Historic City Center, Quito
Most tourist do the walking tour of Historic City Center in Quito on the first day or two of arrival to keep a slow, relaxing, pace and take it easy to get used to the altitude and prevent altitude sickness. As we had time constraints, we did our major sightseeing first and left the highly recommended historic center for the last. We were staying very close to the City Center area which we knew to be a pedestrian zone, we didn’t need to take a tour or even to hire a cab for the day. We just needed a cab or an Uber to be dropped off at the point from where we could walk around the historic city center’s pedestrian zone. Our Uber dropped us at the entrance point to the pedestrian area of historic city center. At first, it seemed very intimidating because everywhere we turned it seemed like we had to walk uphill, which wasn’t something we welcomed. But as we asked around we found a very kind older gentleman who showed us the best way to navigate the streets in the area starting with the Independence Square, and by walking along the Garcia Moreno street along which lot of the major sights are locate. Independent square is one of the symbols of the executive power of the nation. We realized that we were standing right at the entrance to the Independence Square and all we had to do was to walk down and start there.
The main feature of the independence plaza is the monument to the independence heroes of August 10, 1809 right in the center of the plaza. And the buildings around the square retained their original architectural features. Because of its preserved originality Quito became the first city to be declared UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site in 1978. One could experience hundreds of years of Quito’s past in one day when visiting the historic center. Although I am blissfully ignorant about architecture, I couldn’t help but notice that most buildings were built in Spanish Colonial style.
Independence Square in Quito is a great place to hang around, relax and soak in the sights. It really welcomed us with its friendly vibrant atmosphere. It is really a square which represents history, culture and everything invaluable to the city. In other words it is the beating heart of the city. All four sides of the square has important buildings such as Archbishop’s Palace which was residence of Bishop for many years; The City Hall where municipality of Quito is located; on the south side Quito’s Cathedral which makes its daunting presence felt by stretching over a huge area; west side of the square in taken up by Palacio del Gobierno, Carondelet Palace, from where Ecuadorian president works. Apart from these buildings Independence square is surrounded by shops and restaurants.
While we walked on Garcia Moreno street, we found a nice restaurant/cafe where we stopped for a great coffee and a snack of cheese and onion empanadas, item peculiar to Ecuador. We also had a traditional meal for lunch, along with ceviche made right on the table as an appetizer, in the same restaurant the following day.
Cheese and onion Empanada 
On the table Ceviche ingredients 
Lamb stew for lunch
We visited the Church of la compañia de Jesús also on Garcia Moreno street, one of the best known churches in Quito because its central nave is decorated with gold leaf, gilded plaster and wood carvings.
Walking up the Garcia Moreno street, we could see the Statue of Virgen, way in the distance on top of el Panecillo, an amazing sight. It is world’s tallest winged, aluminum statue of Virgin Mary visible from everywhere in the city. We were able to hail a cab to go to El panecillo. The Statue of Winged Virgen is only referred to as El panecillo. The cab driver insisted on correcting us when we said Statue of Virgen by repeating El Panecillo. The hill was, apparently named El Panecillo because it resembles a loaf of bread. This hill which is 656 feet high(200 meters) was chosen to erect a 135 feet (41 meters), high, including the base, replica of Virgen Mary making it a highest, and largest winged aluminum statue in Ecuador, and in the world. It is made up of thousands of individual pieces of aluminum. Apart from the wings, the Virgen stands treading on a snake( and some say a dragon) upon the globe. There is a small museum inside the base. We had to pay $2/- per person to enter the museum. There were stairs to climb up to the top for highest viewing area. We went part of the way but turned back halfway because it was very tiring. The statue is definitely worth seeing up close, and the views of the city even from el Panecillo itself were Phenomenal.
This completed our vacation in Quito. Although there were not many cabs around, we were lucky to get a cab back home. Our last evening in Quito, we got ready to leave bringing our Ecuadorian fun and adventure to a very satisfying finish. We were ready to go to the airport for our flight back home the same evening.
