Quito & Vicinity - Adventure Guide to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands - page 87

Museo de Ciencias Naturales
The kids will love this one. With a stuffed Andean condor to greet you,
theMuseumof Natural Sciences is amust for the natural-history buff
or anyone unfamiliar with the region's flora and fauna. The compre-
hensive displays make it the best natural history museum in the
country. Though not a huge museum, the fact that Ecuador has such
a unique diversity of flora and fauna, spanning from the upper Ama-
zon to the Andes to the Galápagos Islands, makes it truly one of a
kind.

Themuseum is on Rumipamba 341 and Los Shyris, on the east side of
Parque La Carolina,

2-2449-824. General hours of operation are
Mon-Fri, 9-4:30, and Sat, 9-1; admission is less than $2, with student
discounts available.

Vivarium
The Vivarium opened in 1989 as a center for research on amphibians
and reptiles, and as a teaching facility to protect our endangered,
scaled friends. It now features live animals such as boa constrictors,
turtles, iguanas, and the deadly fer-de-lance snake.

The Vivarium is on Reina Victoria 1576 and Santa María, two blocks
north of Colón,

/fax [phone], [e-mail].
ec. Open Mon-Sat, 9-4. Admission is $2, and donations are appreci-
ated.

2-2230-998,

Museo Amazonico
This is another worthwhile exhibit, geared toward protecting Ecua-
dor's Oriente, through research on rainforest flora and fauna and ed-
ucation initiatives. Educational displays provide the opportunity to
learn about the serious threats to what remains of Ecuador's Amazon
basin.

The museum is at 12 de Octubre 1430 and Wilson and is open Mon-
Fri, 8:30-6 (closed for lunch);

2-2506-247/2562-633.

Parks
There aremany small and threemain parks in the city, all of which of-
fer a bit of green and escape from the surrounding traffic. From Old
Town in the south, the smallest is Parque Alameda , offering shaded
trees, an ancient observatory, and a statue in tribute to Simon
Bolívar, the Venezuelan general that helped to liberate Ecuador from
Spain.