Thoughts about Quito after only one week

The first day we arrived in Quito we were blown away. It is an incredibly gorgeous city with a huge volcanoe sitting at the base of the city. It is visible from all spots in the city, and it is sitting there right in your face. What a lovely large metropolitan area tucked into the smallest country in South America.

The first day, my first thought was this city is just like New York or San Francisco where I have spent lots of time. Our initial foray into Quito we stayed in the Mariscal neighborhood which is walking distance to most parts of the city if you like to walk. To the old part of the city, the colonial section of town, its less than one hour south of the Mariscal. If you want to walk north towards the financial district and Carolina Park its also less than one hour.

The Mariscal is kind of like a mini Greenwich Village or in San Francisco like North Beach. What a pleasant surprise for me. After traveling a bit around Ecuador, I had heard some different comments from local Ecuadorians about Quito and they all turned out to be true in certain ways.

Quito is a large city that runs north south pretty much on a grid. The main streets all run in parallel to each other along the narrow rather skinny sausage. The sausage metaphor is not mine, but rather a local Ecuadorian we met at a nice Indian restaurant.

Throughout this blog I will continue to speak about the friendly Ecuadorians we meet along the way. This particular very nice young woman was an English teacher at a local university here in Quito. She had studied for four years in Oregon and her mom was from Venezuela, but moved here many years ago. We had a very pleasant lunch together and at the end of the meal she offered me her phone number and contact information in case we ever have any questions or problems here in Quito. I am continually blown by the friendly nature of the Ecuadorians, and how they basically all go out of their way to help you with things you may need.

Quito is a great city to walk around in, especially if you like parks, hills, and just overall people watching. However, at night the city pretty much shuts down. Unfortunately, there are random incidents of crime that the touristas are probably a little more suseptible too. So we have heard some stories that probably in a good way add some caution to our walks after dark. I believe and hope in time these isolated incidents will subside, but I believe for now they are a reality. However, during the day we feel very safe, so for those of you used to walking around the city at all hours of the night, use a bit of caution while venturing out into the surroundings.