La Ronda

On Friday night we went down to La Ronda, a famous street in old town Quito that houses work space for lots of artisans, and that comes alive with music and restaurants on weekend nights.  It is kind of a hot spot for going out on weekends, and we wanted to see what it was like.

The thing about old town Quito is that it has looked very much the same for hundreds of years.  It is apparently the most well-preserved Spanish colonial old town in the world.  For that reason, it is a UNESCO world heritage site.  You can walk around and almost imagine people in colonial clothes walking around.  It's pretty great.

We got hungry and had dinner at a restaurant in La Ronda.  We decided to go for some traditional Ecuadorean food.  John and I ordered stewed goat with rice and potatoes, and the kids had the most enormous cheese empanada in the world.  It was the empanada that ate New York.

I also ordered a traditional hot drink called "morocho," which is slightly sweet and made of milk and soft corn.  It was a little bit like drinking thin rice pudding -- it was pretty good.
The kids got a traditional form of hot chocolate that was to die for -- nice and thick and chocolatey, but not overly sweet.  It was a really fun evening.

La Ronda at night

And here are a few more shots of old town Quito -- just to give you the flavor of it.  It is famous for incredibly ornate churches (in many of which you are not allowed to take photos).

Spanish colonial architecture

Now a museum, this building functioned as a hospital for 450 years

The chapel inside the old hospital

This hill is called "El Panecillo," or the little loaf of bread

Old Quito rooftops

One of many churches in Old Town