What to do in Quito for a day?

November 4, 2006 4:11 PM

24 hours in Quito, Ecuador. What to do?

Wife and I (along with in-laws) will be going on a week-long liveaboard to the Galapagos Islands between Christmas and New Years. Prior to heading off to the boat we'll have a day or so in Quito. Anything unique or fun to do?

posted by saladpants to travel & transportation (9 comments total)

I'd visit the equator and make sure it's still there. That way, it would save me a trip.
posted by pjern at 4:46 PM on November 4, 2006

I emailed my ex-pat friend who has been living in Ecuador and this was his reply:

well, the guy who said he'd visit the equator hasn't looked at a map. quito isn't on the equator. In quito.. i don't think there's much to do aside from visiting old town and going to the basillica. Mostly drinking and dancing.
posted by iurodivii at 5:26 PM on November 4, 2006

I'd hit the Magic Bean for
some fresh organic food and find out what is happening in town (exhibits, galleries,
museums) over some good lunch.
posted by ig at 9:02 PM on November 4, 2006

We went to one of the big open air markets in one of the central parks. (Or the only one, I'm not entirely sure). It was great. Lots of people out walking, playing soccer, eating, etc. very cool.

old town is also neat.

Equator memorial is like 45 minutes away and was kinda corny,but fun.
posted by Lord_Pall at 5:19 AM on November 5, 2006

The official Mitad del Mundo monument is supposedly not really on the equator. There's another museum just *slightly* north, Museo de Sitio Inti-nan and it's lots of fun. You do all kinds of demonstrations to prove you're on the equator - the trick to balancing an egg on a nail is to make sure your body is centered over the line. They've also got some models of various kinds of houses of the people of Ecuador, and you can put on a feathered head dress and blow a dart at a prickly pear. They have a shrunken head, with truly grotesque directions on how to make it. It's worth seeing, if you can figure out how to get there.

The park with the open market is probably Parque El Ejido. If you go about one block toward new town (north), there's a building that's about a block with aisles and aisles of booths. I don't remember if it's east or west of the Hilton, but it's one block east of the round building. The fellow shoppers are really fun, there. Watch out for the herds of kids - that's the absolutely *only* place, in three weeks all over Ecuador, where anyone tried to pickpocket us. They swarm you to sell gum and things, and try to climb in your pockets while you try to walk through them. They're persistent little buggers and we never determined whether or not there were bigger, scarier adults waiting in the wings.

A note about the herds of kids. They aren't too bad in New town, but they're very bad in Old town. Somewhat recently, the government instituted heavy school fees - and so the very poor families can no longer afford to send the kids to school. Some of the kids are told "Go out and make X dollars, and don't come home until you have it." You *will* get solicited. I had packs of crackers, and I found that the kids wanted the crackers even more than they wanted the money. Watch the locals for reactions - they look just as upset by it. I'm rather worried about what Ecuador will look like in a few years, when all these uneducated children are old enough to start looking for real jobs. Right now, Ecuador is a relatively safe, gorgeous, upwardly mobile country (and a million, billion times better than Peru.) I have nightmares that these kids are going to jeopardize that.

I found old town to be not worth the trip. Sure, there are old buildings there. Woot, presidential house. Big churches. If you're into that, great. I found it crowded and I didn't feel safe enough to pull out the camera, most times. The people watching on the main square are worth it. There's a mansion of a rich guy's widow that's kind of fun to walk through, if you're into that. La Compania is a church made of gold, and it's truly impressive and gorgeous - but you aren't allowed to take pictures. Unless you're Ecuadorian.

The Museo Del Banco Central is basically in Parque el Ejido. It was described in one book as "go see even if you don't like museums," and it's definitely worth it. For $2 you get into a museum rivaling anything in the States. On the first floor, you see tons and tons and tons of the pottery and etc of the people who have lived in the area. There's even an ancient goatse statue. For some reason we thought were weren't allowed to have our camera, but in retrospect, I think they would have let us have it - we just had to put our bags in bagcheck. There are a million fascinating things on the first gallery, and only a few are arte de homosexual. There's a room showing how the facial decorations are made, complete with mannequins fully decked out, that's wroth the price of admission all on its own. The upper floors have Ecuadorian art to the present.

Yeah, this Guaysmin guy? Only do it if you're seriously into art. It's a nicely run museum, but his art is very disturbing and not to my taste. And like Warhol, he seems famous because he had more PR than talent. Although, amusingly, he has many parallels to Warhol - and no one there had ever heard of him. And it's a schlep away from anything else you'd want to do. And it was kind of hard to catch a taxi when we were done - it's a safe enough neighborhood, so you basically have to just start hiking back to the nearest biggest road, but then you don't have as much choice in taxis - see future paragraph for advice about taxis.

What I absolutely, unequivocally recommend as a must-see in Quito is el Teleferico. Dress warm - we were in short sleeves (don't ever wear shorts in Quito) and wondered why everyone had winter coats, and figured that they were just thin-blooded equatorial people. Well, when the taxi drive drops you off (or bus, whatever), you walk through a strange quasi-mall, then outside. If you want, you can go to the amusement park. We skipped that. Keep going to your right, and you walk past some shops. Keep heading up. Eventually you get to a gorgeous glass building - go buy the express lane tickets - *especially* if you're there on a weekend. Then ride the biggest ski lift ever up to the top. Surprise! You're in another building with shops. Go through the building. The view - especially if you're there early enough before the smog really settles in - is pretty nice. There's a trail that goes up and up and up. If you're only there for one day, you may not be able to hike it very far. I'm in pretty good shape, and I could only make it up the mountain by resting every, oh, thirty seconds. The altitude is truly killer. It's a nice trail through the Paramo, and there are tons of Ecuadorians who do it as a family thing with no apparent altitude distress. If you go far enough, there's a place you can rent horses for pretty cheap - I think it was $3/half an hour - and the short trip takes you past a pretty little waterfall. Teleferico was possibly my most favorite part of Quito, simply for the chance to walk out into the Paramo, and to see the families. Be careful though. I was ok as long as I was on the mountain. When we decided to head back down, they cram you into a little building where the line snakes back and forth and the only ventilation is from two doors at one end of this long skinny building. When I went into this poorly ventilated room with hundreds of people inhaling oxygen, *that's* when I got altitude sick. I was having awake nightmares about what would happen if I threw up in the building. There's te de coca for sale right before you go into this building, and that does help, but it's overpriced, and I wasn't sick when I walked past that kiosk. As you go down the mountain, you'll feel better.

Thinking of sickness - you are bringing sea sickness patches for the Galapagos, yes? Even the people on our boat with summer houses in the Caribbean were using them. There's a reason that Darwin spent as much time as possible on land.

If you go to Teleferico, you can safely skip Panecillo. Panecillo is a big statue of some Christian thing on a hill. Do Not Walk There. Take a taxi. From el Panecillo you have a nice view of Old Town, but even early in the morning the smog means your 'graphs aren't great. There's nowhere good on el Panecillo to take a good picture of the statue. Again, it's a family outing place - there's an area where people fly kites, completely bounded by power lines and one of those really interesting weird paramo trees, but it's probably not worth it to go just to see the Charlie Brown Kite Eating Tree.

BTW - advice on the taxis: All Quito taxis have a meter and by law, they're required to use it - but they won't unless you request and insist. If you ask the taxi driver how much it costs, he'll quote you, perhaps $5. You'll think, "oh, that's reasonable." Then you get there, and he insists it's 7$. The phrase is, "Use el taxi metro". Use is pronounced more like use-ay. If they say no, just walk off. Sometimes, they'll throw a jacket over it, or "accidently" turn it off, or claim it's broken. There is *always* another taxi. If you do this, very rarely is the price from one end of town to the other more than $3. Sometimes they'll claim it's $5, and if you insist they use the meter, surprise surprise, the fee winds up being $5. It took me a while to learn my way around Quito - for one thing, the streets are labeled way up high on the buildings and I just didn't see any signs the first few days. We ran about 50/50 on getting honest taxi drivers. If you ask them to wait, the fees are exorbitant. I never saw any taxis at the real Mitad del Mundo monument, though.

Have fun! The people are great, it's tremendous fun, just keep an eye on your pockets. We sewed velcro into all of ours, and that helps stymie the little kids.
posted by arabelladragon at 7:38 AM on November 5, 2006

I forgot to mention - the botanical garden, Jardin Botanico, in Parque La Carolina, very good. But you can skip the Museo de las Ciencias and the Vivarium, which are next door, unless you're really into snakes and iguanas.
posted by arabelladragon at 8:09 AM on November 5, 2006

Some friends of mine were just in Quito. They took lots of pictures: Quito, Ecuador. There are photos of the Basilica in there too.
posted by mto at 8:26 PM on November 5, 2006

What arabelladragon said about taxis, except, if you're there 24 hours, it's not worth overly expending your USdollarsAnxiety over. Walk around the city, keep a tight hold on your backpack, and enjoy the Galapagos, which, unfortunately, are a thoroughly segregated experience. Whether you're on a good or bad excursion to Galapagos, two things that can make a difference are good shoes and good snorkeling gear.
posted by Mngo at 9:23 PM on November 5, 2006

I doubt anyone is reading this anymore, but just wanted to thank you all for the great advice. We had a great trip to the Quito, the Equator, and the Galapagos, and the advice here came in very handy.
posted by saladpants at 10:50 AM on January 13, 2007