Our first stop was the basilica del voto Nacional, which, despite its magnificence, is falling apart. Quite frankly, a tour through the place betrays a crumbling array of towers and walls and missing stained glass panes. It’s beautiful, but not very well preserved. The amazing part though, is the perilous climb to the top of the tower, from which you get an awesome view of Quito from above. That is, if you can stomach the climb.
The neat thing about this basilica though, is the fact that rather than gargoyles and angles along the sides, there are iguanas, turtles, penguins and other birds we are quite sure are not headless in the wild.
The next day saw us working out the hard way that it was a national holiday. A museum we wanted to visit, the guayasamin, (I hope that I am spelling this correctly) was closed. Though we were later informed by the taxi driver that the government often shuts it down for no reason. We were persuaded to take the same driver to another monument on the other side of the valley, with yet another spectacular view of Quito. This is, apparently, the largest aluminum statue in the world. Kind of a mini statue of liberty.
Global Thoroughfare 