Retired Nomads - Part 2 : Quito, Ecuador City Tour

Saturday, the 11 day package started with Celebrity.

The Marriott had a nice breakfast buffet that was included each morning. We boarded comfy buses for a city tour.

The first stop was Quito Old Town where we visited several Cathedrals and Churches and the Presidential Palace. The gold church has 7 tons of gold leaf and was phenomenal. The larger church we saw reminded us of one in Barcelona only the “gargoyles” are Galapagos animals, such as penguins, tortoises and iguanas etc. After a couple hours in old town we went to lunch at Teatro Nacional Sucre where a lovely buffet was served with many regional dishes to choose from. An opera singer performed after we ate.

JW Marriott

flowers in the lobby

views from the bus

La Basilica del Voto Nacional

Independence Square

Presidential Palace

he REALLY loves his job!

this one appears to be sleeping - maybe that's why the other guy is frowning

San Francisco church & convent

courtyard at the convent

the priests keep birds as pets in the courtyard

Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus

back on the bus

courtyard outside Teatro Sucre

Teatro Nacional Sucre for lunch

opera singer while we ate

outside the restroom at the restaurant

We re-boarded the bus for Mitad del Mundo, the equator monument. We spent about an hour at the park, taking the elevator to the top of the monument for a good view of the southern valley and then took a quick trip through the local artisan shops. Of course, we got the obligatory photos of us with one foot in each hemisphere etc. With the GPS technology we now have the “real” equator is now a couple of blocks away. But, this one remains popular as a tourist attraction. Our last day in Quito after the cruise we visited the “real” one.

views from the top of the monument

there was a small museum

We returned to the hotel around 4pm. There were many people with lost luggage and the Marriott and Celebrity were working with everyone to try and locate them. A large group that came on the flight that Celebrity scheduled for them had lost luggage due to an entire crate of luggage that was left on the tarmac in Miami. They were promised that their luggage would arrive on that evenings’ flight. Quite a few of us were going to the local mall to try and buy a few things to get us by, but that group trusted their luggage would come and they went to the included dinner with Celebrity at an Italian restaurant.

We weren’t on that flight, so we knew our luggage wasn’t among those found. We skipped the dinner and went to the local mall, which was very high end with very high prices. I packed better than Greg and had at least a few things to get me by, but Greg packed most everything in the checked luggage and needed to buy some nylon spf shirts and pants and basics like underwear, toothpaste, sun screen etc. We were surprised to find that the same brand of pants and shirts sold on the Xpedition were less than half what we paid at the mall.

We grabbed a bite to eat at a local place called Hasta la Vuelta Señor that was recommended by Alex and it was quite good. Greg had a tasty lamb and I had a pretty tough but tasty meat dish. While we were eating, we noticed these huge empanadas going to most of the tables and said we needed to go back to try one. Interesting that we tried the door to the restaurant and it was locked. We could see people in there and knew they were open. We started to walk away, when a policeman came up and explained they keep it locked to ward off "grab & go" robbers. They unlocked the door to let us in and then locked it behind us. We never felt unsafe in Quito, but things happen everywhere.