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JUNE 2012
99
QUITO
||
THREE PERFECT DAYS
DAY ONE
| When you wake at
Casa Gangotena
, the
first thing you see is a mural depicting a colonial-era
hunting scene that stretches around the top of your
room. It’s just one of the details of thismid-1920sman-
sion that the owners have done a magnificent job of
restoring, along with soaring windows, tin ceilings,
antique mirrors and friezes. It’s easy to see why, in less than a year of operation, the
immaculate hotel has become a symbol of Quito’s revitalization.
After a satisfying breakfast of coffee, fresh fruit and tamales generously filled
with rice, pork, bananas and eggs, you head to the lobby. A bellhop walks you out into
the delightful weather—“It’s like this all year,” he brags—andwaves you off in the direc-
tion of the expansive Plaza San Francisco. You follow the sound of church bells to the
Iglesia de San Francisco
, the oldest ofQuito’s 40 storied colonial churches, on the northwest
side of the plaza. Construction on the church began in 1535, a year a er the city was
foundedby theSpanish, and legendhas it that thebuilder, FranciscoCantuña,madeadeal
with the devil to complete it but was able to
save his soul by leaving a single stonemissing.
PAINTING THE TOWN
A mural-wrapped room
at Casa Gangotena; right,
empanaditas at Tianguez
Café; opposite, the Iglesia de
San Francisco
YEAR
FOUNDED
1534
POPULATION
in the metro area
2.2M
QUITO, BY THE NUMBERS
SIZE
in square miles
4,633
ELEVATION
in feet
9,200
MILES FROM
EQUATOR
15
VOLCANOES
in the region
12
SPECIES OF
BIRDS
in the metro area
542
CHURCHES
in the colonial district
40