Quito Shopping Tips by b1bob

Name of Shop: artisan market in the Mariscal

I went to the Mercado Artesanal at the corner or calle Juan Leon Mera and George Washington looking for the last 3 Christmas gifts on my list: a Christmas ornament for Mama, some cigars for my friend Mike who was serving in Iraq at that time, and a belt for my friend Nick. This is a nice urban artisan market, but it still did not have all the atmosphere, not to mention the aromas of the Otavalo market the previous Saturday. I saw some belts in the first corridor, but held out to see if I could find some better ones. I bought Mike's cigars first and I found some better looking belts in the last corridor for Nick. The ironic thing is, all the world-famous Panama hats are made in Ecuador. I finished my Christmas shopping for 2007 here on 15 November when I finally found the Christmas ornament I wanted to find for Mama.



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Theme: Local Craft
Address: c/ Juan Leon Mera and George Washington

Name of Shop: Libri Mundi

Libri Mundi is an upmarket bookstore at the Esquina Shopping Centre. The folks helped me find the book I needed and gift wrapped it free of charge.

What To Buy: I bought a book of Ecuadorian recipes written in English as part of a Christmas present for Mama. A few days later, I came back to buy a tourist map of downtown for me as a souvenir and a calendar for a friend's Christmas present.

What To Pay: It has an upmarket air, but I got by paying only $11.75 for the cookbook and only $8 for a tourism book on Quito just to have as a souvenir and about $7 for the calendar.

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Theme: Books

Name of Shop: Esquina Cumbayá

La Esquina de Cumbayá is a small, but upmarket shopping centre in the Quito suburb of Cumbayá. They have a book store called Libri Mundi, Cyrano bakery, Corfu coffee shop, a sushi restaurant, an antique store, and many others. I came here several times during my 10 days there either for books or coffee and baked goods.

What To Buy: Some things are very upmarket, but I managed to find bargains there.


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Theme: Other

Name of Shop: Supermaxi/Megamaxi

Super and Mega Maxi is a chain of grocery stores across Ecuador. They used to be known as La Favorita until round about 1980. The name changed to Super Maxi. Round about the turn of the century, Super Maxi opened up huge hypermarkets called Mega Maxis as well as the standard Super Maxi. They are equivalent to our Wal-Mart Super Centres where you have everything under one roof. Normally, grocery stores, even hypermarkets like this, display types of food that are foreign to the American traveller. I was disappointed to see so many familiar brand names on the shelves of this grocery store. I did find chimichurri here and they did have local fruits, but otherwise it was like Wal-Mart Super Centre under a different name. What disturbed me about this place is our bag boy, Fernando, is only 14 years old and they pay him a pittance even by local standards.

What To Buy: There is a bank, a gardening department, a hair salon, and even a Radio Shack. When Sergio, Christina, and I did our shopping there, it was already decked out for Christmas by mid-November. They got the normal week's worth of groceries and I got some chimichurri for steaks, some Ecuadorian coffee, and, believe it or not, I found the soaps my grandma wanted for Christmas here. Where there is a Super or a Mega Maxi, a Juguetón is not likely to be far away. This toy super store, rather like the American Toys 'r Us, is owned by the same folks who run the Maxis.


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Theme: Food and Drink

Name of Shop: Cyrano

Cyrano is a chain of bakeries across Ecuador. They have a rather upmarket air, but offer good pastries at a good price. I'm keen on the chocolate bread, for example. However, some stores are better than others. The one at the Esquina in Cumbayá is superiour to the one downtown. That was not only ran out of chocolate bread which runs for only 40¢ a copy, but they were out of half their inventory round about 4 in the afternoon. If that wasn't enough to burn your biscuits, some officious jerk that acted as a greeter tried (you can see, unsuccessfully- thanks to the good old zoom lens) to stop me from taking a photo of the store. What national secrets are they putting in their chocolate éclairs? I never would have been treated that way at the one at the Esquina.



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Theme: Food and Drink

Name of Shop: Condado

El Centro Comercio de Condado is a tall, but not very wide (as compared with suburban American malls) shopping centre in urban Quito. It is built more like Part Dieu in Lyon. Like Part Dieu, it has many multinational stores (like Benetton) and some local stores like Cotopaxi clothing store, in this case. This is not my idea of a good place to shop. The only reason I went here is because Sergio recommended I try the food court, including McDonald's (yuck!), many restaurants of other nationalities, but I ate lunch at Motes la Magdalena which offers nothing but fine Ecuadorian cuisine and I had some tres leches for dessert at the Hansel & Gretel bakery. It was a great culinary experience, but when I took the indoor photo (second shot), some mall rent-a-cop tried to give me trouble. There were no signs prohibiting photography and I wasn't just going to give into a spur-of-the moment whim on some law enforcement wannabe who must have failed the police academy. I asked him in plain Spanish when he failed the academy. Needless to say, that idiot never got my camera or my memory card!


What To Pay: It's too upmarket for my tastes and when they decide to hire rent-a-cops with better things to do, I'll go back!

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Theme: Other

Name of Shop: Entrepapeles

Entrepapeles is a small office supply, mainly paper, store at the Esquina Cumbayá not far from where Sergio lives.

What To Buy: I needed a small notebook to carry with me to Old Town Quito the following day, plus a couple of pens to replace one that was going dodgy on me.

What To Pay: The prices are quite reasonable, but how can you charge a great deal for pens and paper?

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Theme: Other