Ecuador - Basilica

I worked in Quito, Ecuador last week and was lucky enough to have my mom join me which made the trip super fun and also helped me to not feel quite so homesick (I was gone Monday-Saturday which is the longest time I have ever been away from my family).

Our first sight seeing stop was the Basilica in Quito, Ecuador. The Basilica is the most beautiful and striking church I have ever toured. One of the things that makes visiting this church so amazing is the lack of any other tourists. We literally had the place to ourselves (it was actually a bit spooky). 

The stained glass windows were absolutely amazing.

One of the coolest things about the Basilica is the fact that you can climb up into the towers of the building and that the trek to the towers feels very unsafe and would never be allowed outside of South America. We walked across this bridge which is set up over the ceiling arch inside the roof of the Basilica. This part felt a little Indiana Jones to me.

I climbed up to the open gazebo with the red tile floor.

We climbed up to the bell tower on freaky ladders constructed of re-bar.

More stained glass...

There is an awesome view of the Panecillo from the top of the gazebo.

My mom climbing up one of the ladders.

The view from the top of the bell tower.

I was trying to capture just how high up we were but this picture really doesn't do it justice.

I had to include this shot with our taxi. Don Jose (the driver) took us everywhere we wanted to go and also took it upon himself to look after us. He would follow us when were in the markets and made sure that we bargained a good price and carried our bags.

 

This is the view of the Basilica from the Panecillo.