ECUADOR SERIES: QUITO'S OLD TOWN
Quito is a beautiful city where you can admire a great mix of architectural styles. In the Old City area you can find a great number of historic buildings to visit.
Along every street in the Old Town you will see preserved and maintained Spanish colonial architecture.
You can take a guided tour, a tram tour or you can simply walk on your own and enjoy the richness of this UNESCO World Heritage site.
The charming historic Old Town is a great place to wander up and down the streets and gaze in awe at churches, museums, buildings, restaurants and shops, as it offers a multi-mixed evidence of history and culture. We were surprised to see that a lot of cafes and restaurants have live music, which ensured a great atmosphere.
In the Old Town's Grand Plaza there are always plenty of street artists, all doing their best to entertain tourists and locals.
We've seen living statues, musicians, dancers, even craftsmen selling their artworks.
During our visit to the Old Town we were lucky to have run into a parade that was taking place in there.
It was a great opportunity for us to take some photos and admire the beautiful traditional costumes worn by those taking part of the parade.
The Spanish language spoken in Quito is clear and easy to understand compared to other areas in the country.
The Grand Plaza also known as the Independence Square is always packed with people. Surrounded by four buildings: Presidential Palace, Archibishop's Palace, the Cathedral and the City Hall, this plaza is the civic heart of the colonial city.
If you are an architecture buff, I suggest you take your time to see the whole area of the Old Town. You can't see everything in one afternoon!
From what I gathered in this relatively small area there are close to 40 churches!!!
We felt safe the entire time and we loved walking down the streets! People were very friendly and the food was delicious!
The coloured buildings, the narrow steep streets, the electric buses, got us hooked on Ecuador. We fell in love with this country!
Quito's Old Town looked amazing and incredibly clean! It surpassed our expectations!
Many of the old buildings had been renovated and they looked fabulous!
The Big Plaza (Grand Plaza) dates from the 17th century and functioned ever since as the city's main public space.
San Francisco Plaza is a large cobbled square located in front of the Iglesia de San Francisco and its monastery. Surrounded by streets on three sides, this place is a great place to hang out as it has many restaurants, cafes and shop alongside. San Francisco Plaza is a delightful square with a wonderful lived in feel to it.
This was an ice cream that we simply could not say no to!
The steep narrow streets in the old city of Quito were an unexpected bonus! It did make us think of San Francisco!
Quito's colonial centre is the largest and best preserved historic centre in the Americas!
Unfortunately I wasn't able to remember where this photo was taken, in which one of the churches that we visited...
Strolling down the streets throughout the day was fine. Apparently during the night (after 7 p.m.) is not as safe to venture outside, even in this part of the city.
street in the old city
We spent a whole day in the Old Town, exploring its streets and wondering at its beauties. We wished we had more time to discover more of it. We promised to return another time and stay a few days in order to see everything there was to see.
Wherever our steps took us throughout the city of Quito, we noted that the streets were clean!
Another sweet surprise was to discover that many streets within the Old Town area were named after South American countries. In the photo above you have a look at the Venezuela street in the old city of Quito.
As we had missed the changing of the guard at the government palace, we were happy to have ran into this soldier, protecting the back door entrance to the government palace.
What impressed us the most about the Old Town was that is was alive. It was much more than a bunch of buildings or facades empty inside.
There were small tiendas (businesses) where locals and tourists were interacting, where normal people would buy or sell products and services.
It was not only an area designated for tourists offering great shots of still life.
Have a look at this wooden door detail in the photo above! It's only one of many adornments embellishing the old colonial buildings or their doors.
After walking for hours in the city, admiring hundreds of buildings, we decided that this was the most attractive balcony in the whole area! Check out the photo above one more time!
Quito's buildings offered a charming mix of old and new. Among the South American colonial capitals, Quito is the one who changed the least since Spanish rule.
You can find a great mix of influences here: baroque, gothic, neo-classical and colonial.
Check out the emblems on these old pillars!
The Madonna place on top of the hill overlooking the old city is a replica of the San Francisco's famous Virgin of Quito statue created by Bernardo de Legarda in 1734.
The Basilica del Voto Nacional is the largest church in Quito and it features some amazing bronze doors, stained glass windows and a tower with incredible views of the city.
It's hard to have a look at it and not expect Quasimodo appearing on one of its towers.
Here is a view of the Cathedral's side wall that I took while I was looking for Quasimodo.
The church is not a regular place of warship! It's a landmark of Quito! For a small fee ($3USD) you can climb up to the tower and enjoy the rooftops view of the entire city. We skipped this step as it was very crowded and the steep climb did not tempt me.
This neo gothic church is definitely worth visiting even if you are not the religious type!
The stained glass windows are gorgeous and they reminded me of Rome. The gothic emblems tell stories of attempted inclusion of culture.
The gargoyles of this cathedral were totally different than what I've seen before.
It was a treat to look for each unique species.
These gargoyles depicted wildlife of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The highlight for me were the gargoyles!
I was mesmerized by them!
Right outside of the church, next to its steps there was an ice cream vendor waiting to sell his treats.
He must have been the third or fourth ice cream street vendor we've seen in the Old City area that day.
As we were walking back to our hotel, we crossed a nice small park.
One of the highlights of the day was seeing a street artist performing Michael Jackson's Moonwalk on the roads of Quito!
Thank you for coming along on this trip!
Here are other travel related posts:
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PANAMA SERIES: HACIENDA LOS MOLINOS
PANAMA SERIES: PANAMA CITY’S SKYLINE AT NIGHT
PANAMA SERIES: THE GRINGO PRICE
PANAMA SERIES: TEN FACTS OR MORE ABOUT BOQUETE, PANAMA
PANAMA SERIES: BOQUETE’S FLOWERS AND COFFEE FESTIVAL
PANAMA SERIES: VISITING DAMARLI ESTATE IN BOQUETE
PANAMA SERIES: CARIBBEAN PARADISE - BOCAS DEL TORO
ECUADOR SERIES: MITAD DEL MUNDO + CABLE CAR RIDE IN QUITO
ECUADOR SERIES: ECUADORIAN WOMEN AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
ECUADOR SERIES: OTAVALO, THE ARTISAN MARKET MECCA
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ECUADOR SERIES - DUE DILIGENCE TRIP
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VISIT TO SAINT-JOSEPH’S ORATORY IN MONTREAL, CANADA
Unless stated otherwise, all photos used in this posts are taken and owned by myself. If you wish to use any of my images, please contact me!
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Thank you!
Looks like a great place. Lovely photographs too, they really capture the atmosphere of the city.
Looks like there are some steep hills there too!
It's a great place to burn some calories cause you can walk for hours! lol I was happy I had my sneakers on! ;0)
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Welcome @lymepoet!
Now that looked like a fantastic place to visit, you really covered a lot of ground walking the city @lymepoet
What I enjoyed is the honest opinion, the clean streets, not going out at night, the atmosphere you enjoyed in friendly people. Travel is educational, enjoyed seeing this through your lens.
I did walk a lot that day! Good thing I was having my sneakers on! lol Thanks for coming along!
Wow! You really get to visit some interesting places!! Your posts are always so fun to read. ♥
That's a nice thing to hear, thank you!
An amazing place! How do they keep those buildings so white?
I did notice how clean it was. Cleaner than my remote town of 300 population. You can tell they have respect and pride for where they live.
I have to say that I am loving their clothing and costumes. The woman with the orange and black skirt - I would wear that!
I would love to say something about every picture you have in your post but it would take up too much space lol. Although I cannot leave out the church. Like you said, religious or not, that building is a masterpiece. And that stained window... WOW! Breathtaking.
Thank you for showing us all this. I never had much of a traveling thought but I now see that Ecuador is definitely a place to visit.
There were plenty of things that we loved about this trip but it would have been a way too long post to write. ;0)
What we didn't like in Quito was double priced entrance fee for tourist and every church was paid. That's insane, but what you can do? We just said what we think about them and didn't go inside. We felt really safe around whole Ecuador. Why you didn't feel safe after sunset?
Most of the locals we talked with told us to only go out after sunset if we were in a larger group (6-7 people) or having with us at least one local friend. The same rule seemed to apply everywhere throughout the country. We did go out at night on our own as well when we were on the coast or down South in Cuenca, Loja and Vilca.
Such a beautiful city those street artists that stand as statues always amaze me i can never stand still for more than a second
I am amazed by the fact they were able to stay dressed that way and having the paint on their faces for so long in that temperature!
Yes indeed I have the upmost respect for them to be able to do that
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Very nice architecture sometimes It looks also like a European city. I do not know it is just my impression. By the way I really like those customs in your photos
Thank you! The Spanish influence is strong in Ecuador but it's a great mix of styles and cultures.