SUNDAY, JUNE 24, 2018
QUITO, ECUADOR: SIGHTSEEING TOUR OF THE CITY
Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny as we met in the hotel lobby after a great night’s sleep in a very comfortable room. The World Cup football matches were playing on a giant screen in the hotel lobby. A grand breakfast buffet was laid out for just $10 each, but we simply did not have the time to linger as we had so much to see. We placed our bags in the hotel storage room and told the receptionist to call a taxi for us. When it arrived, ten minutes later, we discovered that we had a fabulous driver who was impeccably dressed in a starched shirt, a tie and a black pair of shoes in which you could see his reflection.
Sightseeing in Quito’s Historic District:
If we had thought Lima was impressive as the capital city of a Latin American country, then Quito was just spectacular. It is ringed by the rising Andes Mountains so that it seems to sit in a sheltered valley under smiling skies. As we headed to the city, our taxi driver who spoke very limited English, asked us where we wished to go. When we told him that we wished to do a self-guided walking tour of the city, he decided to put us on the phone to his friend who spoke perfect English and was a tour guide himself. He made a deal with us that he would take us first to the Basilica and then drive us to the main plaza where we would park his car and lead us on a walking tour. After an early lunch, he would take us to the place called Cuidad Mitad del Mundo—literally the ‘navel of the world.’ This was, in fact, the very spot through which the equator passes. It made a lot of sense, since we had come to Ecuador, to actually stand astride the Equator—just as we had done astride the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, astride the Rose Line at St. Suplice Church in Paris, and astride the Meridian Line as I would do in the Basilica of San Petronius in Bologna in Italy. It was very exciting indeed!
Quito’s Basilica is simply awesome. It is a gigantic Gothic structure whose twin spires can be seen from every corner of the city. Outside and ringing it, gargoyles representing tortoises and pumas can be seen. Inside, the towering proportions of the nave dwarf every human visitor. Like all Gothic structures, it boasts fan vaulting on the ceiling, solid granite pillars, stunning stained glass windows and an ornate altar. We encircled the interior of the church and, half an hour later, rejoined our driver, who then drove us to a parking lot in the city where he parked his car.
Just outside was a small café and, as we had not eaten breakfast, we settled down with coffee and pastries to take care of serious hunger pangs. Then began our walking tour of the capital of Ecuador. Everywhere we went, we could see groups of tourists being led by guides for walking tours are very popular in the historic center.
Going past a short side street we arrived at the Plaza de la Independencia which is similar to the one we had seen in Lima. It is a quadrangle filled with a green central garden and cornered on four sides by a Cathedral, a Presidential Palace, a series of colonnaded shops and a church. In the center is the Independence Monument, an obelisk with a huge sculpted lion at its base that represents Spain, the country that colonized Latin America and brought its language and legacy to bear upon the people forever. After taking a few pictures, we moved towards the main church with its huge green tiled domes. Mass was going on in every church (which explains why the city tour is not given on Sunday mornings) and it was only very discreetly that we could enter them and take in the stupendous sights that awaited us.
We moved from this church to yet another plaza that was fronted by the twin-spired St. Francis Cathedral which was easily the most ornate church I have ever seen. Thanks to the influence of the Moors who had conquered Spain and left their mark upon its architecture, Spaniard architects included Moorish motifs, emblems and iconography into the interior decoration of the churches they built in the New World and lavished gilding upon them. We could only gasp at these sights.
Leaving the plaza of St. Francis behind us, we made our way to the Plaza of St. Dominic where yet another church boasted interior grandeur. These plazas are punctuated by central sculpture in the form of equestrian figures that proclaim the glory of the erstwhile Spanish colonial conquest and imperial rule over Latin America. These parts of the city are perfectly preserved for they are UNESCO sites and attract a vast number of visitors.
A Climb up Panecillo to see The Virgin of Quito:
Our next excursion by car took us up a mountain, at an elevation of 10,000 feet. Leaving the city precincts behind, we climbed higher and higher. As our car wound along the snaking roads, we stopped to take pictures of the magnificent landmark churches we had just toured.
At the top, we were completely struck by the vast dimensions of the statue of Our Lady of Quito who has towered on her pedestal in aluminum for over 40 years. Indeed, she truly is a landmark for tour buses surrounded the base of the statue and many tourists could be seen posing for pictures.
The unusually winged virgin in the handiwork of the sculpture Augustin de la Herran Matoras. It is only when one is just a few meters away from her that you realize how huge she is. In keeping with the tradition of huge religious icons overlooking the major cities of Latin America (such as Christo Redempto—Christ the Redeemer—at Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil), this statue too can be spotted from both vantage points in the city as it continues to regulate Christian faith in Quito. After spending about a half hour at this venue, we moved on to the next item on our agenda—A visit to the Equator.
Off to see the Equator:
We would have loved to have lingered longer in Quito’s Spanish Quarter, but with time limitations in mind, we returned to our car. Our driver then began the 45 minute drive that took us way out of the city limits to the place that is known as Cuidad Mitad del Mundo. It was nice to see how much Quito reminded us of Bombay once you left the historic district behind. It resembled any other former Third World country anywhere else in the world.
Arriving at our destination, we spied the large monument that marks Equatorial Quito. However, our guide had rightly directed us to a museum in the precincts of the monument where, he assured us, the equator actually runs and where you can stand astride it. The Museum is known as the Itinan Museum and it turned out to be all about Latin America’s lesser-known communities. There were vignettes of the tribes that created the Shrunken Heads (that I had first seen at the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford, UK) and several items from remote parts of the world such as the Easter Island heads (of which one original is in the British Museum in London). As we moved from one part of the beautifully landscaped gardens, our guide prepared us for the treat that lay in store—an opportunity to see the equator and to stand astride it. She also showed us, through varied practical experiments, how the direction of water going down a drain hole in influenced by whether one is in the northern or southern hemisphere. Naturally, we all stood astride the equator and had our pictures taken there. It was a deeply fulfilling experience.
Our lunch was rather a slap dash affair with me buying chocolate cake and a Chico moraya or local fruit punch from the café at the museum and eating it in lieu of lunch.
Finally, just before we left this part of Quito behind us, we stopped at the great granite monument that marks the equator to take pictures with all the other tourists who congregate here for exactly the same reason.
Our driver then began the 45 minute drive back to our hotel where we told him we wished to arrive no later than 3pm. On the dot of 3.00 pm, we were in the lobby, retrieving our bags and stashing them in the trunk of his car for our return drive to Quito airport for our home bound flight—Chriselle to Los Angeles and the rest of us to New York. We thanked our driver profusely for giving us such a fantastic tour of his capital and for keeping his word and dropping us to the airport on time.
We spent the last hour of our time, after check-in, with Chriselle, having an early dinner with her at Johnny Rockets! At the airport where we ordered hamburgers and Cokes to prepare ourselves for our return Stateside! It was with difficulty that we said goodbye to her at the end of what had proven to be a terrific family trip in which we created marvelous memories on which we would draw for a very long time to come.
When the time to board our plane drew hear, we hugged and kissed Chriselle and walked to our gates. It was a red eye flight that left Quito at 6.00 pm. to drop us to JFK at 3.30 am.
Until manana, adios…
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