We woke up to a beautiful view and some beautiful weather. Here is the view from our hotel room.
We decided to check out the breakfast available to us in the Executive Lounge which was just across the hall instead of going down to the lobby restaurant breakfast and I'm glad we did. It was quiet. There were some nice views. And there was plenty of great food including a strawberry juice that Paul loved.
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| The balcony area of the Executive Lounge |
After breakfast, we met down in the lobby at 8:45 a.m. for our 9:00 a.m. tour.
There were four different Celebrity groups. We ended up trying to check in with every single one (starting with the French speaking one!) before finally finding the one we were assigned to. There were 10 people in our group, all passengers of the Celebrity Xpedition. The French Speaking group (from Canada), I understand was cruising on the Celebrity Xploration (their smallest Galapagos ship which only holds 16 people) so I think that was the largest group. Most of the other groups were around 10 people. A guide, driver, and security person (someone to keep an eye on pick-pockets and look out for other issues) traveled with us.
On the way to our first stop, our guide gave us a lot of background information on Quito and Ecuador. I tried to note a few pieces of interest but this whole trip was a bit of information overload so I'm not sure how much I retained. She talked about there being about 200 volcanoes in mainland Ecuador. About 15 of those are currently active. The rest are dormant. The city of Quito is the highest capital in the world and although you might expect it sits on a plateau, it does not. It lies in a series of valleys and mountains. Because of this it is a unique shape of only about 3 miles wide and about 60 miles long.
Our first stop was the Virgin of Panecillo also known as the Virgin of Quito. The Virgin Mary is standing on a snake with the face of a dragon, a symbol of standing on the devil. It was made by an artist in Quito, Agustín de la Herrán Matorras. It is made of thousands of pieces of aluminum that are all put together like a puzzle. It sits on top of the hill El Panecillo (a loaf shaped hill - pan in Spanish is bread) with incredible views of both South Quito and Old Town Quito. This viewpoint is at about 10,000 feet above sea level.
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| Standing next to the statue looking down at Old Town Quito |
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| South Quito - this was a second viewpoint behind the vendor stands |
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| South Quito |
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| Below the sculpture looking towards Old Town Quito |
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| Virgin of Quito |
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| Old Town Quito |
We then got back on the bus and traveled down to Old Town Quito to spend the rest of the morning walking Old Town.
Our first visit was to the Convent of San Francisco which had many beautiful courtyards and a very ornate, gold covered church.
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Painting by Miguel de Santiago of the Franciscan Family Tree
This is a very valuable piece of art because it actually has a known artist (indigenous people created a lot of the art but were not generally allowed to sign their work). It also has incredibly detailed faces that are all different. |
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| View from the choir loft of the church |
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| One of the pieces of art in the corridors (which continued on to the ceiling in the next photo) |
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| Outside of the Church and Convent of San Francisco |
Next we visited the Jesuit Church, Iglesia de la Campania de Jesus La Caminatas but unfortunately, I could not take any photos inside as this church which was even more beautiful inside. This church was built in the Baroque style with a Moorish Influence. The Spaniards that conquered Ecuador came from south Spain which has been heavily influences by the Moors. It is covered in 23 carat gold leaves.
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| The outside of this Jesuit Church |
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| A view of the statue we visited earlier this morning |
We continued on to Independence Square where you can find the President's House (should the next one choose to live in it) and the Bishop's House.
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| Bishop's House |
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| Municipal Building |
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| President's House |
Lunch was a nice buffet in a private room at a nearby monastery, Convento San Agustin. At the convent, they have on display the desk where the original constitution was signed. The constitution has been re-written and amended many times since.
Food options included salad, ceviche, a traditional potato soup, rice, various meats (chicken, lamb, sea bass, etc.), along with quite a few dessert options. Water, soda, and juice were included with the meal and there was a water bottle refilling station here. We were told staying hydrated is really important at this high of altitude.
There is a balcony off the room where we had this lunch that was so worth stepping out onto. I'm not sure how many found this treasure but the view was worth it.
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| View of Old Town from the balcony |
After we lunch, we boarded a bus and said goodbye to our security escort. I guess he was no longer needed for our afternoon excursion. In the afternoon, we drove about 45 minutes outside of Quito to the "Mitdad del Mundo" (Middle of the World), a tourist site on the location of the equator. This was our chance to stand in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres at the same time.
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| Separated by the equator |
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| We did a number of experiments on the equator like this one where supposedly it is easier to balance an egg on a nail right at zero degree latitude. |
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| Paul was successful! |
We also did an experiment with water and a drain. Directly on the equator, the water went straight down (with no swirl) the drain. When the basin was moved north or south of the equator a clockwise or counter-clockwise swirl brought the water down the drain depending on which hemisphere you were in.
We met back in the lobby at 6:00 p.m. in our same groups and stayed in those groups to travel by bus to
La Gloria for dinner. This Quito pre (and post) cruise time was part of a package with Celebrity and so all our meals were included. We had several options to choose from for three courses. Food was pretty good. I had some chicken dish wrapped in a huge plantain leaf.
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| A ceviche of sorts (although the fish was breaded and fried) |
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| An appetizer with prawns |
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| The chicken and rice dish wrapped in a plantain leaf |
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| a trio of desserts |
After we got back from dinner, our next task was to pack up our checked luggage and bring it down to the Celebrity desk in advance of the flight the next day to the Galapagos. Galapagos National Park representatives would be coming to the hotel very early the next morning to search and inspect our luggage and then lock it with plastic locks. It was nice that our flight to the Galapagos didn't have any limitations on liquids so we didn't have to worry about having toiletries in our carry on. We also had a health questionnaire to complete and turn in.
