as Plaza Grande. The plaza is flanked by the Cathedral on the south, the Archbishop’s Palace on the north, the Government Palace on the west and the Municipal Palace on the east.

One block north and west of the plaza and on the corner of Olmedo and García Moreno is a tourist information office on the second floor. They furnish excellent city maps and brochures of upcoming events.

Well-preserved colonial architecture is everywhere in Quito’s Old Town. San Francisco Church and Monastery is the oldest, dating from 1534. Santo Domingo, second oldest, is near the main bus station in a slightly seedy area of town.

La Merced was closed for renovation while we were there but is reputed to contain some of the best paintings in town from the “Quito” School of the 17th and 18th centuries.

La Compañia, built by the Jesuits, is a “must see,” with seven tons of gold on the interior.

Teatro Nacional Sucre, at streets Guayaquil and Manabí, is Quito’s opera house. It has a lovely exterior, houses a well-respected restaurant and during our visit was still being renovated.

Teatro Bolivar (Espejo #847), off Guayaquil, was gutted by fire in the late ’90s but is still usable for some productions.

The new Basilica rises on the north side of Old Town. This monumental edifice was started in 1926 and is still not quite finished. You can take an elevator up the front of the church and walk across a gangway above the nave to the bell tower for a spectacular view of the city. The church reminded us of Notre Dame, only with bird-like figures replacing the gargoyles.

The southern edge of town is dominated by El Panecillo (little bread loaf), a hill topped with a huge statue of the “Virgin of Quito.” A taxi took us there for $5 including some wait time (best to confirm the price before you take off).

It’s a great view point, and looking north and east on a clear day you can see snowcapped Volcan Cayambe, which at 5,790 meters (18,996 feet) is Ecuador’s third-highest mountain.

SAM KAMILOS Carmichael, CA