Quito Must-Dos

Both of these activities are what I would consider as must-dos in Quito, not just because I am a tourist but because they were two very unique ways to see Quito! Come see Quito in a new way with me:

Our first tour of Quito began at 6pm on a Friday night as my gringo friends and I boarded a Chiva! This is better known as a party bus.

You can rent one for 2 hours and fill it with up to 45 people, and then afterward it drops you off at a restaurant, bar or club. An Ecuadorian friend from my Italian class knew our group wanted to do a Chiva so he decided to organize one for us because he and his friends love them (this was also a bonus to meet more Ecuadorians). The bus is not your typical greyhound or school bus; it’s more like a truck with a roof over the bed… I know that does not exactly paint the best picture, but it is hard to describe. There are ropes hanging from the ceiling so you can hold on and not fall over (which is quite the challenge)! They give every person a whistle (can you imagine how annoying a bus full of drunk people each with their own whistles is?) and a cup necklace (just in case you might lose it).

The bus comes fully equipped with three huge jugs filled with Canelazo which is a traditional Ecuadorian drink that is mixed with cinnamon. I think the bus drivers actually apologized for there not being enough to drink… I did not think there could be a problem with that! The bus drives you all around Quito while blaring music and everyone dances. It was really cool to get to see Quito at night, especially all the neat popular places, without fearing being robbed. It was such a riot! I had a blast on the bus and we cannot wait for round two!

Our second sight-seeing adventure was up the Telefériqo. This is a cable car that takes you up to the top of one of the Pichincha Mountains and the view is spectacular! It is the same thing as the Gondola at Keystone, just without our skis. You can see all of Quito, and when I say all of Quito, I mean ALL of Quito. You really get a sense of how long Quito is; it is not necessarily that wide, but now I understand why it takes two hours to get from one end of the city to the other. We live in the North part of Quito and hardly make it to the South. We got lucky and went on a day when it was clear instead of cloudy so we could see everything. We saw not only Quito (and found where we each live) but Cumbaya (the city where our University is), the snowy peaks of Cayambe and Cotopaxi, and the beautiful landscape of Ecuador. Once at the top we walked around a little bit and saw a church and some llamas. Like I mentioned we had fun pointing out buildings (mainly the big ones like the soccer stadium and the bus station) we knew and trying to guess where we lived.

It was breathtaking and there were quite a few moments where we were all just sitting in complete silence staring at the marvelous view. It was also really nice to get out of the city and enjoy some fresh air up there. The Telefériqo is definitely a tourist thing to do, but completely worth it!