24 hours in Quito

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This was published 12 years ago

24 hours in Quito

"Navel of the world" ... the spires of the Basilica del Voto Nacional.

"Navel of the world" ... the spires of the Basilica del Voto Nacional.Credit: Getty Images

Louise Southerden explores a 'middle earth' capital with its head in the clouds and eyes on the coast.

In Ecuador's indigenous Quechua language, Quito is the "navel of the world". But the capital of Ecuador - its full name is San Francisco de Quito, which is appropriate given its steep streets - is more distinguished than this might suggest.

Sure, there is a "Middle of the World" tourist-trap monument less than an hour's drive north of the city, but stay in Quito and you'll be charmed by its Spanish cathedrals and Moorish houses, its volcanic surrounds, its mostly "mestizo" residents (a mix of Ecuador's Spanish and Amerindian heritage) and its lofty elevation 2850 metres above sea level in the Andes.

Quito also has the distinction of being the first city to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage site on the first World Heritage list in 1978 - with 11 other precious places including the Galapagos Islands (also part of Ecuador). And this year, Quito has been named the cultural capital of the Americas by the American Capital of Culture Organisation.

It's a long, thin city - 60 kilometres end to end, filling the floor of a valley - which means it is hard to get lost in Quito, as long as you remember its 4787-metre active volcano, Pichincha, is to the west, towards the Pacific. That's Quito - an equatorial city with its eyes on the coast and its head in the clouds.

8am

This is one of the best places in the world to start the day with a cup of joe, as Americans call it. Coffee, along with cocoa and bananas, is one of Ecuador's most important cash crops and is grown in the highlands around Quito, on the coast, even on some Galapagos islands. Kallari Cafe, set up in 2004 by the indigenous Kallari Association and 100 per cent farmer-owned, has Fairtrade organic coffee for $US1.50 ($1.43 - "Americano" is the coffee of choice for locals, similar to a long black), and breakfast specials for $US3.50, including herbal tea, coffee or hot chocolate, pancakes or fruit salad and muesli, and eggs. While you're there, try the Fairtrade organic brownies, made with dark chocolate grown and harvested by a co-operative of 850 ethnic Quichua farmers in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It's do-good goodness.

Kallari Chocolate Lounge and Cafe, Wilson E4-266 y Juan Leon Mera, La Mariscal, open 8.30am-7pm Mon-Fri, 9am-1pm Sat; see kallari.com.

9am

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Don't be put off by the Central Bank National Museum's name. There's no money here, unless you count its impressive Sala de Oro ("gold room") filled with gold jewellery, breastplates, masks and figurines that once belonged to the Incas, the Romans of the Americas, who commanded the northern part of their vast empire from Quito from 1462 to 1534. Ecuador's Central Bank funds the most impressive museums in the country and this is one of the best, particularly as an introduction to Ecuador's human history, from pre-Columbian civilisations 11,000 years ago to the Spanish, who arrived in the 16th century; and its four main geographical regions: Costa (the coast), Sierra (the mountains), Oriente (the jungle, in the east or "oriente") and the Galapagos.

Central Bank National Museum (Museo Nacional de Banco Central del Ecuador), Avenida Patria, between Avenida Seis de Diciembre and Avenida Doce de Octubre. Open 9am-5pm Tues-Fri, 10am-4pm weekends, closed Mon. Entry $US2; see quito.com.ec.

10.30am

Quito's Old City is the largest historic centre in the Americas, with more than 40 churches and chapels, 16 convents and monasteries, 12 museums and hundreds of courtyards. Much of it was built by the Spanish in 1534 from the rubble left by the Incas, who destroyed their buildings rather than leave them for the invaders. You can see massive stone blocks used by the Incas in the walls of Catholic cathedrals. There are street vendors - women with long plaits selling bags of oranges, Peruvian men selling coca tea and lollies, Amazonian Ecuadorians with large pythons around their necks promoting jungle tours - but not as many as there used to be.

In the past 10 years, Quito's authorities have relocated about 35,000 street people in an effort to make the Old City safe and pave the way, literally, for new museums, cultural centres, boutique hotels and classy restaurants - one of which is uninvitingly named Mea Culpa ("my mistake"). On La Ronda, a traditional street with flowerboxes under the windows, residents in Ecuadorian national dress might offer you a glass of canelazo, hot mulled rum with spices, which can be dark red like merlot, hacienda orange, even hot pink.

1.30pm

Cafe Plaza Grande, in Hotel Plaza Grande - which is right on Independence Square (commemorating Ecuador's liberation from the Spanish in 1822) and next door to the Presidential Palace (where grenadiers wear 19th-century uniforms) - is an ideal place to press "pause" on the sightseeing and indulge in an Ecuadorian tradition, the long lunch.

Originally the home of Juan Diaz de Hidalgo, one of the Spanish founders of Quito, it became a hotel in 1943, was renovated in 2005 and now claims to be Quito's finest. Its cafe is more of a restaurant and specialises in Ecuadorian cuisine. For starters, try dried plantain and yuka (manioc) chips with chilli sauce, accompanied by blackberry-and-custard-apple juice. You can't leave Ecuador, or indeed Latin America, without trying ceviche: raw fish and prawns marinated in lemon or lime juice and served as a cold soup with side dishes of onions, corn, avocado, popcorn for added flavour and texture.

Cafe Plaza Grande is in Hotel Plaza Grande, Calle Garcia Moreno, N5-16 y Chile. Open 7.30am-11pm daily, live Ecuadorian guitar music Fri- Sun 1.30-3.30pm and 7.30-9.30pm; see plazagrandequito.com.

3pm

For an overview of the city, ride Quito's gondola, the TeleferiQo, up the eastern flanks of Pinchincha. The TeleferiQo is one of the highest aerial lifts in the world, reaching 4053 metres in less than 10 minutes. At the top there's a cafe-and-gift-shop complex that has oxygen pumped through it because of the altitude. The views are best in the afternoon, after the morning fog has cleared; if you're lucky you'll see the symmetrical cone of Cotopaxi, Ecuador's second-highest mountain, at 5897 metres, 28 kilometres south of Quito. If the weather's fine and you've acclimatised to Quito's altitude, try the arduous, three-hour hike to the summit of Pichincha. For a downhill rush, take a mountain bike with you on the gondola and ride down the steep, purpose-built track.

The TeleferiQo base station is at Avenida Occidental and Arnulfo Araujo; the gondola runs 8am-8pm daily and costs $US8.50 (it costs an extra $US6 a trip to take a bike on the gondola or $US15 for an all-day pass); see quito.com.ec.

5pm

Back at street level, and across the street from the Hilton hotel, La Mariscal handicraft market has nine alleys of Ecuadorian souvenirs. Women in fedoras, frilly white blouses or colourful woollen shawls (depending on the ethnic group they belong to) wait calmly behind stalls piled high with llama-patterned beanies with earflaps, alpaca wool jumpers and blankets, Panama hats (which, despite their name, originate in Ecuador), suede purses inscribed with your name for a dollar, Galapagos coffee, even shrunken, human-looking heads, fortunately made from goatskin, for $US10. It's touristy but authentic, and a little haggling is accepted.

La Mariscal Craft Market, Jorge Washington (between Reina Victoria and Juan Leon Mera), La Mariscal, 10am-5pm daily.

7.30pm

Clinging to a steep hillside in Quito's San Juan district is El Ventenal, a glass-walled restaurant with one of the best views in town. It's minimalist to maximise the outlook - over the Old City and directly ahead to the 45-metre, winged Virgin of Quito statue on Panecillo Hill. Locally inspired starters include quinoa salad, tri-coloured ceviche, creamy green plantain soup and Ecuadorian potato soup (made with lashings of cream, cheese and avocado). Mains include swordfish with grapefruit sauce, and beef tenderloin tournedos wrapped in bacon with a coffee sauce. Taxis are the safest way to get around after dark - the sun sets about 6pm every night this close to the equator - and the cheapest; it costs about $US2 for any trip in the city centre.

El Ventanal, Calle Carchi y Nicaragua (in Parque San Juan), open 12-3pm and 6-10pm Tues-Sat, 12-5pm Sun. Starters $US7-8, main courses $US17-$US22, desserts about $US7; see elventanal.ec.

10pm

Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil, on the coast, is the country's party town, but Quito's no slouch in the nightlife department. Plaza Foch ("fotch"), a throbbing plaza encircled by bars, clubs, outdoor cafes and open-late restaurants in La Mariscal, is the place to be any night of the week. One of the classiest, and kookiest, restaurant-bars is La Boca de Lobo ("the mouth of the wolf"). The picture-book menu includes cuy (guinea pig), an Ecuadorian delicacy; Jules Verne carpaccio (made with octopus, almonds and ishpingo, a kind of Ecuadorian cinnamon); and Kinder Surprise Yuquitas (yuka croquettes stuffed with garlic shrimps, ricotta and red pepper). The clubs are smoky and techno-noisy but there are fresh-air tables at Latitud, Coffee Tree (Ecuador's Starbucks) and Azuca. Sundays are the designated "dry" day all over Ecuador; you can't buy alcohol anywhere after 4pm, even with dinner.

La Boca del Lobo, Calama 284 y Reina Victoria, open 5-11pm. Mains $US8-10; Pilsener, the most popular beer, is $US2 a glass; a jug of mojitos costs $US20; see labocadellobo.com.ec.

Louise Southerden travelled courtesy of LAN Airlines and Metropolitan Touring.

FAST FACTS

Getting there

LAN Airlines has a fare to Quito for about $2700 low-season return from Sydney including tax. You fly to Santiago via Auckland (about 17hr including transit time), then to Quito via Guayaquil (about 8hr including transit time). Melbourne passengers pay about the same and fly Qantas to Sydney and back from Auckland to connect. LAN's South American Airpass, which must be bought with a return air fare to South America, has themed routes covering almost 60 destinations; see lan.com.

Staying there

Hilton Colon Quito, on Avenue Amazonas, is five minutes by taxi from the Old Town and has rooms from $US109 ($104) a night and suites from $US219, which also includes breakfast; see www1.hilton.com.

Casa Gangotena, a 31-room boutique hotel in an historic mansion overlooking Plaza San Francisco opening this month, has rooms for $US425 a night, including breakfast and Quito-style afternoon coffee; see casagangotena.com.

Touring there

Metropolitan Touring has cultural walking tours of Quito and lunch, Tues-Sat, from $US135 a person (4-9 people); see metropolitan-touring.com.

More information

See ecuador.travel; quito.com.ec.

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