in Travel 410 Words

Quito in 1 day 2 times

I visited Quito twice on this trip. The first time with Gina for 1.5 days. The second time with Kristin & Amy for 1 day after the rest of our Ecuador adventures on our way to Peru. I played the role of tour guide the second time during our 10hr layover. So while I know there’s more to see, I’m fairly confident I can give a pretty good overview of Quito’s old town in a day, including plenty of time for food & drink, as we all came away loving the city. 

  • Teleferico ride up to the mountains surrounding Quito, specifically Volcan Pichincha, for a fabulous lookout over the city & hike. Or in G&I’s case… a closer look at the cloud enveloping the mountain top. 

  • The view from El Panecillo, a hilltop overlooking the old town, featuring a statute of the Virgin Mary. 

  • Climbing stairs & frighteningly steep ladders to the top of a gorgeous Basilica del Voto Nacional w stunning views of the old town & El Panecillo. Due to my bizarre fear of ladders, this was no easy task for me so I chose to sit out the second round & grabbed a drink at the base while waiting for the girls. 

The basilica may now be my fave church toured due to the unusual concrete animal statues diving off the facade. How boring are gargoyles when you can instead have anteaters, monkeys & alligators? I’m a big fan of the unusual.
Unlike G, I did NOT have a smile on my face when tackling the ladder

  • Wandering the streets of the old town & exploring its lovely plazas including Plaza Grande featuring the Presidential palace & political rallies (especially the week before the national election) & Plaza San Francisco. 


  • Traditional Ecuadorian lunch of fritada sitting outdoors in the lovely Plaza San Francisco (my personal fave Quito plaza) & perhaps a game (or 5) of triangle dominoes, the addicting game I discovered in Bottle Beach, Ko Pha Ngan that G heroically stashed in her backpack to Ecuador. 

  • Drinks on the rooftop of Vista Hermosa restaurant overlooking the old town, it’s plazas & El Panecillo. 

  • Wandering La Ronda, a beautifully quiet pedestrian street during the day featuring shops & art galleries that transforms at night into a raucous array of cafes, bars & live music. 


    8 thoughts on “Quito in 1 day 2 times”

    1. Maybe your fear of ladders began with scrambling to our rooftop to clean out gutters with your dad on our rickety ladders. That couldn’t have helped anyway.

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        1. But then, many years later on our large wooded property, I happily & quickly climbed a 2-story ladder in the middle of the yard leaned quite dangerously against a skinny tree branch of a tree afire but steadied fairly well by dad while I stretched precariously forward directing the water stream of a hose at the fire haphazardly started by us while goofing off burning leaves. Thankfully the exercise was successful as the fire was distinguished on our own & I temporarily forgot about my fear of ladders as dad made it clear “mom never needs to know about this”. We collapsed in laughter after saving the entire neighborhood’s beautiful forest & then you arrived home 10mins later.

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        2. And I didn’t hear about it until we set that same tree on fire doing the same thing the week after he died. Do you remember that? (I had that tree trimmed back subsequently.)😂

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