Quito and Santiago: Something Old, Something New

After returning from the Napo River, we spent our last days in Ecuador exploring Quito before heading to Argentina via Santiago, Chile. These two stops marked the end of nightly stays in hotels and the start of a series of apartment and house rentals. For all of us, we are glad to have more space, a bit more privacy, and a kitchen to cook our own food. Being in one place for longer periods of time will also allow Darius and Micayla to spend more time on home school activities -- yipee! What follows are their essays on "What was similar and what was different about Quito and Santiago?" Enjoy!


Quito and Santiago
By Darius

Both Quito and Santiago were amazing cities. Santiago and Quito were very fun to visit. We got to ride a metro in Santiago and climb down part of a collapsed volcano near Quito.

Here are some things that were the similar about Santiago and Quito. Both of the cities had poor people. We saw poor people in front of buildings, in alleyways, and on the streets. Some were old and some were kids alone or with their parents. They would wear blankets and other inexpensive clothing. In Quito and Santiago they would beg for money on the streets or on the sidewalk. And it seemed like there where no shelters for them, even in Santiago.

Both the cities had their own shopping areas, main squares, cathedrals, and amazing plazas. The plazas in Quito had a statue in the middle and benches all around it. The malls had shops and little boutiques. The malls in Quito where old and clean and full of people. Santiago had plazas that were also clean and packed with people. There was also a park that was clean and empty most of the time.


Quito and Santiago Main Plazas:




They both had a beautiful view of the mountains. Quito was in the mountains. The mountains that surrounded Quito were tall and some had snow. Santiago had mountains on one side and none of them had snow and they looked fairly small. But Santiago seemed to fill with smog at times (smog is car fumes and smoke mixed together) which would block the view of the mountains.

They both had good private schools but only one or two public schools are good. We are lucky that we have good public schools at home. Most people went to a private school but I don't know how many because I didn't go into any schools. A friend said that the private schools were the best.

Both of the cities had public transportation like buses in Quito, and a really nice metro in Santiago. We never went on the buses but they looked nice and the metro was very clean.

Here are some things that are different. I thought that Quito looked rustic, but when we went into a friend's house it was completely modern. Quito looked rustic because the buildings were old and looked over 100 years. The apartment looked like it came from a modern fashion magazine. We went there to have dinner with my mom's friend Stephanie. Santiago was modern but the house we went to was old fashioned. The city looked modern because there where glass buildings and other skyscrapers. Santiago had a metro but in Quito you could walk or take a bus or taxi, so Quito was much more expensive for transportation.

Quito and Santiago's currency where both different. In Santiago they used the peso, so 624 pesos was worth 1 dollar. In Quito they used the American dollar.

Quito had a different feel than Boston, but Santiago made me feel like I was back in Boston. Quito had a rustic feel to it and i didn't know my way around it. Santiago made me feel like i was in Boston with all the hustling and bustling.

In the end Santiago and Quito were really nice to visit.



Things that Were Similar and Things that Were Different By Micayla

Last week I was in Quito, Ecuador and Santiago, Chile. Quito and Santiago are both big cities that are close to mountains, and they are capitals of their countries. In both of them, we walked around and looked at plazas, ate chicken, rice, and noodles at restaurants, had dinner mom’s friends house in Quito and her friend’s parent’s house in Santiago, and saw a lot of neat things. I thought that they were both cool to see, but they were also different.

One of the things that was different is that Quito is close to the equator. We went to the equator museum and we got to put one foot on one side of the equator and the other foot on the other side. We also got to do other stuff like balance an egg on a nail. Quito was also high in the mountains. Santiago is farther south and low and close to the sea. Since Santiago is close to the sea, they got to have some place that has sea creatures, and that’s what I am going to tell you about. We went to a fish market and they had everything. They had all kinds of sea creatures! They had fish, of course, and octopus, crabs, shellfish, shrimp. But Quito did not.



I also noticed that Santiago was much hotter than Quito. Even though Quito is close to the Equator it is cooler than Santiago because the higher you are, the cooler it usually is – at least that is what my Dad told me, and he is always right, or at least most of the time. Since it was much hotter in Santiago, we wore shorts and t-shirts. Since it was cooler in Quito, we wore long sleeves and long pants.

Quito had big parks in the middle of the city. The parks had trees and a big statue in the middle. In one big, big park, you could do horseback riding, go on paddle boats, climb on sculptures, go in a huge flower garden, and go on a bus shaped like an inchworm that went around the park. But Santiago had parks out side of the city. We did not go to any of the parks because we were in the middle of the city and the parks were outside of the city.

Quito had an old part of town, but Santiago did not. The old part of town had old buildings that had nice moldings on them. They were two stories high, and some were painted blue, some were painted yellow, and some were white. The roads were very narrow and made out of stones.



In the new part of town, the buildings were made out of bricks, glass, and metal. The streets were wide and they were made out of concrete. In the middle of the streets, they usually had bus lanes where only buses could go.

Santiago did not have an old part, it was almost all newer buildings. The buildings were made of glass and were very tall. The streets were wide and were filled with cars. When we went downtown, there was a lot of people walking around.

I really liked both Quito and Santiago. Now we are in Argentina going to new cities. I hope that I like them, too.