
This is second part of our culinary tour thru Quito, in the first part Matt and Olga –those students in love - took us on a tour of some their favorite places in the city. Marc and I also had our own gastronomical adventure in this historic colonial city and will share our story. For those who don’t know, Marc is my 3 ½ yr old and this was his first time to visit Quito.
I grew up in Loja -southern highlands of Ecuador- and have vague childhood memories of traveling to Quito. One the visits that stands out the most was when I was 9 or 10 yrs old and it was just my mom and I. We stayed with one of her friends, not sure where but it seemed like it was part of the Old Town area. The most vivid part of that visit was a small tienda or store on one of the corners that had some of the best “helados de palo”, which are Ecuadorian popsicles: ice cream on a stick. The sticks are made from cana brava, a type of bamboo; while the ice cream part is placed in small tin molds with a stick in each one and then frozen. The most common helados de palo are milk ones, consisting of just milk boiled with cinnamon and sugar, then placed in the molds with a stick and frozen. Other popular variations are made with gelatin (watered down obviously) and coconut, one of my favorites is coconut with a thin layer of strawberry gelatin. This small tienda had helados de palo made with cream and they were amazing (and very addictive – I spend most of the money my mom gave me at that store).
I also vaguely remember another summer in Quito as a kid with some friends, but this time we spent the whole time in a suburb (Tumbaco) of the city in a big house with mean ladies who would force us to eat everything (including mellocos – slimy potatoes which I hated but now love). The house was surrounded by citrus fruit trees and one of the days we were there we went down to the street/highway to watch a bunch of cars racing in a rally. That’s about it for my childhood memories of Quito. As a teenager going to Quito was a different experience, it was typically with high school friends and involved partying or concerts (not many international singers came to our hometown of Loja so if we wanted to see them we had to go to Quito).
Now going to back to Quito as a parent with a 3 yr old was a new challenge. I’ll admit I was a little nervous at first about traveling to Ecuador alone with him. However, the minute I arrived those fears were gone, people in this country are very child friendly. Even in situations where he was loud or annoying, and I was expecting people to give me evil looks, instead people would tell me: “Oh, don’t worry, he’s just being a kid.”
One of the things to keep in mind about Quito is the effect that the altitude (2850 mt or 8464 ft) will have on you, basically you will walk a few blocks and feel out of breath, at least for the first days. For Marc, who is extremely lazy when it comes to walking – his favorite comment when we go hiking is: “I like hiking, but I hate walking”, it was a little bit challenging to adjust to the altitude. Luckily for him though is that in Quito –and everywhere in Ecuador – there is an abundance of cheap taxis; he quickly discovered that to avoid walking you could just get a taxi. Of course there a lot of areas that are great for walking in Quito, but it is a large city so taxi’s are convenient to get from one place to another.
The weather in Quito is relatively mild, usually in the 60’s (F) during the day, and cooler –low 50’s- at night. The main problem with the weather is that it can go from sunny to aguacero (major downpour) in minutes, so it’s a good idea to dress in layers. If you plan on going to the Teleferico - a cable car that takes you to the top of one of the volcanoes – take a warm jacket as it is very cold up there.
Breakfast
We started our day by having breakfast with our good friend Mafi, who hosted us while we were in Quito. She prepared some delicious torrejas de choclos or fresh corn fritters with freshly made orange juice.

Capilla del Hombre
After breakfast we took a taxi to the Bellavista neighborhood to visit La Capilla del Hombre or the Museum of Man. It is a tribute to both the oppression and pain of people in Latin America, but also to the hope keeps them fighting for their dreams. This museum was built by Oswaldo Guayasamin, Ecuador’s greatest artist. Guayasamin started the museum in the mid 90’s, but then passed away in 1999, and the museum was completed in 2002. One of my favorite parts is the mural that covers the inside of the dome, he was working on it when he passed away and it was left unfinished – it is beautiful, you would not know that it was an unfinished piece of art unless someone told you.



Mercado Santa Clara
Next we went to the Santa Clara fruit and vegetable market. Even though Matt and Olga were visiting the same market for lunch, Marc and I also wanted to check out. I wanted to get some fresh fruits and Marc wanted to get some flowers for Mafi. Flower exports are one of the main industries in Ecuador and a lot of them are grown in the areas around Quito. They are also very inexpensive; you can get a nice bouquet for $1. One the fruits that I miss the most are babacos, I’ve heard they’re called mountain papayas in English. Babacos are juicy and sweet inside, a fruit so perfect that doing anything other than eating it plain doesn’t do anything to improve it. The market also brought back a lot of old memories of things so typical in Ecuador: buying fresh already peeled beans; finding fresh herbs such as chamomile, lemon verbena, lemon grass; stands selling “cures” for “espanto” – a cure for people (mainly kids) that have been frightened by something or someone (sometimes this also involves witch craft or evil eye). You also can find all different types of meat and seafood in the mercado, as a kid I hated going through the meat section, seeing the dead animals was scary (at least there was a cure nearby in case I got seriously frightened) .






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