After saying goodbye to our dear sweet Gringa in Santiago, we flew up to Quito, Ecuador. Our first impressions of Quito were excellent. I didn’t really know what to expect, but in our opinion it was one of the best examples of well-preserved colonial architecture in South America. Lots of cool little cobblestone streets, beautiful old churches and the classic Spanish balconies everywhere.
A view across the city with El Voto Catedral rising up on the edge of Old Town. I didn’t realize this, but UNESCO named their first 12 sites to their World Heritage List in 1978 and Quito City was on their list.
Quito gets its name from the Quitus people that inhabited the area before the Spaniards came. The Spaniards built this city in the 16th Century on the ruins of an Incan city.
In case you wanted to know the other 11: (2 from Canada made the list!)
1) L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Park, Canada
2) Nahanni National Park, Canada
3) Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
4) Simien National Park, Ethiopia
5) Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela, Ethiopia
6) Aachen Cathedral, Germany
7) Krakow's historic center, Poland
8) Wieliczka and Bochnia Salt Mines, Poland
9) Island of Goree, Senegal
10) Mesa Verde National Park, United States
11) Yellowstone National Park, United States
I won’t lie, the list is a little eclectic to me, but maybe at the time these were the 12 places that UNESCO wanted to highlight and preserve. It’s a big deal once you make the list, and all future development in the area has to be in the same historical style of the site.
Checking out the fruit market while one a city tour. So many wonderful fruits I had never heard of before. They have one here- mora- that is like a blackberry and it’s fabulous.
Also, Ecuador is a huge flower exporter. Their location right on the equator means the roses spend more time directly under the sun, so they just grow straight up and make strong stems. A dozen roses will cost about 1.50 USD here.
Iglesia San Francisco, built on the ruins of an Incan temple (that the Spaniards had demolished).
The interior of the church. Lots of paintings from the Quito school.
La Virgin del Quito can be seen in the distance on top of El Panecillo Hill. She is a metal statue of a virgen, depicted from the book of Revelations. When the world is ending she will save mankind. How handy.
The next morning we headed to El Voto Catedral, to get an up close look at this Neo-Gothic masterpiece. It reminded me a lot of Norte Dame cathedral in Paris.
We had climbed up inside the guts of the church for a great view from the top.
Here is the inside of the church, isn’t it grand?
Can you see how Jared has no shadow? Around the equinox the sun courses directly over the Earth, and since we were on the Equator, the sun casts virtually no shadow.
What’s even cooler is that the Quitucara people of this region had figured out they were in a more direct line with the sun than other places to the north or south. They had tracked the sun’s path all year for multiple years from multiple locations, and it led them to designate Quito as the ‘centre of the sun.’ Since the sun was the central deity for so many Pre-Colombian societies, it made this a very special place. The Incans came here and established a temple as well.
Colourful, narrow streets of Quito
Here we are inside La Compania de Jesus, an extremely golden church. The entire interior was carved wood in the Baroque style and then painted over with gold. It took 165 years to build and wasn’t completed until 1765. Even today, restoration work is ongoing.
Appreciating the view from El Panecillo Hill.
We had climbed up inside the hollow monument of the Virgen, getting a great view over Old Town.
The funny thing is, I said to Jared before we got to Quito that I was kind of over churches. And then there were all these amazing churches so I had to eat my words and go inside all of them!
The Quito blog would not be complete without at least one picture of us researching our trip to the Galapagos. With all the different islands (with multiple names), and all the sites to visit on each island, plus the fact there are a zillion boats to compare- it made for a rather involved process. Way more research than we usually do! However, as you will see in future blogs, the Galapagos was a ‘totally worth it’ kind of project.
La Ronda- a neighbourhood famous for music, and at night turns into a fun free-for-all of live music, restaurants, vendors and hot boozy drinks. I got a steaming cup of cazuelo- which I just tried googling to get the ingredients but was unsuccessful. Some white liquor, cinnamon, cloves, other spices. Kind of a mulled wine idea but with hard alcohol.
We also made a day trip out to the Mitad del Mundo (literally translates to half of the world). This is where the equator runs through the globe. Technically it’s off by 400 m, and technically the equator is 5 km wide (really have no idea why that is)- but hey- here we are!
Where North meets South
Overall, had a fantastic time in Quito, and the people have been really nice. Next stop is a couple places to the south- Cotopaxi and Quilotoa.
Until Next Time!
