Our last full day in Quito. After our last breakfast at La Rosario we head out to walk to the Mariscal Sucre area of Quito. We have heard that this is an area that many tourist are and has lots of restaurant choices. There is also a street, Amazonas that is closed to traffic on Sunday, so as this is Sunday, that sounds very pleasant. On our way we pass through a park. It has a market of sorts. Lots or artists with their work on display. Also musicians playing for the Sunday crowd. We all loved the simplicity of the paintings in the first photo, but cannot imagine packing them around for the next 4 weeks. 🙁

Through the center of the market we see the typical goods. Scarves, silver jewlery, hats and leather goods.

We also come across some men playing a game. We aren’t sure what is it. They have a square court carved into the dirt, inside that a circle carved. Around all of the trees there is also a trench. These trenches catch slow moving balls. Inside the circle they start with 5 small ivory coloured balls. The game begins way outside the court area (first photo below). It continues once they are inside the square court. It seems similar to bocce or boules, but we are not sure what it is called. I googled “Ecuardorian game similar to bocce” but did not find anything. Interesting Sunday activity for the players and spectators.

We see this father teaching his daughter how much fun Carnival is 🙂 Not sure if she gets it yet. Hahaha.

On our travels we see this interesting building. It is called “Dualidad” It is by a Spanish artist named Zësar Bahamonte. This was his last wall of his southamerican tour. 

Here are a couple other interesting places we came across.

We have been watching the mountains for a break in the clouds around the Teleferico. It is a gondola that reaches the top of Cruz Loma, adjacent to the Pichincha volcano. The clouds clear and we decide to grab a cab up there. I am again not wearing long pants so we decide to head back to La Rosario so that I can change. The temperatures up there are bound to be much cooler than here. As we walk the clouds cover the mountain again. In the distance we see lightning and rain clouds. There is another hill, called “Bread Hill” that has a 40 m tall statue of the Virgin Mary. This hill also has stunning view of Quito. So we hail a cab, he tells us $3.00 and starts the windy route to the top of the hill. We ask him to wait 20 minutes and he agrees. The rain has now reached us and the Virgin Mary who was gleaming in the sunlight when we started is now a dull gray. The statue is unique in that she is a Winged Virgin Mary.

The lightning is flashing all around us so we decide to head back to our cab and get closer to La Rosario. By the time we are down the rain is pour and as we exit the cab a flash of lightning and immediate clap of thunder. Woooo. That is close. We make our way back for bit of R&R and happy hour. Greg and Stu found a new little restaurant on their beer/wine/snack run. We make our way there in the pouring rain and have a fabulous light dinner. Some great homemade soup, yummy appy and Greg and Leslie share a tasty chicken avocado sandwich.

Interesting last day in Quito!!