Quito City Tour

I am trying to figure out how I feel after a day of exploring Quito with a group of tourists. I found myself as enthusiastic as ever. The sun was shining, the mountains were glorious, the streets were full of busy people living their daily lives colourfully and energetically. Part of me felt that I was at home, back where I belonged, knowing that I was once again a guest in this wonderful place. I know this city so well, having wandered the streets of the old town day in and day out. I visited every church, every museum, every plaza, each corner. I was relieved to have Tomas guiding us, because for me there was simply far too much to see and experience, too much to explain and describe.

Eric worked all night on a grant, and Maya and I slept soundly. We met the students for breakfast, and Maya again was busy getting to know their names and t heir stories. She had already made connections and had someone to sit with and share her meal with. Eric planned to stay in the hotel and continue working on his grant and take care of some errands while Greg and I joined the students in the Old Town. We picked up the alumni from their upscale hotel, where they enthused about their experience except that there was no hot water in the shower. Our breakfast had been simple and sparse, while they gushed about their generous and varied fare.

Jose was our bus driver for the day, and drove us to the Basilica de Voto Nacional, a neo Gothic structure with gargoyles of Galapagos and jungle animals. There was a huge creche at the front of the church, left over from Christmas, which reminded me of the time that we searched and searched for the right creche for our Christmas celebrations. We found a small and modest group of figures which worked for the season and made it back to Balitmore. I found creches all over Quito, in church after church during our visit. I was surprised they were not put away, but today would be the day anyway, it being Three Kings' Day, or Epiphany, but if there had been a celebration, we must have missed it. Our next stop was the Plaza Grande in the Old Town, where Tomas gave us basic information about Ecuadorian history and its independence from Spain. We ventured into the courtyard of the Presidential Palace and had fun taking photos of the guards who tried to look unmoved and impassive. The highlight of the morning was our visit to 'La Compania', the Jesuit church covered floor to ceiling in gold leaf. The place is so stunning, there are no words to describe it. We sat there overwhelmed, not really listening to our guide, just trying to absorb the ambiance. My favourite painting is a massive canvas (not gold!) depicting all the sins leading to hell. Many of the words are antiquated or obscure, but there are enough sins that make sense .My understanding is that when the priests came to Quito, they communicated with the indigenous by paintings and sculpture. It was their way to show the locals the story of the bible without words, since no one could read. The sculptures are lifelike and the crucifixes bloody and frightening, and very compelling. We walked up to Plaza San Francisco, where many of the students and alumni shopped at Tuanguez, an upscale souvenir shop under the monastery, where there had been a market for hundreds of years before the Spanish came. Mary, one of the alumni, was especially enthusiastic about shopping and managed to find bags full of wonderful gifts.

We drove up to the Panecillo to climb up to the top of the Dancing Madonna and look over the Old Town. It was windy and colder higher up. I remember when Eric and I had visited the madonna on a Sunday, and ran into dozens of children and their fathers flying kites off the hill behind the sculpture. Maya was introduced to Michael Jackson through a dance contest with a local radio announcer, with a gaggle of little girls and boys. For today, there were few tourists, and Maya joined a group of soccer players. She hit a police car with the ball, and they laughed with her, as did her newfound friends.

All of Quito spread out before us. I tried to identify all the churches in the old town, and Carolina Park was identifiable, along with the apartment buildings around in, including our own.

Lunch was back at the Plaza Grande Hotel, a very fancy hotel at the edge of the Plaza Grande, where the culinary hits were Quinoa soup and helado de paila presented on 'smoking' dry ice . Eric came to join us for the meal, and then left with Maya to visit Sacha Lodge and then return to the Sierra Madre to keep on working on his grant. The rest of the group took the bus to Intinan, a museum at the 'center of the world', which purports to be at the 'real' equator (the French scientists who came to measure two hundred years ago had erred by 200 metres or so). The original monument is not accurate according to GPS, but I prefer it because it contains an interesting enthnographic museum. Intinan is entertaining, with several interesting but perhaps inaccurate demonstrations of 'scientific' phenomena characteristic of the equator.

Maya spent the afternoon with friends in Cumbaya and arrived late to join the group after dinner. Santiago, Eric's colleague from Universidad Catolica, lectured to us about the 'Sixth Extinction' and the end of the world, which was suitably depressing. The alumni chose to eat yummy food at one of my favourite Quito restaurants near their hotel and assured me that they too discussed the end of the world.

The day was jampacked with activity, but felt satisfying. I felt right at home here in Quito, my adopted city.