Qualla: Tababela

Tababela: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PaddlingDuck, CC BY-SA 4.0. Tababela did not ask to become famous. The small Andean town sat quietly in the eastern outskirts of Quito's valley for most of its existence, a farming community on unremarkable plains. Then in February 2013, the new Mariscal Sucre International Airport opened on its doorstep. The old airport in Quito proper had been closed the same day, its runway hemmed in by apartment blocks and short on room to grow. The new one needed flat ground, and Tababela happened to sit on the flattest ground within reach. Overnight, a sleepy square became a waypoint for every international traveler arriving or leaving Ecuador's capital, and a small town learned how to host them.

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Image: PaddlingDuck | CC BY-SA 4.0

Tababela: An Hour and a Half from Quito

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0. The drive from central Quito to the airport runs about 18 kilometers as the crow flies but roughly an hour and a half by bus, because the route twists down out of the Quito basin, across the Guayllabamba valley, and back up to the plateau where Tababela sits. The altitude drops s...

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Image: Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador | CC BY-SA 2.0

Tababela: What There Is To See

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0. Tababela is not a tourist town in any traditional sense. The central park, Parque Central, sits beside the parish church and is well-kept, cleanly swept, and plant-filled. Most streets have names, but those names are neither painted on signs nor printed on maps, a tradition that ...

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Image: Cayambe | CC BY-SA 3.0

Tababela: Hostels and Hornado

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bbb, CC BY-SA 3.0. The accommodation scene in Tababela grew up fast around the airport opening. Hotels, hostels, and bed-and-breakfasts fill the blocks nearest the Parque Central. Many arrange pre-paid airport shuttles for about five dollars each way per person. Some have English-speaking owners, t...

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Image: Bbb | CC BY-SA 3.0

Tababela: A Strange Sort of Village

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0. Tababela sits in an odd place in Ecuadorian life. It is unmistakably a small Andean town, with campesinos selling produce out of bags in the square and a church bell that rings for Sunday mass. But every hotel has a sign out front with flight arrival boards, and every conversatio...

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Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 3.0