Quito
New Town -
Ecuador Destinations
The New Town includes
Quito's business district, around the La Carolina Park, where
many of the embassies and international corporations are located along
with some of the smarter hotels.
La Carolina Park is popular with locals at the weekends for
walking, running, cycling and football games. It's
also home to the Vivarium, the Natural History Museum and the Botanical
Gardens (see below).
Quito New Town also
covers the La Mariscal area, between El Ejido Park and Avenida
Colón, which is the main tourist area. La Mariscal
is full of hostals, hotels, internet cafes, travel agents, souvenir
shops, laundries, restaurants and pubs. In short, everything
a backpacker could need. If you don't speak any
Spanish, this is the place to base yourself as you are more likely to
find English-speakers in this part of town. La Mariscal is
also where young Quiteños hang out as it is the nightlife
centre of the city. For this reason, hotels in La Mariscal
may be noisy at night, so bear this in mind when looking for a New Town
hotel. For a private room, quiet accommodation and
cable TV, try La Casa Sol just a few blocks from the square
(www.lacasasol.com). Rooms approximately $70/night. For
quieter budget
options far enough away from the square to avoid the ever present
thumping of local clubs, while close enough to restaurants and bars,
try Posada de Los Jazmines (www.posadalosjazmines.com, $9/night with
breakfast) or Posada del Maple (www.posadadelmaple.com, $9/night with
breakfast). If you're looking to meet other travellers and don't mind
college
style bunk accommodation, check out the very social and equally noisy
Vibes Hostel (www.vibesquito.com $7/night with breakfast) or El Centro
del Mundo ($5.60/night with breakfast).
Quito's Sunday
art market is an informal affair that takes place around
the edge of El
Ejido Park, weather permitting. There are a wide range of
styles (and
qualities) of painting, but since art is such a personal thing, you
might find something you love. El Ejido Park is to the south
of the New Town, or the north of the Old Town, or in a sort of
no-man's-land in the middle, depending on your Quito
guidebook.
El Ejido is also home to
a craft market
at the weekends, with lines of green tents housing the
usual range of textiles, hats and jewelry with a few more unusual
offerings such as musical instruments and coins.
It's not all aimed at tourists, either - a
couple of stalls have hand-embroidered blouses, woven belts and all the
other paraphernalia needed for the traditional
Otavalo costume, which
they sell to the large population of Otavaleñas working
in Quito. The more touristy craft market at
Washington &
Juan Leon Mera is open all week and is just a few blocks away.
The Vivarium, in Parque
La Carolina on
the Avenida Rio Amazonas side, has a fascinating collection of
snakes, frogs, turtles and caiman. The Vivarium
plays an
important role in research, in caring for amphibians
confiscated
by customs, and also in educating students and visitors.
Ecuador
has several poisonous snakes, notably the "equis" ("X") or bushmaster
and the coral snake. Only around 10% of Ecuador's
290 types
of snake are poisonous, many are endangered, most are shy and well
camouflaged. Tourists will have to be extremely lucky to see
a
snake in the wild, so a visit to the Vivarium is your best option.
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 9.30a.m. to 5.30p.m. Keep
hold of
your ticket for a discount on entry to the Botanical Garden.
Quito's
Botanical Garden
in the
Parque La Carolina is an oasis of calm in the middle of the city.
Exhibits of different habitats showcase various flowers and
plants along with quirky little plant facts and statistics (Ecuador has
more plant species than all of Europe put together; one in every four
of Ecuador´s plant species is an orchid). The
Orchid Houses
have a huge range of these beautiful flowers and are also a great place
to escape the rain if you are unlucky with the Quito weather.
Daily, 9a.m. to 5p.m. (Monday 9a.m. to 3p.m.).
Adults $2,
children $1.
There is also a wide
range of fascinating museums
in Quito to suit all tastes.
The
easiest way to travel from the New Town to the Old
Town or Historic
Centre of Quito is the EcoVia bus line along 6 de
Diciembre.
Useful
Spanish Vocabulary for Quito New Town, the capital
city´s tourist & business district:
Parque: park
Museo: museum
Trole: trolley bus system along 10 de Agosto
EcoVia: bus line along 6 de Diciembre
Ecuador
Destinations: Quito New Town
The capital city of Ecuador, Quito, has many historical and cultural
attractions. Most Quito city maps give enough information for
a
walking tour of the historical old town´s colonial
architecture.
Website www.ecuadortravelsite.org, text and photos by Sarah Clifford.
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