Tag: Quito

Here is a quiz that will be answered later in this post. Two weeks ago I didn’t know the surprising answer. What is the official currency of Ecuador?

We went back to Quito old town today. It is a UNESCO world heritage sight. We started at the basilica where there were holding a mass to bless the police.

Then we walked down hill to visit Quito’s cathedral on the Plaza Grande.

Then we took a tour of the Numismatic Museum in the Central Bank of Ecuador. It was fascinaing to learn how Ecuador’s currency has developed with the history of the country. In the late 1990s Ecuador faced hyper inflation. Towards the end of the tour there was a plexiglass box about 1ft by 4ft by 5ft. It was full of coins in the old currency, the Sucre.  When Duke was here about 35 years ago he thinks 1 sucre was about 20 cents. The box contained about 5,625,000 sucres. Today they are all worth $15.

In any case when the value of the sucre went almost to zero Ecuador changed their official currency to the U.S. Dollar!! So we are using our $ here just like at home.

Our last stop in the old town was the Church and Monestary of San Francisco. It is Quito’s oldest Church.

We had a late lunch in the old Archbishop’s Palace which now has shops and restaurants.

Tomorrow we head by bus to Latacunga about 40 miles (98 km) south of Quito.

If you would like to see our itinerary with links to previous posts it is available by clicking on the link below. .

Our itinerary

Today was a relaxing day. We took a taxi to Capilla del Hombre and Museo Guayasamín. It is the museum of the work of the painter Oswaldo Guayasamin and the home where he lived. 

The art gallery was amazing. Guayasamin designed it and had it built for the art. It was beautiful and moving. Although his paintings in the museum were about the suffering of the people of Latin America there was still a sense of hope and strength. I think it would be worth visiting Quito just to visit La Capilla del Hombre!

His home was just as he left it including his studio and his art collection.  This is the view from the house. 

We couldn’t take pictures in the house or the museum but I’ve included below a couple of pictures of postcards. 

These pictures are in the garden. 

The Capilla del Hombre and Museo Guayasamin were high on a hill above our hotel so although we took a taxi to get there we walked back to our hotel. 

For dinner tonight we went to a wonderful restaurant not far from our hotel. It was called Urko.  The octopus was nothing like we were served in Spain. But the flavors were oh so good!

We ended with espresso. 

And now the Guayasamin postcards. It would be very tempting to buy a print. 

Our first day in Quito after breakfast at our hotel (It is a great Hotel- Hotel Zen Suites) we went out exploring. Quito is at altitude 2815 meters or 9,200 feet so I got out of breath very easily. Every time we climbed a hill or stairs I huffed and puffed but we ended up walking probably 5 miles. The temperature was in the high 60s  so it was a very pleasant day to walk. 

Our first stop was the Quito Observatory. It was opened in 1864 and is the second oldest in South America. They have a wonderful museum of old scientific equipment. 

We climbed the tower in the Church of Santo Domingo and got a great view. When we came down the guy who we paid to get in was at lunch and we couldn’t figure out how to open the door doer so we had to sit and wait  in the garden until someone came along to tell us how together out! I love how the bell in the tower is hung with leather straps. 

All the time we were in Spain and Portugal we never saw a yarn shop so when I saw this I thought of Barbara and had to go in!

For a late lunch we stopped at a restaurant on the historic street La Ronda. We ate on an open air second floor  terrace. Duke had Cuy (Guinea pig) and I had potato soup! He said the Guinea pig tasted kind of like rabbit but there wasn’t much meat! My soup was great!

We ended our walking tour at the Plaza Grande and took a cab back to our hotel. Dinner was at Zao Asian Restaurant near our hotel. It was wonderful. We started with prawns then Duke had beef and tempura broccoli and I had a beef and vegetable bowl. 

Sunday night we left San Francisco and flew to Fort Lauderdale. We arrived at about 7 am local time after a little over five hours of flying so it was a short night. The fact that JetBlue flights have a couple more inches of leg room than most airlines makes a huge difference. 

In Fort Lauderdale on Monday we rented a car for the day since our flight to Quito didn’t leave until almost 7 in the evening. As soon as we stepped outside the airport door my glasses fogged up. It was very humid!

The first things we did were drive to a nearby State Park, check out the beach, then park the car, recline the seats and sleep. 
After a few more hours of sleep we got some food then drove south along the water to check out Miami Beach.   I’ve never seen a man walking his pig before!

Our flight to Quito took less than four hours. Quito has a beautiful new airport and excellent roads with almost no cars since it was almost midnight. Now we are at our hotel and ready to get a goood sleep before we explore Quito tomorrow.