Guápulo, and the road to the Amazon
On the eastern edge of Quito the city stops at a ravine and falls away. Down in it is a village that the capital grew around without ever quite absorbing: a sanctuary from 1620, a cobbled lane called the Camino de Orellana, and bars that only open when it gets dark. This is where the expedition left from, and where the Amazon was found by accident.
The short version
- Fifteen minutes by taxi from the Old Town, down into the Machángara ravine.
- The Santuario de Guápulo is one of the finest colonial churches in Ecuador and almost nobody visits it.
- Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisco de Orellana left this way in 1541 to look for cinnamon. Orellana came back having descended the Amazon.
- It is a night place. Daytime food options are limited; the bars open in the evening.
- The viewpoint above it is the best sunset in the city that does not involve a cable car.
The expedition
In 1541 Gonzalo Pizarro assembled a force in Quito and set off east to find La Canela, the land of cinnamon, and with luck El Dorado. His second in command was Francisco de Orellana. They left the city down this ravine, along the road that still carries his name.
What followed was a disaster and then an accident. The expedition starved in the eastern jungle. Orellana was sent ahead with a boat to find food, could not return upstream against the current, and kept going — down the Napo, into a river so vast it was later reported as an inland sea, and out into the Atlantic eight months later. It was the first descent of the Amazon by Europeans, and it was not the plan.
The name of the river comes from that voyage too: the chronicler recorded an attack by warriors the Spanish took for the Amazons of Greek myth. Historians have been arguing about it ever since.
There is a monument to Orellana beside the sanctuary. The two main streets of the neighbourhood are the Camino de Orellana and the Camino de los Conquistadores. Walking down them you are, quite literally, on the first kilometre of the road to the Amazon — which is the same road that still carries our own bus to the Cuyabeno, four and a half centuries later.
The sanctuary
The Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guápulo is the first Marian sanctuary in Ecuador. Construction began in the 1590s and it was established in 1620, and it is generally held to be one of the most beautiful churches in the country — mudéjar geometry over baroque, a carved stone facade, a gilded main altar.
What is inside is a roll call of the Quito School: sculpture by Diego de Robles, painting by Miguel de Santiago, work by Gorívar and Samaniego, polychrome by Luis de Ribera. A fire in 1929 destroyed a great deal of what was there, which makes what survived more precious rather than less.
And beneath it, something older. Burials from the Cotocollao culture have been found where the church stands, which suggests the site was a sacred or funerary place long before anyone arrived to build a chapel on it. That pattern — a Catholic building placed deliberately on an Indigenous sacred site, with the earlier symbols destroyed — is the pattern of the whole city, and here it is documented in the ground.
The viewpoint
Above the neighbourhood, at the top of the road, there is a mirador looking down over the sanctuary, the ravine and the Cumbayá valley beyond, with the eastern cordillera behind it.
It is free, it is open all the time, and in the late afternoon it is one of the best places in Quito to watch the light go. Couples have attached padlocks to the railings, which you can take or leave. There are cafés beside it with the same view through large windows, for when the wind gets up — and it does.
For the full set of viewpoints and the right hour for each, see where to photograph Quito.
Why people actually go
Guápulo has been Quito's bohemian quarter for decades. Its geography does most of the work: it turns its back on the city and its face to the valley, so it is quiet in a way nowhere else this close to the centre manages. Artists and writers moved in for the rent and the views and stayed.
The bars and cafés along the Camino de Orellana are the point — old houses converted, small, warm, with views down the ravine, live music sometimes and canelazo always. They are the kind of place where a conversation with the next table is normal.
Be clear about the timing, though: this is an evening neighbourhood. Most of the bars open in the late afternoon and not before. If you go at eleven in the morning you will find a beautiful church, a spectacular view, and very little else open. Several guides omit this and people are disappointed.
A few artists' workshops open to the public, particularly during the open-studio events the city runs in August.
How to do it
- Go by taxi. Fifteen minutes from the Old Town, a few dollars. The road down is steep and winding.
- Arrange the return. This matters more here than elsewhere: it is a residential ravine, not a main road, and finding a car late at night is not straightforward. Ask the bar to call one.
- Best plan: arrive around five, walk down the Camino de Orellana to the sanctuary, come back up for the sunset at the mirador, then dinner and a canelazo in one of the bars.
- Walking down from the city is possible and pleasant in daylight. Walking back up is a serious climb at altitude, and not something to do after dark.
Being sensible
Honestly stated: Guápulo has had some security issues over the years, as quiet ravines near large cities tend to. In practice it is a residential neighbourhood with families in it, and visitors have a good time there.
The precautions are the ordinary ones and they are mostly about the geography rather than the place: take a taxi in and out rather than walking the dark road, stay on the main lane where the bars are, and do not wander the unlit side streets at night. Our general view is in is Quito safe.
Does it fit your stopover?
- Two nights — probably not, unless you want one memorable evening rather than a second night in the Old Town. It is a good choice for that.
- Three nights — yes, as an evening. Old Town by day, Guápulo at sunset.
- Interested in the Amazon — then yes, and go and stand at the top of the Camino de Orellana before you get on the bus. It makes the four days that follow land differently.
- Interested in colonial art — the sanctuary alone justifies the taxi, and it is empty compared with anything in the Old Town.
The road east, in four parts
If the historical thread interests you, it runs through this guide: San Blas, the gate where the city ended; Guápulo, the descent; Papallacta, the pass over the cordillera on the old Cinnamon Trail; and the Cuyabeno, where the forest actually starts.
It is the same route Orellana took, and broadly the same one our night bus takes now. He did it in months. It takes about fourteen hours.
What we do here
We call the taxi both ways, which is the only genuinely necessary piece of logistics for Guápulo. Reception can tell you which of the bars is open on a given night, and whether the sanctuary will be open when you arrive.
Stand at the top of the road before you take it
Nine rooms in a restored 1914 house in San Blas, at the old gate of the city, and the departure point for the Amazon. Book direct for our lowest rate.
See the Cuyabeno tripTake this with you
Worth reading at the mirador, looking down the road they took.
