05/06/2019 – Exploring Quito, Ecuador

Josh got up and popped over the road to grab some coffees and croissants and we had them in bed whilst watching some tv. Off to a nice slow morning! We got ourselves up and ready and then went to Honey café (again!) where we had some coffees and used the wifi to call Matty and Ellie who are going on holiday to New York in a few days. My friend Izzy who previously lived in Quito has sent some recommendations over, so we read through these and started to plan our day. We hailed a taxi and went to the ‘Capilla del Hombre and Guayasamin Museum’.

Taxi ride to Guayasami's house.

It was the beautiful home/mansion of the Ecuadorian artist Guayasamin, and is now a museum of his art - paintings and sculptures, as well as displaying his collections of ceramics and other artists works. The house had a swimming pool and beautiful garden, and was purpose designed and built by the artist himself to display his collections and work.

The views from the house.

More views from the house.

The tree of life, under this tree is the resting place of Guayasamin.

We weaved our way up through the dining/socialising area, to his bedroom, and through his studio to his gallery space. It is up a hillside and has great views of Quito from his floor to ceiling windows. By this point Josh needed refuelling again, so we got a taxi across to ‘San Marcos’ in the old town to a cafe called ‘Café dios no muere’ that Izzy had also recommended.

Wandering through his house.

A strip of light highlights Guayasamin's old paint pallet hanging on the wall.

Mixing table in his art studio.

Views of Quito from the gallery.

Ceiling of gallery.

Our own art shot from the gallery.

We were taken upstairs through a beautiful old building, full of character, to the open patio. It was dark, wooden and crooked, with beautiful metal rails up the stairs, and colourful tiles. We were waited on by the owners son who must have only been about 8 years old! We guessed he was in training - he got in trouble from his dad when we paid up because he forgot to put our fries order in (we didn’t mind, probably not a bad thing for our waistline after the last week of eating!) We left and walked down Junin street – a picturesque street of old architecture, hanging baskets of flowers and again, lots of character. After a few photos Josh bought himself an ice cream and we stomped part of the way home, spotting the huge statue ‘Virgin of El Panecillo’ – a 45m tall religious statue, along the way. We stopped at a nice looking little café called ‘Romance Café’ and were served some coffee by some friendly Venezuelan guys. Unfortunately, it tasted so bad we had to pretend we were in a rush, gulped a couple of mouthfuls, paid the bill and ran away leaving ¾ cups on the side. The worst coffee so far! We walked a little bit further before hailing a taxi to the supermarket ‘Supermaxi’ near our hostel. Taxis are so cheap and readily available here, and Josh was starting to flake. I think the altitude is getting to him! We stocked up on some groceries and headed back to the hostel to cook a veg/pasta dinner and relax for the rest of the evening.