It is a sparkling gem in the midst of all these less than fancy residences, and overlooks the nice town of Tena. We had a nice little hostel on the edge of town. I do have a nice picture of the volcano from a bit farther away. On a clear day, you can also see the volcano overlooking the town, but unfortunately, we didn't actually get a clear day until we were driving away from the town. This is a much higher lookout point and you can see the entire area from above. But at the top, you have a nice view of Banos and can enjoy a strong breeze of cool fresh air.Īnother point of interest we hit up was BellaVista, which is reachable by car. Ravi was definitely complaining something fierce by the time that we reached the top. It was about 600 steep steps up the trail to the statue, and in the thin air, this is already hard work. I managed to convince Ravi to do a hike to a statue of the Virgin Mary on the side of a mountain. The town is quite small and most of the activities involve getting out of the town and seeing the great views. This is a wonderful little town way up in the mountains and surrounded by sheer cliffs, high mountains, and a bunch of waterfalls. right in the center of politics in Ecuador. The line to get in it was ridiculous and the tour was not that great, but it was still quite a fun place to be. We also checked out the Palace of the Governor. You have a great view of the city from the top, and are pretty much at eye level to the top of the Basilica.
We also checked out the Virgin Mary Statue on a small hill called the Panecillo which was across Old Town from the Basilica. It was a great people watching opportunity and Ravi had a chance to take hundreds of shots of "people with character". During the night time, the churches around the area look amazing, and during the day, the place is always packed with people. Plaza Grande is the main plaza in the center of town. Of course, I did this alone since I don't think Ravi could hack the climb, but it was well worth the experience and the view of the whole town. It's a very very long way to the top and seemingly longer to the bottom when looking down. The interior is quite glamorous for a cement building, and the fun part is climbing up to the very tip of the bell tower and heading outside with not even a railing in front of you. It is a huge church at one end of the Old Town and overlooks the city. This is certainly the most spectacular site in Quito. By the end of the day, I think that we were all "churched out" and were pretty much done with Old Town in Quito. The goal was to hit all the sites that we wanted to see before 5 pm which is when many of them close down to tourists. We woke up in our same hostel Loro Verde again today and headed out for a day of fun in Quito.
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