On our second and third visits to Quito we stayed in the old town, which is a lot quieter than the New Town, especially at night.  The old town has largely kept most of its old colonial buildings intact and thus the many churches stand tall above the surrounding buildings.  The central square Plaza de la Independencia still contains three original sides complete with the cathedral, the Palacio del Gobierno and the Palacio Arzobispal, typical of most large Colonial Cities – Lima has the same buildings.  Elsewhere in the centre is the usual array of churches and religious buildings representing the various sects of the Catholic Church, including San Francisco, Santo Domingo, La Merced, San Agustin and the Convento del Carmen.  To the South of the Centro Historico is El Panecillo a hill that offers great views of the city and is crowned by the winged Virgen de Quito.

Quito had a festival of light on some of the days we were there.  The three largest churches – the Cathedral, San Francisco and Santo Domingo Churches all had quite dramatic images displayed by projected lights of the history of Ecuador. The city was very crowded in the evening for the light show.

We took a short day trip up North to the Equator monument and Otavalo.  At the Equator monument there is an interesting display of the Equator, where you can try a number of simple things like standing on one leg either side of the equator and on the line itself and experience different sensations.  Furthermore as Equador has the Andes, unlike other places on the Equator the Andes and in particular Volcan Cayambe which sits right on the Equator and acts as a dramatic and permanent marker of it.

Further North is the market town of Otavalo.  While we were unable to visit it on its famous Saturday market, nevertheless the handicraft market on the Wednesday we visited it was one of the largest in South America and the cloths in particular are quite attractive and subtly different from the more llama themed cloths of Peru and Bolivia to the South.  The mountain valleys to the North of Quito are very green and are also the centre of a massive flower growing industry that exports roses and other flowers all over the world.

Date: 06/08/2018 to 09/08/2018 and 18/08/2018 to 21/08/2018