Since we had pretty thoroughly covered Old Town on day one in Quito, we decided to creep slowly northward to La Mariscal on day two. We started our journey through La Alameda Parque, a tiny triangle park with an adorable paddle-boat river! It’s the oldest park in the city, and it also boasts a really cute astronomy tower (one of the oldest in South America!).
We continued park-hopping as we moved toward New Town. Luckily it was Sunday, which meant Parque El Ejido was full of artisans and bike riders! We made some of our first souvenir purchases here – lots of colorful art and cloth to admire.
When we finally made it into New Town proper, we got sucked in by the pull of La Mariscal, or gringolandia. It’s where tourists come to be tourists! But there’s no denying that we were tourists, with our pale skin and our inability to speak much Spanish, so we got settled at New Bask Hostal (we paid $18 per night for a private room with a bathroom) in the heart of things.
Sundays and Mondays are pretty tame, though, so we didn’t deal with too much noise and actually had to work to find nightlife. We did manage to find an awesome band and delicious dessert at Q Restaurant, and the arepas stand across the street had AMAZING food including the best cheese fries of our trip.
Our last stop in Quito was the Teleférico, which takes you up to 3,945 m in a gondola for some spectacular views. That’s the premise, anyway.
You have to get there first thing in the morning or the clouds swoop in. Seriously, first thing in the morning. We got up there around noon and were treated to a romantic hail storm. Oh well, you can’t win them all!
