How to use public transportation to visit tourist sights in Quito

↑ A bus stop in Quito’s tourist district

Since I am completely committed to sustainable modes of public transit as opposed to taxis or cars, I was delighted to find that most, if not all, principal sights of tourist importance in Quito can be accessed by public transport. For a mere $0.25, one can navigate a vast network of efficient public transit system to get to different parts of Quito. It might seem slow, crowded and chaotic, but what’s the point of travelling if one doesn’t mingle with the common man and experience all that?

Part 1: Getting oriented

The city of Quito is uniquely shaped due to its location between two mountain ranges. The city is long and narrow – 35km North to South and only 7km East to West – with the main tourist attractions and business district located more or less centrally.

Tip: Since I am such a geek, I’ll attempt to relate Quito’s transportation system to a diagram of magnetic flux as shown in the adjoining picture. Feeder bus lines connect to three main transit lines.

Main public transportation lines

There are three main mass transit lines that run in a north-south direction, shuffling a massive volume of commuters from outer districts to the central parts of the city. These are electric powered rapid transit buses with dedicated lanes and stations, almost like how a subway or light rail system would operate. Cars or other vehicles are not allowed in these lanes.

Trolebus (green line) – Ecovia (red line) – Metrobus (blue line)

The fare for each trip is 25 cents and you can transfer for free at certain stations. City buses zip through neighbourhoods, picking up and dropping passengers off at major transfer points on these lines.

The lines can get crowded, which automatically results in people being aggressive, but compared to, say, Mumbai, it’s a breeze to travel here. There are standard advisories about pickpocketing but nothing to be paranoid about.

Tip: No matter how much you research or prepare, there are chances of unexpected changes in routes or stops or general confusion when you arrive at a bus station. No worries, Quiteños are very helpful, just ask!

↑ Trole-bus (green line) station in central Quito. Most tourist sights, both in old and modern part of the city can be accessed by this line.

Part 2: Checking out tourist attractions in Quito

Tourist sights in Quito can be grouped into two major buckets: old city and the modern city.

Colonial charms of old Quito

Most of colonial Quito, with its neatly preserved, UNESCO world heritage awarded old churches, can be conveniently explored on foot. The Trole-bus runs through the heart of the old town, making stops at 4 stations – Hermano Miguel, Teatro Sucre, Plaza Grande and Santo Domingo – if you are coming from the north. The Plaza Grande station is merely a block away from Quito’s historic central plaza. Get off here and dive right into the old quarter.

The Ecovia line, coming from north, terminates at La Martin station on the eastern edge of old Quito.

La Mariscal in newer Quito

Two worlds meet at the Hermano Miguel intersection; colonial architecture switches to huge glass and concrete buildings, signalling the beginning of Quito’s modern business district. Key attractions here include lush parks for people-watching (El Ejido, Alameda and Carolina), lavish museums (Guayasamin, Chapel of Man, House of culture, and Banco Central) and ofcourse the nightlife and touristic core of La Mariscal, also known as the Gringo-land. Being Latin America, there are always neat churches and chapels sprinkled around.

Coming from the old town, La Alameda, Ejido, Mariscal, Santa Clara and Colon stations on Trole-bus line serve this neighborhood. The Ecovia line passes right through this area, stopping at Casa de la Cultura, Galo Plaza, Manuel Cañizares and Baca Ortiz stations.

Tip: If you want to feel as if you are travelling through time, from 16th century to 20th century, I recommend walking from the old city to the new city, which was one of the most enjoyable things I did in Ecuador.

↑ Traffic jams are common. Honking is your exit pass.

Part 3: Connections to the world outside

Quito is well connected to the rest of the country, and even to neighbouring countries, predominantly by a bus network. Quito has two long-distance bus terminals – the north terminal and the south terminal. Both terminals are connected to public transportation lines to form a very integrated network.

Airport: Old and New

Quito’s current airport is located in the middle of the city, and about 8km north of La Mariscal district. Once you exit the airport, you’ll be on Avenue Amazonas – to your left is south (where most attractions are) and to your right is north (nothing touristically important there). Flag down any bus going south, it will lead you to La Y, a terminal for Metrobus (blue) and Trolebus (green) lines. There are other ways to get into the city but going to La Y is the easiest and fastest. Once in La Y, you can transfer to the old town or the new town through the Trole-bus line – see the section above – all for a mere 25 cents.

↑ A chic new Ecovia bus (red line)

North bus terminal: For travelling to places north of Quito

Terminal Carcelén (Terminal Terrestre Norte) is used by buses that go to northern parts of Ecuador such as Otavalo, Ibarra and all the way to Colombia. Regardless, it is integrated with a city bus terminal with direct buses to La Y (Trole bus / green line terminal), Rio Coca (Ecovia / red line terminal) or La Ofelia (Metrobus / blue line terminal). You can literally get to anywhere in central Quito from this inter-state bus station.

South bus terminal: For traveling to places south of Quito

Terminal Quitumbe is the southern gateway and buses going to various cities south of Quito (e.g. Latacunga, Baños, Cuenca, Guayaquil, etc.) depart from here. The terminal is integrated with the Trole-bus station, so getting there is straightforward. Travel all the way south on the Trole bus line (green line) to reach this inter-state bus terminal.

Tip: If you are reading an old source, it might refer you to Terminal Terrestre Cumandá for inter-province and inter-city buses. This terminal is now closed and has been replaced by two terminals described above. Cumanda bus terminal is being converted to a bigass shopping mall.

Railway

Rail lines are being revived in Ecuador but there are mammoth construction challenges due to a hilly terrain. There is a railbus that runs from Quito to Latacunga through the picturesque Cotopaxi national park with stunning views of the volcano, but it’s not a train in the traditional sense. This tourist train is actually a modified bus that runs on a rail track. The Chimbacalle station on Trole-bus line is right next to the railway terminal Terminal de Ferricarriles‎.

↑ Trole-bus station

- – -
So that was an overview of various public transportation options available in Quito. Several cities all over the world are constructing a BRTS (Bus rapid transit system) for mass transport rather than building more roads for cars. I find it encouraging.

If you have comments or corrections, please let me know!

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The underground: 3 pesos ($0.30)

Mexico City’s underground metro system is cheap, fast and efficient. It is quite comprehensive and can take you to different corners of this gigantic city in a ride that is way more pleasurable than driving on the clogged streets above. Called ‘Metro de la Ciudad de Mexico’ in Spanish, this is the second largest metro in North America and about 1.5 billion commuters take it everyday. Take a tour of the fascinating underground world on the other side of those turnstiles…

↑ Mexico’s metro system is cheap, fast and reliable.

When I first landed in the city after a 3 hour flight delay, I wanted to head straight for the metro station at the airport. It’s kinda tricky (you have to change the terminal and then walk), and certainly there are insufficient sign boards. I asked a fellow standing next to me if he knew how to get to the metro station.

“Yes, but be careful, people are not helpful in Mexico city,” he said as he walked me to the metro station and even offered to buy a ticket for me.

That was the first sentence I heard from a guy who was (ironically) helping me. Thankfully, I never found these thieves and unfriendly people he was talking about.

↑ I loved riding the subway, I took 17 rides overall, haha… The rush hour is a breeze (compared to Mumbai), the subway feels very roomy (compared to New York city) and the stations are not buried deep under (compared to St. Petersburg metro)

The subway is very systematic and intuitive to use. It was designed for use by illiterate people (and non Spanish speakers I guess), so each station has a symbol associated with it, and there are detailed maps everywhere. It’s hard to get lost, but with the crowds during rush hour, be prepared to get confused.

My first ride in Mexico city’s metro was quite different from Moscow metro. There were neither any babushkas or policemen at the entrance gates nor did I feel that I was walking into a beautiful underground museum, which Moscow’s subway stations are famous for.

↑ Auditorio subway station was quite lavishly decorated with pictures of metro systems around the world.

Mexico city’s subway stations are quite simple, but clean. Inside the trains there is non-stop entertainment and fascinating activity; almost like a market on wheels. You could buy chewing gum (called ‘chicklet’), books, magazines, musical instrument, pirated DVDs, candies, or even get your shoes shined from sellers who enter and leave the coach at every station in what seems to be a well coordinated system. There is never a conflict and I never saw more than one merchant in the compartment!

Buskers and entertainers perform in the middle of a crowded compartment – some people watch them, while others appear completely oblivious. Men (especially teenagers) can be spotted reading magazines with pictures of naked ladies on its cover, I wonder what’s in them.

Then there are large number of food stalls inside the stations. They have everything – juice bars serving fresh fruit, kitchens serving tacos, tuck shops carrying junk food and even some fast food chains. Finding a packet of fried potatoes is never an issue.

↑ Typical entrance of a subway station.

The surface: 5 pesos ($0.50)

Mexico city has a bus rapid transit system (BRTS), called Metrobús. It is a bus that runs on a dedicated road lane, thus there are minimal traffic obstructions.

↑ Metrobus is a neat concept in places where there is space to implement a dedicated right-of-way for public buses.

When I was in Mexico city, only two routs were operational.
“There will be ten more!” my enthusiastic CS host said, “but that means it will be harder to drive.”

↑ Almost like a metro station but overground and having buses instead of trains. Very convenient and easy to use.

The metrobus ticket system thoroughly confused me. Firstly, its all in Spanish. Secondly, it “swallowed” my money, so I was very hesitant to try again. Finally, there was a line of people waiting behind me, so I was feeling pressured.

“Por favor, puede comprar para mí?” (Please, can you buy for me?)
And the lady standing behind me holding a basket of clothes took my money and used her metropass to let me in.

↑ Metro bus is a bus that runs on a dedicated lane. It has stations instead of bus stops.

For the 10 days that I was based in Mexico city (and traveled to places around Mexico city), I took the subway 17 times and the metrobus 5 times, for going to the various bus terminals, homes of my couchsurfing hosts or to simply visit tourist attractions.

Most attractions are near the Zocalo (city centre) and others such as Coyoacan district or Chapultepec park can be easily reached by public transit. If you don’t have a guidebook, several websites such as Holidaycheck.com, Trip Advisor, Lonely Planet, etc. provide comprehensive listings of various places to visit in the city.

I definitely recommend that you travel in these public modes of transport, it’s the easiest way to participate and get a glimpse of the real life of Chilangos (residents of Mexico city).

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I rode the Moscow metro on my first day in Moscow and my initial impression was a mixture of nervousness and excitement. I was at the Komsomolskaya subway station, one of the major stations on the network, wanting to go to Park Kultury station. Several things I experienced on this maiden ride didn’t make sense to me until I got used to them few days later.

Dark tunnels: Let me begin with the long and narrow tunnel leading from street level to the metro station. Water was seeping through broken pipes, light bulbs were flickering, paint was falling off and there was a distinct smell. Being rush hour, the tunnel was packed with people who were walking very fast, going about their business. I got a cold and grim feeling since there was nobody chatting, smiling or laughing. For some reason I also thought that everyone was looking at me, haha, but that was only because the guidebooks said that’d happen.

Buying tickets: At the subway entrance, there were imposing windows with pigeonholes with the word ‘касса’ (meaning ‘ticket window’) written over them. Since everything was in Russian and transactions were happening at a brisk pace, it was a bad time to ask questions. I simply handed over three hundred Roubles and said “десять” (ten), meaning a 10-ride pass. The lady gave me change and a blue metro card and looked at the next person in line. That was my cue to move.

Getting in: Entrance to the metro is tightly guarded by expressionless babushkas (older women) who man (rather, woman) the entrance machines. You show your metro card at the reader and the door opens. On most of the times there are no doors (or they stopped working and are always open?), so you simply pass. At other times the doors will refuse to open. In such a case, you go to the babushka and grumble so that she can open the door manually. That’s why she is there.

Then, you are led down a tunnel, in a single or double file, only to disappear in darkness.

Escalators: I was quite shocked to see people form a single line and enter the escalator, almost in an army (prison?) like discipline. The escalator took a long time, what seemed like an eternity to me. It was a long, narrow tunnel drilled deep to protect against an American nuclear attack. There were 3 escalators – one going up, one going down and the middle one was shut off. People were standing in their respective escalators as the belts hummed their way down. Most people were silent and appeared to be very serious, looking straight ahead or at people on the other escalator (or at me). I quickly put my camera back inside. Someone with claustrophobia would have a tough time here.

As the escalator moves down the tunnel, you look down and you see nothing, you look up and you see nothing – it feels like you are on stairs running from the sky to the center of earth. The humming sound of the machines, artificially and insufficiently illuminated tunnels, policemen and people around me gave me a very uncomfortable feeling. I had never felt so disconnected.

Police: On the platform, all I saw was policemen. There might have been three policemen for every hundred people but that ratio was abnormally high for me. Then there were men dressed in military uniform all over – I thought they were police too but later I learnt that they were simply going to or coming back from duty. The literature you read online makes you believe that the sole purpose the Russian police exist is to stop and harass foreigners. Naturally, I was worried since I had not registered my visa yet (I was supposed to do it within 72 hours of arriving in Russia), and I didn’t want trouble.

Train: On the platform, being morning rush hour, people will bump into you if you stop walking. I had momentarily stopped under a signboard that said which train went where and it was enough to make it evident that I was a lost foreigner.

After I spent many minutes trying to read a few words from the board and looking at my map to make sense of it, I found my platform. I went there and saw a train coming. It was extremely crowded (by Toronto standards). So crowded that I automatically found myself inside the compartment once the doors opened. The crowd had shoved me inside. haha! People were tightly packed inside the train, arms, elbows, blond hair and stern faces all around.

Missed my station: The next challenge was getting off the subway. When my station Park Kulture was announced, I was ready to get off. But the people ahead of me were in no mood to make room. I tried to force my way through and even said a feeble “Извините, Я хочу Парк Культуры!” (Excuse me, I want Park Kultury!). Heads turned, obviously that phrase was incorrect but made sense. It was too late. The doors closed and the train moved. I missed the station!

“You should poosh” the guy standing next to me said thoughtfully, in heavily accented English, “otherwise you miss.”
“Yes, yes,” I said.

Conclusion: Those 30 minutes were enough to remind me of the aggressiveness required to negotiate the crowded train system in Mumbai or sunday morning buses in Israel. Once I was prepared mentally, rest of the metro rides were quite fun and enjoyable. I loved traveling in the subway trains thereafter. Suddenly, the metro became real and lively, not grim and scary at all. I even stopped imagining that the police were after me (despite the fact that I didn’t register my visa until last week!) Fun times!

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Moscow subway stations are swanky and grandiose

Look at these platforms and hallways for example:

Komsomolskaya

Belaruskaya

Novoslobodskaya

Kievskaya

Kievskaya

One could easily spend an entire day stopping at major stations and marveling at the beautiful architecture, sculptures, paintings and other art installations.

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St. Petersburg’s Metro system conveniently serves downtown and central tourist areas

As is the case with most Soviet-era underground rail systems, you have to first enter the subway station platform which is a whole 2.5 minute ride from the top on musical escalators. After a while, one gets used to the constant hum, clit-clat sounds, and the meekly audible human voice. There is no scope for fainting, rushing or panicking, since once you set foot on it, there is nothing you can do till it stops. Babushkas watch you closely and will give you a look if you take a picture.

Journey to the center of the earth

Quite minimalistic – two belts for operation and one standby. No elevators, no stairs, atleast in theory.

St. Petersburg’s metro was built in 1955 and is one of the deepest metros in the world and also among the most elaborately decorated. I got off at the Admiralteyskaya subway station, 105 meters below the surface, and the escalator seemed to take forever to get to the surface.

Claustrophobic, mysterious, authoritarian, spooky

The subway stations in downtown have an interesting construction. In order to prevent flooding, the stations are completely enclosed by doors and walls – one can’t see the train or the tracks. Once the train stops, the doors open and one enters the train directly.

So far I had only heard of such systems. They were planning to do this in Toronto – not for flooding, but to prevent people from committing suicide by jumping on the tracks.

Subway station is like a room with many doors. The train stops. Doors in the room open. You directly enter the train.

I kept a token from the transit system for memory. Its a simple round coin with a big “M” written on it.

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Kazansky Train Terminus, Moscow, Russia

Russia has a significant rail network that is affordable and convenient to use – and people actually use it.
Diesel engines

I took a 30 hour train journey to Sochi, on the Black Sea, in a second class compartment. It was fun!

Train terminal

Ofcourse, everything from the Soviet times has to be grandiose and beautiful.

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Peru rail, Ollantaytambo train station

Peru Rail, running from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, is the luxury train for visitors to Machu Pichu. The train, being a monopoly, is fancy but exorbitantly expensive and not something that a backpacker on shoe string would prefer to do.

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Bessarion subway station on the Sheppard (Purple) Line is the second least used metro station in Toronto.

For some reason the pictures appear faded, but if you click on the thumbnails, you can see higher resolution pictures.

These pictures on the platform level show commuter’s heads facing away from the camera. The only face facing us is that of the baby, that’s kinda creepy.

Platforms still shine and the color is still glossy.

The train schedule on this line is very simple, hence quite often one can hear both trains pull into the station at the same time, their doors open and close in unison and they chime together. The nice thing is that one has the entire station to oneself to enjoy this.

Mezzanine level shows people’s feet. The level is swanky and clean, the attendant must be getting bored…

The station opened in 2002 and there have been many suggestions, till date, to close it.

In 2008, only 2000 people used this subway station per day on average. However, a number of new residential towers are under construction in this area so the usage might improve in few years.

The public art in the station, by Toronto artist Sylvie Belanger, is a frieze of hands, feet, and backs of heads, which represent the users of the station. (Wikipedia) The feet images appear on the concourse level while the heads appear on the platform level. The hands images appear along the stairs between the Sheppard Avenue North Side entrance/exit and the concourse.

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The Platskart (Плацкарт/प्लात्सकार्त) Coach

Platzkartny Wagon. Very crowded and noisy but social and fun!

Note: Please read Part 1 before reading this!

Platzkart is the third class coach in Russian trains that offers modest comfort and a quite cheap ticket to your destination. Each coach is divided into 9 units, each unit having 6 seats – 4 lateral and 2 axial (pardon my technical jargon). The lateral seats form a sortof isolated section of 4 berths – two upper and two lower, while the axial side seats get converted into a bunk at night – one upper, one lower (and is meant for shorter people). I was on the lower side berth.

Lets compare Russian and Indian trains. Russian trains have 4 classes: SV (first), Kupe (second), Platzkart (third) and Ordinary (fourth), while Indian trains have First, Second and Third with subtypes of each. In terms of services, facilities and environment, the platskartny coach is essentially an AC-2 coach of the Indian railways, but with Russian people on it.

Sharing food (and more)

Chai, in a beautiful vintage cup and cup noodles

As soon as the train pulled out of Moscow, the Provodnitsa (introduced in the previous post) announced something and suddenly there was activity. People grabbed their mugs and went to the Samovar (Самовар / समोवर) that was located at the end of the coach. Its a neat machine that pumps out hot, almost boiling, water that people will use to make tea. What’s the drink that Russians drink the most? Vodka? nahh… Beer? naahh… its Tea, called Chai (чаи / चाइ) in Russian.

People also took their stash of food out. All the food I brought with me was a can of cup noodles, and after I finished it within 30 minutes of train start, I had practically no food. But no worries, my table was already getting flooded with food. I had cheese, cookies, smoked beef, pork slices, bread etc. It seems that sharing your food is quite common, especially if you have a foreigner in the compartment.

Samovar, a vessel that makes hot water. Young or old, Russians drink tea ALL the time.

My co-passengers

Sitting opposite to me was Sergei, a 39 yr old guy who was going to Sochi to meet his family which was already on vacation there. He offered me cheese, tea, smoked beef and chocolates. On the other side was a woman with her two teenage daughters. They studied English in school for some years, so they were very excited to talk to me in English. Unfortunately we ended up speaking in Russian because I couldn’t understand what they were speaking. I think if you learn sentence structures in a foreign language, a dictionary will go a long way in supplying words for making good conversations. They invited their friends – 3 guys and a girl (all of them were in the army draft) to talk to me at night. All of them were pleasantly drunk, but very polite and talkative. The sixth person in the unit was an old man who wore the typical Russian hat (I don’t know what its called), and had a long beard. His face was very wrinkled and every time he spoke or smiled (and he did that a lot), the wrinkles multiplied. He gave me a bagful of desserts while saying something that sounded like an advice. I understood the words ‘when’, ‘journey’, ‘never’, ‘tea’, ‘Pryanik’, ‘without’. “If you want to enjoy the journey, never have your tea without Pryanik!”

Pryanik (Пряник/प् र्यानीक्), which sounds quite similar to my name Priyank, are popular Russian cookies that come in a unlimited number of flavors. They make an ideal accompaniment with tea or coffee. They are somewhat similar to शंकरपाळे made in Maharashtra.

Other coaches

I walked the entire train to checkout what was on it. There was a little restaurant on board.
Restaurant. I ate chicken here.

купе – kupe – कुपे: Second Class

С В – S V – एस् वी: First Class

The first and second class coaches were very neat. These are small compartments of 2 and 4 people respectively and feel quite cosy and comfortable. I traveled by Kupe later in my trip.

Whenever the train took a stop, people spilled out of it like ants. The first thing to do? Smoke. Smoking is like the national sport of Russia and it’s very noticeable and on-your-face.

Some train station on the next morning.

So that was how I spent 30 very enjoyable hours on the train from Moscow to Sochi, 1400km south, on the Black Sea.
My train, stopped at an unscheduled station.

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If there is one thing travel guidebooks warn you NOT to do in Russia is to travel in Platzkartny, the third class train compartment. Indeed, the few Russian people I spoke to prior to the trip made all possible efforts to dissuade me from doing this, but I was quite adamant. Then I was taught how to ward off overly friendly travelers who will force you to have some vodka with them, and guidebooks scare you with stories of theft, dirt, noise and (lack of) security etc…

I’m pretty sure that none of them have traveled in 2^nd class trains in India.

Train ticket

My train ticket: Moscow to Adler. Impossible to understand unless you look carefully and know some Russian

Tatt Прийанк Шрикант (Thatte Priyank Shrikant)
Вагон 01/П, Места 051 (Wagon 01/P, Seat 051)
Москва Каз – Адлер (Moskva Kaz – Adler)
22.10, 09.21 (date and time)
1105.0 РУБ (1105 RUB, about $55)
I think that was enough information to have.

Kazansky train terminal

With a backpack, wearing baggy shorts and a tshirt, as I was waiting for my friend Evgeny at the Kazansky train terminal in Moscow, I never felt so much out of place. Did I mention that Russians dress quite fashionably? And fashionable might mean Eurotrash but certainly does not mean American backpacker look, which I was drenched in. Anyway. Evgeny got my ticket ‘authorised’ from some place and we found my train waiting to be boarded. Then I was alone with a bunch of people staring at me. “Yes I’m from the Indian movies you watch all the time on TV”

Main hall at Kazansky Train Terminus, one of 9 long-distance train terminals in Moscow. There are obscure booths here n there providing train services.


Train platforms at Kazansky, where is my train…?


Trains and people

I was quite shy and hesitant of taking pictures since it was my day 3 in Russia and I didn’t know how people would take it. Well there is nothing to worry – forget what the guidebooks tell you about overly vigilant police who are waiting to prey upon foreigners.

Ah there it was! Clearly marked АДЛЕР (Adler/आद््ल्यर)

My train

I’m fascinated by rail engines, and this one was diesel… so rare to see! Very cool.

See the lady in the uniform with a drag-queen hairstyle? She was the Provodnitsa, the attendant, of my compartment.

Provodnitsa, (प्रोवोदनीत्सा) the lady who was in charge of the compartment, inspected my ticket, tore off a part marked контрол (kontrol), asked for my passport (which she couldn’t read), looked at me (I look different from the picture) and let me in. I dutifully tried to butter her up after the train started (as the guidebook advised) but she was very stern and a I-don’t-ever-smile type person who was very proficient at saying a loud and clear ‘Nyet‘. Only after 8 hours I made her smile with my broken Russian while asking if it was okay to plug my battery charger in an electrical socket in her room.

I will take you on a little tour inside the platzkart coach and the train in my next post. I was happy to be on the train and I smiled to myself as it chugged off 5 minutes later to a destination 1,400 km south on the Black Sea.

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