I saw this awesome busker the other day when I was walking back to David’s place from the city. Really made me smile. Busking traffic lights is big in Quito, like Melbourne.
I met David through couchsurfing.com. He was a fantastic host. Besides experiencing my first earthquake while I was staying with him, we ate lots of delicious food together and he showed me around his neighborhood.
Quito is a beautiful city.
There is a charming historical district downtown, dating from the colonial era.
Quito Cathedral has really cool gargoyles. It was hard for me to get good pictures of them, because they are pretty high up on the walls, but you can see a couple of them in the photo above. Ant eaters. There are also tiger gargoyles, crocodile gargoyles and iguana gargoyles. I guess to colonial Spaniards these animals must have been like real-life monsters.
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The northern suburbs of Quito (where I stayed with David) have enormous parklands, full of forested areas, animals and all sorts of recreational stuff like bike tracks, soccer fields, and skate parks.
There’s a massive park reserve – Parque Metropolitano Guangüiltagua – where llamas do the lawn maintenance. The park is perched on top of an enormous hill. The views over the city are spectacular.
Walking around that gigantic hilltop park, you feel like you’re not in a city at all. There is a cosy little suburb right inside the park area. You feel as though it’s a small country town. People sit out in the street having barbecues; kids playing and dogs trotting around.
Parque Metropolitano Guangüiltagua is so massive, and so densely forested that a nomad could camp there in their tent very happily. It’s a gum tree forest too! Reminded me so much of the cool places I’ve camped in Australia.
It’s a great setup for a gypsy: dense forest to hide your camp site; nice temperate climate; the little village right in the park where you can buy cheap food and make friends… Almost as good as the Gold Coast.
Like Chiang Mai, in Thailand, Quito has become a very popular place with the nomad expat crowd, and after spending a few days here, it’s easy to see why.
Low cost rent. Great, cheap restaurants. Awesome parklands and recreation facilities.
Quito is really a cool city.
