Exploring Quito: Day 1

Hello from Quito! The hostal where we are staying is very comfortable and the people who run it offer dinner for $5 (sign up by 2pm) and breakfast for $2.50. I am currently eating breakfast #2, and it is just as delicious - no, MORE delicious, than yesterday. Both mornings I've wished I had my camera to take a picture to let everyone see the beautiful, fresh fruit we are being served. Mango, kiwi, strawberry, banana, apple. Today there is avocado spread on our breakfast sandwich of egg, tomato, and onion.  Yesterday with the eggs we had a small glass of yogurt drink (like Kefir or something).

Michael dislikes reading maps on the street

After breakfast yesterday, our first stop was at a travel agency (CarpeDM) to see about a trip to the jungle or the Galapagos. Our choice was between a 5 day trip to the islands for $1400, everything included, even airfare and a 4 day trip to the jungle for $210. We decided that if we go to the Galapagos, we won't go back and really we want to have a complete experience with scuba diving and everything. We will have to plan another trip to ecuador (to brush up on spanish maybe?) and plan ahead to spend a good chunk of time out to sea.

So Saturday night we are getting on an overnight bus to go to the jungle. Our 4 days officially start on Sunday, which is mostly traveling by car and canoe to get deeper into the "primary" forest. We then stay in an established camp with cabins and make trips out (hiking in the jungle, canoeing on the river to fish for piranhas, up a bird tower). We will be back late Wednesday night, and won't have internet access while we are there.

 Our next stop was Basilica del Voto Nacional. We had been told that the best part of visiting the Basilica was climbing its towers - so that is what we did. Most of the stairs were nice and normal stairwells, but both in the bell (clock) tower and the steeple (on the right in the picture), there were steep, heart-pounding ascents for the last bit to the top. The steepest part of the bell tower (a series of 3 ladders) was closed, so we didn't get our adrenaline pumping as much as we might have. Here is a link to the picasa album I have started for Ecuador, where you can see more of our pictures from the Basilica and other things I didn't include.
https://picasaweb.google.com/104486736070540446376/13Ecuador?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPShtJHd4ZHnIQ&feat=directlink

 I didn't get any pictures from Museo de Arte: Precolombino Colonial Moderno - the museum of Oswaldo Guayasamin. Michael says he did, so maybe I'll upload some later. He only got the outside - the layout of the grounds and building. This is interesting because Guayasamin's own mansion is above the museum (that he designed). If you could tell from the Spanish title I gave you, Guayasamin's art is modern art. Michael and I discussed how modern art can sometime be abstract enough that it doesn't look like it took talent to create it. It does, however, connect with people emotionally in a way that realistic looking paintings don't. It takes a talented artist, connected with his or her own emotions, to communicate feeling. Guayasamin was an advocate for the indigenous people, and his art depicted human and social inequalities. He died in 1999, before his museum was completed in 2002.

We had to wait quite a while to find a taxi to get back from the museum (it was on the edge of town), but eventually we found ourselves back in the middle of Oldtown at Plaza Grande. Michael was more comfortable looking at the guidebook on the bench in the plaza, so we sat and made a plan. Unfortunately, you know how the best laid plans of mice and men can go... We made it to the Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus just fine, but after that our plan was to go to a restaurant that we could NOT find. I'll tell you about our adventure following the lost restaurant after I tell you about the church. La Compania was built in the baroque style (which means excessive decoration) and it looks like it is completely covered in gold leaf. The church was commissioned by the Jesuits, and construction started in 1605. It opened for worship 13 years alter, but wasn't completed until 1765 *160 years later* (because of all the decoration that had to be done). Unfortunately, an earthquake in 1868 caused the bell tower to come down. It still has not been replaced. The bells are currently on ground level and we took our picture by one. Another earthquake in 1987 damaged the church itself, and when reconstruction was finally underway in 1996, a fire happened and destroyed one alcove near the front. It was interesting to see where they had fixed it by putting new gold leaf on - you could tell it was brighter than the other gold leaf that had been there for 200 years. The story we found most interesting was of Mariana de Jesus. She is the first person canonized from Ecuador. She was beatified in 1853 and she became a saint in 1950. She was born in 1618, and at 27 publicly offered herself as a victim for the city (the year 1645 held earthquakes and plagues for Quito). The story is that shortly after she died, a white lily sprang up from her blood, blossomed, and bloomed. She can be called, "The Lily of Quito" for this reason.

Once we were done at the church and realized we couldn't find the original restaurant, I convinced Michael that we could walk up the hill to Cafe Mosaico and have dinner overlooking the city. We had to walk past a busy bus station. This made Michael nervous because it was at a bus station that he and Melissa got robbed in Tanzania. Once past the bus station, the uphill climb began. At first it was steeply inclined streets, but later the incline was too steep for cars and all that was left was concrete stairs between houses. Again, I thought we should go on up and Michael obliged. The stairway started out okay, but quickly became sketchy as it zig-zagged across the hill. On one landing, three men had squatted - they had a carpet down on the steps and a tattered blanket/tarp strung from railing to railing to make a roof. We trudged through, with "lo siento" from both sides. That wasn't the worst from that first stairway. Almost every landing had a smell of feces (michael thought the smell was from something the men were smoking at first), and I saw a pile of poop with a diameter that could only have come from a human anus. We made it out without vomiting, but felt lost when we came to the cross road. I spotted a balcony with people seated at tables further up, and we decided we had to brave a second stairway. This one was straight (no zigs or zags), wide, and it was still daylight.

We made it up without further events, though I was breathing heavily as we walked down the road to the cafe. The view of the city was incredible, and we made it in time to see the last of the sunset.

The restaurant was a little more pricey, but the food was good. And we realized as they started bringing it that we could have split a dish. Instead, we'll have leftovers for dinner tonight!

Unfortunately, our experience at Cafe Mosiaco was tainted by it being very busy and our waitress not being able to attend to us. We sat and sat and sat when we were done eating, and couldn't even get the waitress to look at us so we could say, "la cuenta, por favor" much less "pienso que no podemos comer todo - tiene cosa portatil para la comida?"

When we were ready to leave, they called a taxi but it was taking too long. We found another group of 5 Americans and braved yet another stairway (you think we would have learned) to go down the hill.

I think that is all from yesterday. I'll add brief captions to the photos on picasa if you are interested.