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1994
Ecuador(Quito)- South America
Bec2004-09-20 16:19:04
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Quito
I spent a month in Quito studying Spanish with a private tutor in this language school. Quito is a good place to study Spanish for it has more than 30 such schools competing with each other to offer the best courses at the lowest price (about 60 US$ per week).
I took room and board with a family for 50 US$ a week but I soon moved into the Hostal Coqui for 8 US$ a day to have more freedom.
Quito is one of my favourite cities in South America. It is just the right size (about a million), it is safer than many other cities of its size and it has a bit of everything. Old colonial Quito has not changed much for centuries while new construction was building modern Quito further up the valley to the north-east.
Here, black entertainers from Guayaquil on the Pacific coast are putting on a show on Avenida Amazonas, one of the main thoroughfares of modern Quito
El Ejido Park, between the old and modern Quitos, becomes an open air art gallery on weekends. It's a good place to go for a stroll to meet the people who are generally relaxed and friendly.
The Plaza de la Independencia in front of the Government Palace and the Cathedral, is the heart of Old Quito. I stayed mostly in New Quito which is safer for strangers at night. Quito is also in the mountains at the considerable elevation of 2800 meters but it does not get as cold as Bogotá for it is much closer to the equator.
Parque La Alameda, also between the Old and the New Quitos, is sometimes called Parque Simon Bolivar because of its large monument to the Libertador.
This site was inhabited in pre-Colombian times by the Quitu people who gave their name to the city. They later intermingled with other tribes and attempted to resist the Inca expansion but when the Spanish arrived in 1526 Quito was already a major Inca city.Calle Venezuela in Old Quito with the Basilica on the hill at the end.
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See photographs from:
Ecuador Gallery
