Quito cathedral

I have always loved the slightly more random tourist attractions- the run-down Soviet-built television tower in West Prague or the disused mountain-top fairground in San Sebastian; places with lots of character that are often much more fascinating than more polished, mainstream attractions. With that in mind the New Cathedral in the Old Town of Quito was a great find.

The Cathedral was mainly built about 100 years ago from concrete and was never quite finished. The gargoyles are of native Ecuadorian animals like monkeys, turtles and parrots but in places there are only rusty steel reinforcement rods poking out of the walls. There are also piles of fallen or abandoned concrete about the place. 

Walking past the building you would assume it to be an old and well built Cathedral but once inside the fact that it is a big, relatively modern lump of concrete is very obvious.

The ceiling looks great from below but really tatty from above, in the roof space. In England this blemish would surely be hidden away but in Quito it's part of the visit. There's even a lift most of the way up which was great for the older, unacclimatised members of the group, though Rachel and I chose the stairs.

We climbed both sides of the Cathedral. One side was reached by passing along a walkway in the roof space then climbing a series of very steep steps. At the level at which my Dad and Uncle Brian decided to abandon this climb there was a poor local fellow spread-eagled and stuck like glue to the side of the tower trying to get it together enough to go down again. Almost every part of the church towers would be deemed unsafe in England when in reality all that's required is common-sense and sticking within your own comfort zone.

The second tower was firstly up stairs to a lovely cafe and then up a series of ladders, past broken clock workings, to a final wire floor in the top of the highest towers. Brilliantly, once up there it was also possible to squeeze out of a small hole on any one of the corners and sit on a ledge with fantastic open views across the city. This was no place for anyone worried about heights but was quite safe really as it was a fairly deep ledge with strong rusty steel to hold on to .

Rachel disappearing into a hole to a spiral staircase below.

The visit to the Cathedral was great fun. The experience of clambering about at the top of such an unusual building, combined with the excellent panoramic views, will be one of the highlights of our time in Quito.