We had a free day today to explore Quito. We walked from our hotel to Foch Plaza in the La Mariscal district, a small very touristy square full of restaurants and tour companies with lots of small hotels, hostels, bars and clubs on the ajoining streets. Running off the square was 'outdoor shop' street, some good, some bad shops, nothing cheap, prices the same as the US. Nigel needed a new head torch and I a new water bottle which we found.
We continued walking through the streets to Quito's old town district passing through a well laid out park with lots of people enjoying the parks facilities. The old town had lots of narrow cobblestoned streets, lovely old colonial buildings and lots of churches and museums. We stopped at a restaurant, Fruteria Monserrate, which Nigel had visited ten years ago when in Quito for their speciality dish a big bowl of fruit salad. We continued wandering around the bustling old town hoping to visit Morales street which had lots of arts and crafts. We reached it at the wrong time, all the small shops shut for lunch between 1pm and 3pm, siesta time and the streets got very busy with locals wandering around. We had a quick look inside a church belonging to a convent, it was beautifully decorated inside, then got a taxi back to Foch Plaza for a late lunch at The Magic Bean restaurant, very nice Panini's and delicious cakes!
We then returned to our hotel for a siesta ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment