quito, ecudaor

Our hostel in Quito (The Secret Garden) had the most amazing view from the rooftop terrace which looked out over the sprawling city. The city had a few things to offer:

TeleferiQo 
This is a cable car running up to a lookout in the surrounding Andes. It is one of the highest aerial lifts in the world. 

Vege Restaurants!
This has become a bit of a draw card for us. We found one place that had an assortment of unusual vegetarian food, pictured below. We had also decided that Quito was the city to treat ourselves to a "date night". Living in each other's pockets for 6 months means that there's not a whole lot of modesty left in our relationship. So we decided to spend a little more money and head to a fancy vegetarian restaurant to bring a little romance back into our backpacker lives. And by fancy, we mean $25 for the two of us instead of $6. La Cuchara de San Marcos was the name of the restaurant and I plan on to recreate the dishes when we get back to Australia.  

Basilica del Voto Nacional
This church had a really cool and different gothic vibe happening. It has a pretty sketchy staircase heading to up to the top of the towers which make for a great view of the city. 

Exploring the pretty streets
Pastel coloured colonial buildings is still a feature we really admire in the cities and towns we visit. Quito has some really pretty areas to explore. 

Street food
We are a little gutted that we never took a photo of one of our favourite street foods - the char-grilled  platanos! It is exactly what it sounds like - a plantain on a grill. But who would have though they would taste like banana bread?! So filing and so delicious, all for 50 cents.