"A Day of Wandering in Quito" a Quito Travel Page by travelmad478

On our way back from the Galapagos Islands, we stopped in Quito for a day to explore the city. We spent most of the day wandering in the old section of town, to the south. This part of Quito, much of which dates from the Spanish colonial period from the 1530s onward, has been recognized by UNESCO as a "Cultural Patrimony of Mankind," and it's been very well preserved. The colonial architecture is extraordinarily attractive.

Quito is not particularly large. It took us about 45 minutes to walk from our hotel in the new section of Quito, to the north, down to the edge of the old section in the south. Still, there are so many sights that I wished we'd had at least another day to wander around. I'm still not finished with this town!

The photo here shows the Plaza San Francisco, which spreads in front of the San Francisco monastery complex. In the background is the Panecillo hill topped by the Virgen de Quito statue, which overlooks Quito's old city from the south.