Quito, Ecuador 11-9 to 11-11-23

 I arrived at Quito airport about 8:30 PM.   Clearing customs was a breeze and Silversea representative was waiting to drive me to the Beautiful Marriott in the Business section of Quito   

November 10,2023

Priscilla and Phil arrived last night after midnight so we got together this morning.    So fun meeting up in Ecuador.  

Took a tour with two other fun Silversea travelers from Los Vegas (Alisia (Sparkles) and Glenn and became fast friends. 

Since Quito is positioned between 2 mountains it is 3.1 miles wide and about 30 miles long.  The cities altitude is approximately 3,000 feet high.  We took the cable car up approximately 13,000 feet on the east side of Pichincha Volcano 

Going up gondola with Quito below

• View of active volcano from top of cable car    

From here we went up into the Mundo Cloud Mountain.   It is a beautiful drive through clouds and fabulous landscape!

I have never seen so many Hummingbirds and so many varieties!!

We got to hold hand feeders and hummingbirds came to get nectar.   The flap of their wings was like a small fan and when they actually landed on you hand their tiny feet were so delicate!

Priscilla enjoying the moment!!!

This all was in the rain forest     The Butterfly farm and Cloud Coffee were side by side neighbors.    

Back to Quito to Ciudad Mira’s del Mundo (middle of the world city).   

Monument to the Equator!    Jenny north and south of equator!   Ironically this was marked in 1736 when they used sextants to determine longitude/ latitude.   With the updated GPS it is found that the equator is actually 790 feet north of the marked line.  

We had lunch here and got our first taste of traditional Ecuador potato soup.   Our guide told us it is served every lunch and everyone has their special recipe for it.  I had potato soup almost everyday I was in Ecuador and none were ever the same….. but all were delicious!!

That evening we did a night city tour of Quito.  Unfortunately most everything was closed so we did not get to go in amazing churches. 

This is Monumento a los Heroes del 10 de Agosto in center square of historic Quito 

They were having a service in “The Gold Church “ (La Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus) so we got to peek in.  

Winged Virgin (Virgin of the Apocalypse) stands on a hill above historic Quito supposedly to take all there to heaven when the world ends. 

Saving the best for last we went to a chocolate factory store.   Ecuador grows the world’s best cocoa beans.   They are the only cocoa beans Swiss chocolatiers use.   

We got to sample different percentages of cocoa and different chocolate bars this factory produces.   Of course Priscilla, Phil and I bought a lot to bring home….and mine actually made it home !!