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Previous: Quito
The old city of Quito was built by the Spanish conquistadores on the ruins of the Inca empire's northern capital which was razed to the ground in 1534 by the retreating Inca general Rumiñahui. Before the Inca hegemony, the city site, a narrow valley sheltered between two mountain ranges, was occupied for centuries by the Shiri nation who had absorbed the earlier Quitu whose name lives on to this day. It is a very old site, stone age tools dated to 9 000 BC have been found here.
The huge statue of the Virgin of Quito built on a hill called El Panecillo can be seen at the southern end of Venezuela street, one of the longest of the old city. From the Panecillo can be seen the historic battlefield where Mariscal Sucre defeated the Spaniards in the decisive battle of independence in 1822 on the flanks of volcan Pichincha to the west. Ecuador's currency is named after this great general.
Going up this steep hill in the other direction on calle Venezuela brings us to the great Basilica whose construction has been ongoing since 1926. Calle Venezuela is a busy thoroughfare, I had to wait a while to get a clear shot.
Independence Square marks the center of colonial Quito. The inevitable Cathedral just behind me was undergoing repairs but I did get a shot of the Palacio del Gobierno on the north-west side of the plaza.
This colonnaded building on the north-east side of Independence Square, in front of the Cathedral, used to be the Archbishop's Palace. It is now occupied by shops for tourists.
The Galapagos School was efficient and it provided me with a fine apartment at a reasonable price but I after two weeks I changed to this school which had a multilingual teacher who could show me the subtleties of the subjunctive tense better in French, which uses that tense a lot, than in English which practically does not. I met the owner, Anibal Proaño, I helped him upgrade his computer and he helped me with the Spanish version of this site. As a matter of fact he has done most of the translation of my 1996 trip around the world.
Having dinner with Anibal and his wife Nora. Anibal is a gifted chap getting ahead the hard way in a country where connections are important. After a stint as a popular singer he opened an information center and school of Spanish for tourists.
I came back to Quito after my Amazonian adventure in time to see the Catholic procession re-enacting the torment of Christ on Good Friday. At least 30 "Christs" like this one labored under heavy crosses and were whipped by roman soldiers like this one as they proceeded towards the Basilica along Venezuela street on the south-east side of Independence Square
Each of the tormented "Christs" were followed by a retinue of these "penitents" some of them whipping their own backs or those of the others before them. To me, these scenes appeared rather morbid and reminded me of Tibetans doing the Korlam ritual. (a series of 800 "Klangchag" complete prostrations along Barkor road surrounding the most holy Jokhang Temple in Lhasa)
I really like Quito for Quito was good for me. I had the good fortune to meet Fernando Moncayo and his lovely family shown here. From left to right, Ana Cristina 12, Fernando, Miguel Ignacio 8, Juan Fernando 16, Dalila Moncayo and, ever the same, myself.
I realized that the intense love flowing between members of that family was largely based on their passionately held common religious beliefs. I, the sceptic, was impressed and once more made jealous of those for whom absolute truths exist.
Just before returning to Montreal I spent a most pleasant evening with Fernando and his loving family. After dinner, the two younger children, Ana Cristina and Miguel Ignacio, decided to give me an exhibition of traditional Ecuadoriandances. It was absolutely delightful.
