Ecuador (pt IV)

Exploring Quito: Ins and outs

Guinea pigs?

These trashcans were everywhere!

Center of the world
Latitude 0-0-0

Historical district

Leaned on the side of the President's mansion

Historical district

Historical district

La Carolina park

Fundacion Guayasamiin Museum

Fundacion Guayasamiin Museum

El Panecillo

The Virgin Mary on top of El Panecillo

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Ecuador (pt III)

Baños + Cotopaxi. Completely different seasons, completely different adventures.

Baños offers anything and everything if you're looking for an adventure. Rather than rappelling down waterfalls, we rode bikes next to them. Sore the next day, we visited the town's hot springs at 4:30 am because the locals tend to crowd the pools by 6 am. 

We chose an unfortunate day to venture to Mount Cotopaxi. Low visibility and sleet should have deterred us, but we kept going. My Under Armour couldn't even keep me warm; thank God I bought an alpaca sweater to do the trick.

Cotopaxi on a clear day

Road to Puyo

The beautiful Andes 

Pailon del Diablo

Nuestra Señora del Agua Santa

Night view of Baños

Lake Limpio Pungo

Cotopaxi

Cotopaxi

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Ecuador (pt II)

NYE in Quito! Traditions included: wearing yellow underwear, men dressing up as widowed women, eating 12 grapes and making 12 wishes (1 for each month), champagne toast (boring), putting $$ in  your right shoe and not spending it for a year, burning Año Viejos (literally means "old year") which are fake people usually representing political figures or cartoon characters, shooting fireworks all through the night, and salsa dancing!

Men dressed as women pestering cars for $$

Walking down La Avenida Amazonas

Ano Viejo displays on La Avenida Amazonas

Ano Viejos

Burning our Ano Viejo

NYE party props

NYE crew

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Ecuador (pt I)

The Basílica del Voto Nacional lies in the historical district of Quito. It's a gem, I tell you: gorgeous cathedral and gorgeous views with a true Quasimodo experience. We climbed the towers of the cathedral!! It felt unsafe, but definitely worth it.

View of the 3 towers of the Basilica

Front of the Basilica

Inside of the cathedral
We walked across planks that were laid
across the point of the arch.

Planks on the point of the arch

Climbing, climbing, climbing

The 3rd tower 

Landing between 2 ladders to the 3rd tower

View from the 3rd tower

View from the 3rd tower

2 clock towers from the 3rd tower

View from the 3rd tower

Rather than gargoyles, birds

View of the 3rd tower from the clock tower

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