Preamble

This is our 84 trip together.

Quito is the oldest of all South American capitals (founded 1534), population  4 million.  It is notable for its well-preserved old town, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It is close to the equator but at 9300 feet elevation days are about 70 degrees all year.



 

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Day 7

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  Day 7 We started the day with a taxi to the cable car   (TeleferiQo) terminal. It was a beautiful, clear morning, which is rare in Quito. When we arrived, there was already a pretty long line to the ticket office. It took about 30 minutes to get tickets, but then we got straight to the cable car. The car can hold 4-6 people and we were paired with two Ecuadorian soldiers. The ride up was beautiful with amazing views of the whole city. The cable car covers the distance of 2,500 meters and takes about 18 minutes.   The elevation at the top is about 12,943 feet and the views are spectacular, not just of the city but also the surrounding volcanoes. Some people attempt a hike to the top of the Pichincha volcano from the TeleferiQo top station, which takes them to the elevation of over 4000 meters and takes several strenuous hours.   We only took a 20 minute hike up further to a swing in the sky, which is at the elevation of about 13,000 feet.   We definitely fe...
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Day 5

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After breakfast we started a walk to the Mindalae museum, but were side tracked by a quest for a camera store. The quest was unsuccessful, but we walked a large section of the Mariscal district, which is adjacent to “our” area of La Floresta.   The museum is not very big, but quite interesting. It is an ethno-historical craft museum and it holds lots of artifacts from the indigenous history of Ecuador. Its organization is a bit unusual as each of the 5 floors focuses on a different craft, e.g. the 5 th floor – on pottery, 4 th on weaving/textiles, 3 rd on basket weaving; 2 nd on wood carving and 1 st on jewelry. Since we were still on the camera quest, a woman in the museum told us that we may find a camera store in a shopping mall nearby, and we went there. After we got to the mall and asked several people, we didn’t find any store.   Back to the hotel, and the concierge told us where the big camera stores are.   We decided to have the famous Quiteno potato soup c...
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Day 4

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  After breakfast, at 8 am we were met by our guide for the tour to Otavalo.   It is about 55 miles from Quito. The terrain is interesting with mountains and valleys. Ecuador is an agricultural paradise.   They do not have seasons here (since it on the equator) but they have climate differences based on altitude.   At the lower altitudes it is hot and they grow tropical produce.   At the higher altitudes it is moderate and different produce is grown.   Our guide bought some cherimoya which we enjoyed   We passed many acres of covered greenhouses where roses are grown. They produce about 100000 roses a day, which are shipped worldwide. Before driving to Otavalo, we made two stops --- one at the actual equator (there is a tourist site called Mitad del Mundo that has an equator monument and museum, but is several hundred feet from the equator). The site we stopped at is right on the equator as confirmed by GPS. We listened to a short presentation abou...
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