Last Day in Quito

I'm getting ready for the gruelling trip home. The plane leaves at fifteen minutes past midnight. Expecting to need to rush in Atlanta, where I'm staying less than two hours, and probably need to go through customs. Atlanta also has a train between all the terminals (are there eight?), so it's not the place for a shortish stop, particularly as the US has probably increased the time it takes through customs due to the recent bombings. Then on to Los Angeles, where I am for just over twelve hours, so I leave late in the day (hopefully this means that if I miss the connection in Atlanta I will still be able to catch the same plane to Australia). Then I lose a day to the international date line, and arrive in Sydney at a somewhat reasonable time of almost eight am. After more than three hours in Sydney, I might finally get home by 2pm on 25th November. That makes more than 49 hours of travel (including the trip to the airport), including two nights on planes.

Today has been interesting. I had forgotten that on Sundays they close a number of streets to cars and create an enormous network of bicycle paths. 

I decided to take the trolley bus to an enormous archeological site that predates the Incas, and I think goes back to 10,000BC. Although one goes past where I am staying, it wasn't the one I needed, and I couldn't work out how to get from one to the other, so I decided to walk. The street was one of the ones closed to cars, and there were an enormous number of cyclists, despite it being Sunday morning. With the help of several people, I found the right stop to get on. The bus was very crowded so I went too far, and somehow I lost all my paper money. It didn't really matter - where I was going was free, and the bus fare was 25 cents, which I still had, and I didn't have anything but glasses, money and camera (the buses are renouned for pickpockets, so I took only what I needed for today). The archeological park was closed because "it is a big mess", and the museum ( which was small but good), was difficult to get to because the road to it was ripped up. I took a photo of the street trees in that area - do they look familiar?

Lunch was one of the soups the Ecuadorians do so well, but again it was advertised as beef with legumes. It certainly had beef, and lots of vegetables, but none of them were legumes. 

On the way back from the archeological site I heard the worst brass band yet. I think it was the municipal police band, giving a performance outside the theatre. They were even worse than the bands in Banos. Maybe the Ecuadorians should stick to pan pipes which they play very well, or at least give brass a miss. I also heard a school band playing percussion and what may have been xylophones when I went to the Basilica. They were very good, even if they were making an incredible amount of noise.

Foam

When I first came to Ecuador, I saw street vendors carrying a tray heaped with a load of what looked like ice cream - half white, half pink, with ice cream cones upside down on top, and more cones in a bag at their side. They are ubiquitous in Ecuador. Like other tourists I wondered how they could possibly stop it from melting, although I figured that it's not that hot here, and the pile on the tray was always so big that it wouldn't melt very fast.

Later I learnt that it was Espemilla (Spanish for foam), made from guava (or another fruit), egg whites and sugar. I have been wanting to try it, but wasn't going to buy it from a wandering street vendor. So today I found a shop that specialises in it, and had fruit salad, Espemilla and ice cream, with a genuine Ecuadorian hot chocolate. It was good. 

I went on the hop on, hop off tour bus and saw the business district, had a close encounter with the winged virgin, saw how the basilica really dominates the old town and saw the old town from a different perspective (from on top of a double decker bus). It did go down some streets in the old town that I hadn't visited. During the drive I developed a strong admiration for the way the driver managed to turn the very narrow corners from one one way street to another. There were many times that two people on the bus could stretch out their arms and touch the balconies on both sides of the street.

The Spaniards laid out Quito in a rectangular grid, and there are many places where this really doesn't work. The road to the Basilica is incredibly steep (the photo is from yesterday when I was climbing the hill, and lik most photos looking down, it really doesn't do justice to the slope), and there were several other streets where the bus stalled going up the hill because the street was so steep. There are a number of streets that suddenly change to steps. Going downhill from the basilica in a double decker bus is an interesting experience. 

Overall it was worth doing the trip, even though it took a while, and I had already seen most of the sights.

After the trip, I found a place to have a late lunch, and ordered onion soup. I did see some onion in it, but it was full of fish and shrimps and potato. The Espemilla was desert or afternoon tea.

 

Churches

Today I visited the heritage churches that Quito is renouned for (I'll include the ones I have already seen for completeness). Unless otherwise stated these are baroque, have quantities of gold leaf and are very ornate.

La Basilica - this is a standard English Gothic church in that it has buttresses, stained glass windows and is relatively free of gold ornamentation. It is huge, and as it is on top of a hill, it is a long climb - particularly if you go up Gracia Moreno rather than Venszuela, as you end up four stories higher, looking down to the church plaza, but not on the church itself.

Inglesia Santa Barbara - no photos were allowed inside, so I only have the outside.

Inglesia de La Concepcion - has its entry on the corner, which is the only part of it you can see from Independence Square. Might as well be in Independence Square. No photos inside. Ornate.

La Cathedral - in Independence Square, already seen, big. Takes up one whole side of Independence Square. There is a photo of the outside here. Might as well note that this square has the cathedral taking up one side, the Presidential palace the next. The third side is the Archbishops palace, and the fourth side includes the Municipal offices.

Inglesia de El Segrario - You enter it from the side. It hasn't got as much decoration as most, but you can see, that there is gold leaf.

Inglesia de La Compania de Jesus - the church that drips with gold - I managed to take a photo of a little of the inside (one of the side chapels) from the street. There is also a photo of it from San Francisco, showing the domes at the back.

Inglesia La Merced - covered in apricot and white designs, and like most of the churches has an arched ceiling and several domes. Like the Basilica it had notices that the pope had recently visited.

San Francisco - again, no photography inside, and I only took a photo of the door, but it has a lot of gold everywhere (including the ceiling which is flat rather than arched), but has other colours in places. Probably the second most decorated. If La Compania didn't exist it would definitely be thought of as dripping in gold. Everywhere including the ceiling is covered with baroque decorations.

Inglesia San Agustin - unfortunately this was closed and I didn't photograph the outside. It includes a convent (well most do) so it might only be open during the week.

Museo de la Ciudad

Ecuador does museums particularly well. Today I visited the old hospital which has been turned into a museum on Quito from the conquest. Unfortunately only one room had English subtitles - the one about the revolution. It hadn't occurred to me that the independence movement was linked to the Napolionic wars, but if they hadn't happened, it may have happened a lot later. Part of the museum is a separate area showing the old hospital. I have included photos of the conquest of the Amazon and the display devoted to Humbolt (of the current).

The building is typical of the colonial era buildings in Quito - two courtyards with all the rooms opening onto verandas surrounding the courtyards. The old hospital is two stories high, and I guess it was built with thick columns along the inside and outside walls. Between these columns were cubicles for the beds (which were along the walls), and each bed had a curtain so individuals could have privacy. It was originally built in 1564, and the museum part has been restored to that era. I thought you might like a picture of the chapel.

Apart from the museum, I wandered around the streets. There are very few buildings that aren't from colonial times, and the whole old city is beautiful. Some streets haven't been spruced up, but they are all in keeping with one another. There is a street devoted to candle making. Most of the candles are for religious purposes and some had been made to look like bunches of flowers. There were also other areas devoted to christening clothes, and where I am is surrounded by material shops and haberdasheries. I have yet to find a place where you can't see a church.

I also found a demonstration which caused all the traffic to be worse than usual, and the police presence to be even greater than previously. I even saw one policeman in riot gear (he was having an amiable conversation with several of his mates while getting coffee) several blocks away from the main square, where the demonstrators ended their march, and were busy having speeches.

Toy Soldiers

The church with all the gold is very close (La Compania de Jesus), and was the first place I visited today. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos inside it (or the cathedral where I went next), but it is baroque, and dripping with gold leaf everywhere - ceiling, columns, domes, walls... The first picture is of the front which gives you a small idea of the amount of decoration inside.

Next I visited the independence square, which has the cathedral on one side (another picture of the outside). The cathedral does have some gold leaf, and it also has a museum of vestments, which were very sumptuous.

I also visited the Casa Del Alabado, which is an extremely good museum of precolombian artifacts. There are several pictures of these, including one I took specially for Alan, as it appears to be of toy soldiers. I was taken by the earliest sculptures which were very blocky, and the later human figures which were more depictive than I expected.

The museum was near to the San Francisco church which is on an enormous block, with its own plaza. I plan to go there on Friday when it is open. In case you are wondering, there is just about a church on every corner. Under the church, there was a restaurant where I had lunch, and a handcraft shop, which is where I saw the sea lion head.

Old Quito

I didn't do much today, as I was tired from the Galapagos, moved hotels and seemed to spend much of the day going to places that were permanently shut. It also rained a lot today.

Quito is a long thin city set amongst mountains with a volcano above it. The new airport is about an hour from the centre of the city, separated from everywhere else by a fault which is quite deep, and on the edge of a very steep mountain. This meant it took them five years to build the road, but only three to build the airport.

The old city is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which dates back to the conquistadors, full of narrow streets, colonial houses, and magnificent churches. There are quite a lot of plazas, with major buildings grouped around them. The church of San Francisco is built on the Inca ruins, but this was only discovered a short time ago when they were fixing up the plaza. The last Inca burnt the city to the ground when he realised they were losing. Our guide Henry joked about streets being named "una via" and this could be the most common street sign in old Quito. It's certainly very common throughout Ecuador.

My hotel for the rest of the time is in the old city, and is one of the old colonial buildings, just like the buildings in the streets around it. It has a central covered courtyard and very high ceilings. The breakfast room is on the fourth floor and has a magnificent view of the statue of the virgin (I must check, it is probably the "winged" Virgin Mary) on the top of the hill that is visible from much of the old city.

Back to Quito

On our last day in the Galapagos we visited the Galapagos Interpretation Centre. This was amazing, and included a lot of the history of the Galapagos as well as all sorts of interesting facts. Unfortunately we were not allowed anywhere near enough time to see it all, and I probably only got about a third of the way through it in the time allowed. As the rest of our time in the Galapagos was wasted with an enormous wait at the airport, time for shopping and even more time wasted at the airport (our plane left an hour after it should have), there could have been plenty of time to actually appreciate the centre.

It was also a pity we didn't see it first, as it answered many of the questions people asked throughout the trip, that the guide answered incorrectly. She had also given unsolicited information that was refuted by the centre.

The trip included many more opportunities for snorkelling and other activities than were in the itinerary and the itinerary we got had repetitions and mistakes that meant people could have chosen the wrong trip. For instance, one person couldn't swim, and a couple of others were not swimmers, yet every day included a lot of water based activities which were not in the itinerary (which inferred that we were mainly walking). It was also frustrating to have been told to bring a towel in your limited luggage, and yet have swimming towels provided. Everyone opted out of some of the activities because the regime was exhausting - on one day we had five separate activities scheduled, each of which involved a separate trip from the boat. At first the guide was very persistent in trying to get people not to opt out, without giving people much information about the excursion. The trip was advertised as visiting less available parts of the archipelago, yet they are some of the most visited parts. And the route involved much longer sea passages (through rougher seas) each night than most of the other trips that are available.

This wouldn't have changed the trip I chose, since I booked late, and had limited choices, but I think it would have changed the trip chosen by several of the others. Despite all this everyone had a good time and really enjoyed the Galapagos. Most of us were very happy that there were all the extra water based activities.

By the Beach

We walked to the beach on Santa Cruz.

Beating the rats, cats, donkeys, pigs, cattle, ants (these are exotic) and goats

This afternoon we visited the giant tortoise reproduction centre on Isabella Island. Tortoises have not been living to adulthood, so 25 years ago they selected some from each of the ten areas on the island to put into the reproductive centre. Whenever they lay eggs, they are taken away and incubated (including eggs in the wild). When they are five years old (big enough not to be eaten by predators) they are released back to the wild. All the old ones in the centre have a life sentence. It works, and now there are 25 year old tortoises. They are also irradicating the exotic species.

We visited two other places where pink flamingos live. On the way back we saw rocks full of boobies - can you see the interlopers?

 

Mating Turtles

Have you noticed that the title is inevitably the photo that got away? Anyway, there were were several turtles in a group in the water, but all you could see were heads and flippers and a shell on top of another shell, and the whole mess keeps moving and allowing random parts to show. Nothing that you would recognise as a whole turtle, let alone two!

We went in the zodiacs through the mangroves in a narrow bay this morning. We saw a lot of frigate birds in a tree, many penguins, blue footed boobies which really had blue feet, two types of heron, flightless cormorants, many turtles, sea lions and some flying fish.

This afternoon we spotted a whale while we were moving on to the next place, but before that we went to the lava fields, and, in a lagoon saw a pink flamingo. While we were coming back to the boat we passed Galapagos in miniature.