Double decker bus!

Today was a looong but very exciting day! I really can't describe how wonderful the bus tour was- I had such a blast! The way it worked was that a bus left every hour from the starting location, and stopped at 12 different spots along the route.  With your ticket you could get off at any of the stops, spend an hour (or two!) there, and then catch the next bus as it went along! The 12 stops included some of the most popular touristy spots around the city.  The whole tour, without getting off the bus, takes 3 hours, and since we got off at 4 stops, the whole tour took us 6 hours! 

We first stopped at El Centro de Arte Contemporáneo (Center of Contemporary Art), which...was... a bit odd.  Neither of us had been there before, and the building itself was absolutely enormous and beautiful... but it wasn't exactly our cup of tea.  I'm sure some of our more artsy friends would have appreciated it more (thinking of you- Maggie Pinke!).  We finished way before an hour was up so had quite a while to wait for our next bus.  Luckily I spotted a Quesadilla place across the street that we went to for a quick snack, and a goofy little band was practicing nearby too, which gave me a giggle cuz it just sounded like noise to me :P Here's a little video so you can hear a bit of it (sorry it's a little blurry!):

Centro de arte contemporaneo

Sooo, for all of you thinking that a Quesadilla is a cheese-filled tortilla- you are mistaken. And so was I!  Here it is sort of like a little muffin or cake...its made with cheese but it's sweet! It was a little piece of heaven- oh. my. goodness.  I was so sad we only got one each...I'm going to have to find those somewhere near Cumbaya.  I think it's my new fave food.  De-lish.  Here's a pic of one:

Ecuadorian quesadilla! To die for!

A pic of the bakery "Quesadillas de San Juan" where we got our snack :)

So, after our quesadillas we hopped onto the next bus and hopped off at the next stop- the Basilica.  WOW.  Absolutely breath-taking! It's been under construction for over 100 years, and it STILL isn't finished, but mostly because there is a superstition that once it finally IS finished...a big natural disaster will happen that will destroy it! So silly.  Take a look at some of these pics!

Pictures cannot even begin to do this basilica justice...it's enormous!  The best part, though, was that for $1 you can go inside and climb up the towers! It was quite a flight of stairs to the top, then we had to cross this sort of bridge to a ladder to continue up, and then two more LADDERS to the very top! Qué susto!! I think today I discovered my fear of heights! My legs were trembling the whole way up!  I think the fact that we had to climb up LADDERS made it incredibly scary for me... I mean they were metal and attached to the structure...but still.  Yikes! Here are some pics from the top:

Ok, so this one was actually at the top of the STAIRS.  We still had to cross a little bridge and go up a few ladders to make it to the top of the tower.  The view of the city is still pretty amazing here, and if you see above Chino's head there is a statue in the distance (it's hard to make out...).  That's El Panecillo....which we'll get to later.

View looking down the side of the church.

 Making our way down the slippery ladders wasn't much better than going up, and it felt really great to be at the bottom again! While waiting for the bus, I nearly got my camera snatched by a hobo- but, once again, Chino saves the day and shooed him away with some change.  I really need to be more careful about having my camera out!

Our next stop was the magnifencent church of La Compañía, a church in the Historic Center of Town that is COMPLETELY covered in gold on the inside.  

BUT...I'm going to call it a day here so this bus tour post is To Be Continued! The best is yet to come ;)

Hasta luego,

xoxo

P.S.- Tomorrow we are going to Otavalo, the indigenous city I was telling you about with a huge outdoor marketplace.  We'll be spending the night so I'll be back Sunday!