Monday, May 16, 2011

Quito, Ecuador At Night

Colonial Quito is one of those U.N. protected World Heritage Sites (or something like that!) and truly unique and beautiful.  Our friends, Terry and Luis Hernandez (friends of 20 years - amazing!) are part owners of a restaurant that sits high on the side of Vulcan Pichincha and overlooks the old city.  It is an astonishing experience to sit at the window and watch the lights of the city come on.  So beautiful.  I'm a wannabe photographer to begin with and had no tripod for this experiment so the images are marginable at best, but I had fun.  (Next time I'm traveling with a tripod!)


 The focus of this image is the cathedral that is part of the old city.  It's a little hard to see, but pops right out if you click on the image to see it full size.
 The very bright (ugly) light in the middle of this image is the Cathredal San Francisco and square which is really quite beautiful.  Not sure why they've added this distracting light.  The hill in the background is called "The Panecillo" and means little loaf of bread.  On top of this hill is a statue called The Winged Virgin and is claimed to be the only winged virgin statue in the world.  Pretty impressive - as is the drive up to it!!!
 These are the two main arteries through the old town to south Quito which is quite extensive.  The city has about 3 million population.
 This is a backed-off image of San Francisco, the Panecillo and south.
 High on the right of this image is a bright light that illuminates the monument to the independence of Ecuador.  When Walt was here as the Defense Attache he made a pilgrimmage up there with all the other military attaches every year to the annual celebration of the independence.
 Walt and our friend, Terry.  (Luis was still at work when we were up on the roof taking pictures.) 
(Walt and I.)  If you want to check out this fabulous restaurant, you can go to http://www.elventanal.ec/ and take a look at their website.  The genesis of the restaurant is rather interesting.  Several mayors ago, the mayor had a brilliant idea to run a cable car from Colonial Quito up the side of Vulcan Pichincha in order to give folks a birdseye view of the old city.  So a cable car station was built and the next mayor stopped work on the project.  Several years ago Luis "discovered" the dilapidated and derelict structure and had a vision for a restaurant there.  He and his sister have done major renovations and turned it into a first class, upscale, elegant restaurant.  One of its kind in Quito.  Definitely worth a visit for the view and the food is superb!  Besides. . .we know the proprietor and his wife!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Im ecuadorian so im greatfull for your visit and your great pictures.