Last Day in Ecuador

On our last day in Ecuador, we visited the Basilica del Voto Nacional and the Mercado Central. The Basilica brought back memories of the cathedrals we saw in Seville and Milan. The $4 entry fee allowed us to climb the 16 flights of stairs to the top where we enjoyed amazing views of the city, which I imagined would have been even more spectacular at night. One of the most unique features of the Basilica is the animal gargoyles—giant stone carvings of Galápagos creatures like marine iguanas and boobies perched on the facade.

From here, we made our way to Mercado Central where you can find any type of meat, fish, poultry, fruit or vegetable that you could imagine. We enjoyed an early lunch of pork belly soup & snails for $2 and pork with salad (even with a nice piece of pig skin) for $2.50. We weren’t quite done as we moved to the first floor where even more locals were enjoying the tasty and ridiculously cheap dishes. We put a cherry on top of our lunch by having a bowl of cow’s head soup for $1.40. Outside of the weird piece of some type of meat, the soup was excellent. The energy inside the market was loud, colorful, and nonstop—a full sensory experience of Quito’s daily life.

Our final stop was to an overpriced massage parlor where we paid a total of $76 with tip.  Since we have been spoiled by inexpensive and high quality massages in Philippines and Thailand, we were both a bit disappointed.