9/27: Quito: Even a Mugging Doesn't Slow Us Down!

We left our small hotel in the colonial town of Villa de Leyva yesterday morning before breakfast was served in order to get the first bus for the almost five-hour ride back to Bogota and then an hour-long taxi ride to the airport for our flight to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. We were concerned that we might be close to missing our flight because of a traffic accident on the way. As it turned out, we needn’t have missed breakfast and we could have been lazy louts all day as, after waiting at the airport for several hours, our Avianca Airlines flight to Quito was postponed because of mechanical difficulties.

Only much later did we learn that it was actually cancelled altogether and we’d be staying another night in Bogota. We understand mechanical issues can arise through presumably no fault of the airline but the frustration we had was absolutely NO announcements from any airline employee as to what was going on throughout the process. We only surmised something was amiss when we saw the Spanish-speaking passengers talking to the gate attendants and then followed them in line. At the very least, I would have expected an apology for the inconvenience for the change in travel plans but one was never made.

Oh well, at least the hotel had some nice smelling mini bottles of shampoo even if no sample sized deodorant or toothbrushes, etc. We felt pretty grotty by the time we arrived in Quito, dumped our bags in the hotel and left almost immediately to discover the city in the same clothes we’d put on yesterday in Villa de Leyva. We only had a brief time before our rescheduled free walking tour of the city. An intriguing doorway on our walk to El Centro Historico of Quito:

 Seeing salespeople from many ice cream shops selling already made ice cream cones was our first indication what an ice-cream loving people Ecuadorians are!

We made a beeline for Plaza Grande also known as Plaza de la Independencia which was first laid out with a string and a ruler in 1534. The square, surrounded by the city's most important civic and religious buildings, has always been the city's focus. The Catedral Metropolitana is with its gleaming white walls took up one whole side of the Plaza. More on it in a bit.

Across the square from the cathedral was the Palacio Arzobispal or Archbishop's Palace, a grand and dazzling white neoclassical building, which was comprised of a string of shops and restaurants.

Commanding the most important location on the central square was the Palacio de Gobierno or Presidential Palace, situated in between the Cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace. More on it in a bit. 

There was a line painted on the pavement that the protesters couldn't step beyond in front of the Presidential Palace.

We paid for a tour of the Cathedral as we wanted to climb the steps to the top that we’d read about.

The passageway felt more like a crawl space as we made our way toward the stairs that led to the top!

We'e been in small, confined spaces before but these stairs stand right up there as being very challenging.

Once we had thankfully climbed to the top, our guide pointed out some of the landmarks surrounding the church. The first were the nine domes belonging to the Cathedral.

The huge statue of La Virgen de Quito, known locally as El Panecillo or Little Bread Loaf because of the shape of the mountain. More on it in a future post, I promise you!

People said that when there were drunks in Independence Square below, the cock would beat them!

In the distance was Basílica del Voto Nacional or the Basilica of the National Vow, the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas and another building you'll find about in a later post.

I loved seeing the city and the square from a bird's point of view; on the left was the Presidential Palace and on the right, the Archbishop's Palace.

Ecuador's flag was identical to Colombia's except for the added crest in the middle.

I was so thankful no other group was also trying to come up at the same time we were going down as that would have been a very tight fit!

Our engaging tour guide with the small door to the roof behind him:

We then toured the church by ourselves. Initially built in the 1560s, the present building was from the second half of the 17th century. 

This massive room looked more like an executive boardroom than one belonging in the capital's Cathedral.

Its Baroque interior contained the remains of historical figures such as the independence hero Field Marshal Jose de Sucre and two presidents. 

We’d never been in a church where we were the only ones there. We saw no security or personnel anywhere but knew the tour guides were out the side door. It was wonderful having such peace and to be able to appreciate its serenity privately.

Also wonderful was the freedom and luxury of taking pictures without worrying someone was going to tell me in a stern voice, photos weren’t allowed. I seem to recall that happening more than once or twice!

We had seen the cathedral's domes from up top; now it was our chance to marvel at chapel after chapel each with its own lovely dome.

Because of the scaffolding covering much of the altar, we couldn't see it as clearly as we'd have liked. It was a bit of a shock to read that a sensational murder took place at the Cathedral during Good Friday Mass of 1877 when the Bishop of Quito was poisoned with strychnine dissolved in the holy wine!

Through each of the doorways was a chapel, each with its own spectacular dome.

Around the corner and adjoining the Cathedral was El Sagrario, a 17th century church topped by a pale blue dome. But first we stopped at the kiosk by the Presidential Palace to reserve tickets for the free tour at 6, following our walking tour.

I wondered why there were quite a few people there and not in the Cathedral. People were praying in unison out loud together.

I wish this post could also include sound effects as these were the LOUDEST and CREAKIEST floors ever! Nobody could slink into Mass a few minutes here late without other people knowing about it, that was for sure!

The underside of the main dome was covered with swirling multicolored frescoes.

Its colorful Baroque interior had turquoise walls embellished with bright geometric designs and stone pillars painted dark coral.

We still had time to visit one more church in the historical part of town before having to beetle over to another area for the walking tour. Just up the street was La Compañía, the most opulent of a string of churches on a street known as the ‘Street of Seven Crosses’ after the large stone crucifixes lining the route. The church was built by Jesuits using slave labor between 1605 and 1765 and completed just two years before Spain expelled the order from South America. 

The extraordinary Baroque facade was made of carved volcanic stone and piled high with twisted columns, sacred hearts, cherubs, angels and saints.

Inside, any thoughts of restraint vanished amid the wild extravagance of gold leaf: a reputed seven tons of it covered the altars, galleries and pulpit!

The building was beautifully restored after a fire in 1996; only the smoke-blackened face of angel, peering down from the inner circle of the cupola, was deliberately left uncleaned.

Unlike the other Quito churches, people had to be admitted one by one through an outside gate and then pay $5 each to visit the church. That privilege didn’t even include being able to take photos. Oops.

I admit to loving gold as much as, or even more so, than the next woman but I found the sheer volume of gold in a place of religious worship like La Compañía to be ostentatious and in questionable taste. 

We’d have loved to spend more time in the exquisite church but we knew we had to walk a number of blocks to the San Blas area to meet our free walking tour. As we left the historical core of the city, the streets got a little sketchier but not alarmingly so in our opinion. Remember, we’ve traveled over a large part of this world so we thought we were pretty savvy and attentive about our surroundings.

However, nothing prepared me when we were all of one building away from the hostel where the tour was to begin in a few minutes at 2 and a man came up out of seemingly nowhere and tightly clamped his hands over both my ears and yanked my small gold hoop earrings out with extreme force. Steven was several feet away from me when it happened and I was too shocked to yell out and ask for help. In the man’s haste to run away, he shoved an older man onto the ground. He, fortunately, was only shaken up. Almost immediately, several Ecuadorians came to my assistance and asked how I was as they must have seen the attack or mugging. We could all see the man running quickly to the next corner until he was out of sight but we were too slow on our feet to think of going after him. I was so touched when the people apologized on behalf of their fellow Ecuadorians that this had happened to me. They uniformly warned me that it wasn’t safe for even locals to wear ANY gold jewelry anywhere in South America, except in the safety of one’s home.

The so-called 'scene of the crime,' i.e. I was standing on the sidewalk where this person was in the photo and the tour began just two doors down by the open doorway.

I was very lucky that my ears didn’t get torn or suffer anything worse than being extremely painful and sensitive to any touch for the last ten days. I was pretty shaken up by the experience as you can well imagine and both Steven and I are even more aware of our surroundings now than before, often turning around as we’re walking to check whether anyone is following us or getting too close. Just yesterday, when a man accidentally bumped into me in the street in Guayaquil, I could feel myself tense up and jerk away. Steven suspects the man had probably followed us for a bit having noticed my gold earrings and took advantage of the situation when I was standing by myself on the corner with Steven several feet away and thus unable to help.

On the bright side, once the swelling in my ears had gone down several days later, I bought some pretty silver earrings and a ring to wear for the rest of the trip. After all, a woman has to have her jewelry, doesn’t she!

We’d come to the area for the walking tour so decided to stick with ‘the plan’ even though I felt very vulnerable. It was a good way to take my mind off what had just happened. Our guide, Fernando, a fourth generation Quiteño, said he'd been a guide for 20 years. He joked that we weren't necessarily out of shape as we walked around the city as it was the city's high altitude at almost 9200 feet causing us difficulty to breathe. Phew - it was reassuring knowing that because I never remember needing to gulp water so often as when we'd been walking in the historical area just previously.

He continued the tour at the nearby indoor market.

I loved Fernando's analogy of the relationship between cars and pedestrians and drivers in Quito: it was like an old marriage in that you have no idea how it works but somehow it does! However, he warned us not to expect courtesy from any driver and to use our common sense each time we crossed the street.

Religion & Ethnic Makeup: Fernando mentioned that about 90% of the country's population is Catholic but that number is on the decline with more people identifying as Protestant. He added that 70% of the population are mestizos or people of mixed race, especially the offspring of a Spaniard and an American Indian.The others are mostly members of 16 indigenous communities. He added that there were some blacks in Ecuador who came from Jamaica as well slaves who were captured and brought to South America.

Food in Quito: Fernando indicated that the main meal of the main meal of the day was lunch which was eaten between 12:30 and 2:30 and added that quiteños used to go home for lunch so they could be with their family. When that became no longer practical, workers could buy an inexpensive full meal or menu del dia, i.e. meal of the day for a little more than a few bucks. It was comprised of soup, an protein with rice and vegetables, freshly squeezed juice and a small dessert.

There were lots of choices where to grab a bite in this market.

He stopped at this market stand, also on the second floor of the building, for a long time to introduce some native fruits.

These were tree tomatoes but not a tomato at all! A delicious juice was made from the fruit as I could attest when we had some in Cuenca about a week later.

I bought some of these huge black berries, not blackberries, later from this woman's stall - wow, were they ever sour!

This rather ugly fruit went by the lovely name of passion fruit or granadilla in Spanish. Most of us tried the fruit but I didn't care for it too much.

This spiky fruit was great if you were constipated!

Huge papayas, a fruit I came to really like in Colombia:

Fernando laughingly said women in Ecuador don't want roses as a sign of love because they know how very cheap they are! However, roses from Ecuador are very famous because of their unusually long stems and because their scent remains for two weeks.

We hadn't known that Ecuador was one of the top five destinations for expats because the cost of living was low and foreigners received the same benefits in terms of free health care and education through university as the citizens. 

I imagine that one of my most enduring images from Ecuador will be string bags of oranges sold like this. 

As we walked along toward Centro Historico and Teatro Plaza, Fernando, on the right below, described the Spaniards who conquered Ecuador between 1524 and 1832 were only the most recent invaders. Ecuador was conquered by the Incas for 2,000 years before that. 

The majority of the architecture in the historical area of Quito was neoclassical. Quit's historical area and Krakow, Poland, were named the first World Heritage Sites in the world in 1978.

Another dancing marionette caught my eye in front of the Teatro but not my attention for long as it wasn't nearly as good as the one in Bogota!

As we continued our walk to the downtown core, Fernando mentioned that Ecuador is anything but flat; that was why we needed the big landmarks to know where we were in the city.

Our first stop in Independence Square was the Archbishop's Palace, now mostly containing small shops as the church didn't need to use the entire huge building.

The elegant interior space was called the Patio del Luz or Courtyard of Light and contained some very upscale boutiques. Most of the tables were occupied by groups of men enjoying a mid afternoon chin wag and coffee.

I can’t remember when we last came across so many well-dressed and dapper older men.

I was so disappointed this photo was blurry as this debonair man caught my eye.

Next to the Palace was a snazzy boutique hotel as the church only needed a small part of that space. Rooms in the hotel could be had for $500-$600 a night – just a tad more than we were paying!

Palacio Muncipal or City Hall was the remaining building on the square. Built between 1968 and 1973, it was controversial because of its modern design. However, it seemed to blend in well with the square’s colonial buildings because of its horizontal design, tiled roof and white-painted walls.

Fernando commented that the residents of Quito had easier and cheaper access to alcohol compared to cigarettes so kids start drinking young.

In 1909, a monument was built in Independence Square to celebrate the city’s centenary of their first move toward Independence which was achieved in 1822. It honored the heroes who fought in the war for Independence. 

Fernando told us that all the mountains surrounding Quito were volcanoes and that of the 300 in the country, four were still active ones.

Guards at the Presidential Palace surprisingly allowed Fernando to take the six of us onto the Palace balcony with no examination of any of our belongings. The two most recent presidents haven’t lived in the Presidential Palace because of safety concerns. In fact, Dictator Gabriel Garcia Moreno was killed by machete there in 1875. 

Fernando stated that the current President, Lenin Moreno, attended the weekly Changing of the Guard on Mondays at 11 about 95% of the time. That would have been interesting to see if we’d still been in the capital by then.

We were however, fortunate to be on the balcony to catch the last guard change of the day.

Across from the Palace was the Cultural Center, a former university run by the Jesuits which had been transformed into a library and a contemporary arts center. A controversy arose very recently when an exhibit on Feminism included a very provocative painting. 

That touched some very raw nerves so the entire exhibit was closed showing the power still of the Catholic church. It was reopened when arrangements were made that the particular painting could only be seen by appointment so ‘as not to offend people.’

In just ten blocks from where we were standing were seven churches! The Jesuits were the most powerful and influential religious order in the city. People who wish to be in power in Ecuador must still be seen as strongly Catholic but that was lessening, according to Fernando. Not long ago, people who weren’t Catholic weren’t considered to be Ecuadorian.

All streets in the downtown historical area only had two street names: one, green and white and the other, comprised of tiles.

Next to the church was an opulent neoclassical building, the country’s former Central Bank. Ironically for a country that dropped its currency, it now housed the Numismatic Museum, including pre-Colombian spondylus shells like those we’d seen in Bogota’s Museo del Oro. Fernando used this opportunity to talk in some depth about the many economic problems faced by Ecuador. In 1875, the country was famous for its cacao or chocolate exports and developed a strong economy as a result. So much money poured into the country because cacao was worth as much as gold! However, a small insect infected the plants in the country’s lowlands and the economy was devastated. The option was to devalue the money and print more of it. Bananas became the next very valuable crop but a plague later killed all the plants. Once again, the government resorted to the same solution of devaluing the money and printing more of it.

The next product was oil which the country has a good supply of. When oil prices are high on the world markets, Ecuador’s economy thrives. When they are low like now, issues arise because the country is in a recession and the country’s budget has to be adjusted.

In 1999, two of the biggest banks in Ecuador collapsed and people believed the other banks would soon too so they converted all their money to USD. Hyperinflation ensued so the President froze all the money in the banks for two weeks. Mass unrest followed the president’s decision as people couldn’t pay their bills, buy food, medicines, etc. He said that officially one million people left Ecuador during the country’s financial crisis beginning in 1999 but a further one million left illegally for Spain, Italy and the US in that order. Ironically,that helped the people back home because those living and working abroad sent USD back. He added that recently, people from Cuba and Venezuela were immigrating to Ecuador in far greater numbers because of economic issues and political unrest in their homelands. 

Once the country adopted the USD as the currency in 1999, the political unrest and economic chaos stabilized. Before the USD was adopted, there were ten presidents in eight years compared to just one in the last ten years. 

Our last stop on the tour was the monumental Iglesia y Monasterio de San Francisco Plaza because we had to be back at the Presidential Palace for our 6pm tour. The vast, cobblestone Plaza San Francisco was supposed to have been one of Quito’s most beautiful squares but there was so much construction going on, that it was difficult to appreciate.

From the square, a broad flight of stone steps led up to the front entrance of the church, whose construction began in 1536 shortly after the founding of Quito. Hidden by the twin bell towers and carved-stone entrance was the largest religious complex in South America with extensive buildings and seven courtyards!

The main altar filled a large domed area and was adorned by a a famous winged carving of the Virgen of Quito, which inspired the giant statue on El Panecillo that I included a picture of earlier from atop the Cathedral.

The central nave featured a spectacular mudejar or Moorish-styled ceiling and a row of 36 painted, wooden carvings of Franciscan martyrs on the walls.

At the beginning of the Presidential Palace tour, we learned that we wouldn’t be able to see very much of it as there was a large reception taking place that evening. Our guide was able to speak passable English which was a big help as we toured the new exhibits that were opened only this past May and described the story of Ecuador’s 187 years as a republic.

Lights, camera action: The press getting ready for the reception.

Gifts to the president of Ecuador:

This was my favorite:

There were all sorts of exhibits chronicling the country's history, development of products, etc - all well and good but not what we'd come to see in the Presidential Palace.

An image of the 1906 President created in cocoa leaves:

A gold orchid, a common flower in the country:

I learned that tiny Ecuador, the smallest country in S.A., produces 30% of the world’s bananas. This was a representation of the animals in danger of becoming extinct in Ecuador: tortoise, deer, the condor, etc.

Posters represented the political unrest that had been so common.

The devil  represented religious oppression. 

The chair was made from sucre coins, the former currency of Ecuador until 1999. Somebody sure had lots of time on their hands to make the chair! and must have robbed lots of piggy banks, too!

Photos and paintings of the 151 presidents in 200 years of the country’s history:

Too bad we had to scurry past these public areas of the Palace because of the reception.

Our guide proudly stated that Rafael Correra, the former Socialist President, was the only one to leave for the people the gifts he’d received while being leader. Correa believed the 11,533 gifts he received, worth about $2.5 million dollars, belonged to the people. When I asked the guide what gift Ecuador gives to world leaders, he stated it was Ecuadorian hats. You know them as Panama hats but that’s a story for another post!

A beautiful gift from Colombia:

We liked seeing this gift from Qatar to Ecuador because we visited the country on last fall's trip.

Gloria, my dear: I was going to translate this but I thought you'd prefer reading it in your native tongue.

When we left the Palace, we ran into Geri, a woman from Manila traveling by herself for six months who had been one of just six people on our walking tour. When she joined us for dinner at one of the restaurants in the Archbishop’s Palace, she mentioned she had been teaching English for three months in Morocco, a country we hope to visit next fall.

What a day this turned out to be: waking up in Bogota in our clothes from yesterday after our cancelled flight, dumping our things quickly at our hotel in Quito, touring some fabulous churches, getting attacked, enjoying a walking tour of the capital and finally what was supposed to have been a tour of the Presidential Palace. Some of that 'excitement' I could have done without, mind you...

Next post: A trip to the middle of the world!

Posted on October 8th, 2017, from Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, Ecuador.