Friday 12.9.14 – Quito

Well after an early 3am morning to bed, we slept through breakfast and kept on sleeping. Woke a couple of times but fell back to sleep. Probably not up and about till 12.00.

Finally up and sorted ourselves out, organised laundry etc. Then we reckoned it was time to find somewhere to eat, it has been a long time since our plane meal, both feeling a little sub par – not sure what to put that down too, could it be sleep deprivation? Still trying to adjust to the time difference? The altitude? Or the medication we have taken for altitude sickness? It’s a bit hard to know, but the couple of flights of stairs up to our room do take it out of you.

Eventually, we went downstairs to seek a place to eat, so armed with a map and some directions we headed off, the place suggested was not open, the one next door was a bit fishy, so we walked on and found Plaza Grande and a little place to eat called Dulceria ???, ordered a ham and cheese sandwich, some juice and eventually a coffee. This took a little bit of negotiation and reference to the Spanish phrase book. The food was ok, the coffee pretty good.

The Plaza Grande, was surrounded by some amazing buildings, a church, a palace and others we couldn’t figure out. There were many people sitting on the church steps and gathered around a group of street performers. 

Hidalgo Palace, now the Hotel
Plaza Grande.

Catedral de Quito -  "Arch of
Carondelet" entrance and its
staircase

and more of Catedral de Quito

We sat and watched the world go by, this included lots of vendors walking around with goods, such as fruit – strawberries, apples and somethings that might have been apricots/peaches, there were also scarf sellers, a couple of guitarists who played for us and some others sitting nearly, they all gave them money, we avoided eye contact. 

a scarf seller - © Suzie Sloan

After a long sit over lunch, we ventured on to have a look at the buildings around the plaza, and then meandered back to our hotel, via the supermarket next door. I was craving some chips, so we bought some chips, fruit, juice and biscuits. It’s always interesting to check out foreign supermarkets, basically the same but always with a bit of a twist. Some brands are so universal and look the same others have a similarity but something is different, whether the language or just the packaging.

Some super steep hills and streets,
looking up the hill from a street near
the Hotel. A range of coloured
houses looking great on the hill.

In the restaurant at Hotel, a traditional dancer.

Sue and I in the restaurant.

and again Sue and I in front of dancer.

I put this one in to show more of the
architecture of the central inside of one
of the two hotel courtyards.

Our Hotel – Patio Andaluz, is over 500 years old and is an old Colonial building with a long history, the rooms are centred around a courtyard and there are amazing wide landings with lovely sitting areas and the most beautiful roses in vases around the place. Our room is nice and roomy, so all in all a lovely place to base ourselves.

The Hotel is a National Monument dating back to the 16th century

The entire hotel features classic colonial-style decor and furnishings. The warmly coloured rooms have polished wood floors and ornate wooden furniture.

Hotel Patio Andaluz has been declared an official Ecuadorian National Treasure. Patio Andalus Hotel was declared a Cultural Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO in 1978.

We are heading out for tea - Vista Hermosa is the name of restaurant.

Thanks for comments Keith, Sandra, Meg, Leanne, keep em coming guys, If you have any requests also let me know and we will see what we can do.