Quito, Ecuador - Headaches and Freezing
Trip Start
Apr 05, 2008
1
61
102
Trip End
Mar 20, 2009
Quito,
Ecuador
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The hotel offers a free city tour so we set out the next morning on that. The first thing we noticed on exiting the hotel was large queues of people, literally going round the block and down the road. Danny explained that they are all queuing for the Spanish embassy in order to try and obtain work visas for Spain. They feel that they will have a better quality of life in Spain and many already have family members out there waiting for them. The city tour was a great way to get a feel for the city and to see the Old Town and the Virgin of Quito, an impressive statue which looms high over the city from the South.
View from Panecillo of the Old town and around
Up by the virgin also affords incredible views over the city. Quito is a UNESCO heritage site and as such is the best preserved Old Town in South America. It's lined with colonial buildings from the Spanish and Independence eras. Sadly no Inca buildings still exist as the Incas destroyed them all when the Spanish conquered them. The stones from their ruins have been used in some of the buildings standing today, such as the Presidential building. We left the tour in the Old Town so we could mooch of our own accord. Sightseeing didn't last too long though as I was plagued with a headache and felt breathless and lethargic, a sure sign that I needed some time to adapt to altitude. Gareth was fine but then he did say that his body was probably used to not using much oxygen. We visited a couple of the churches on Garcia Morena or the street of the seven crosses (it's former name). The first was the La Compania the cities finest church for reasons which become apparent as soon as you enter. The entire church is covered in 23 carat gold lamina, from the gold gilded door as you enter, to the walls, ceiling and altar. It apparently is covered in 70 tonnes of gold and it's other gold treasures which used to be housed here are now in a bank vault. This church is a work of art both inside and out. The exterior which is adorned in the most elaborate detail took 40 years to complete, 160 years to finish the church in it's entirety. El Sagrario was the other church we visited, not as impressive but still the inside was finished in gold.
Virgin de Quito on Panecillo
The technique is a mix of gold paint and real gold. We spent some time watching some sort of demonstration at the Plaza Grande aka Plaza la Independicia, something political but my Spanish definitely doesn't cover politics. We set off up the hill to the Basilica which took over 100 years to build and sadly was never finished. Apparently there are only three churches in the world in this style, Notre Dam and one in Spain. The difference being that instead of the Basilica being adorned with gargoyles it's features are of animals and mammals found in the Galapagos Islands. We headed back to the new town to see if we could sort out a sailing trip round the Galapagos and then I promptly faded for what was left of the day. A very late start followed, let's just say we missed breakfast and it was more than time for lunch. Still plagued with a headache and tiredness even after over 12 hours sleep we kept it all pretty low key. I felt like an old wheezing lady walking round. We walked to a nearby supermarket which had the most amazing fruit, so fresh and sweet and kept some locals in business as they shined Gareth's shoes. We went off to a mall, Quicentro, in search yet again of rain covers for our packs. Didn't achieve that but found an uber cheap place for lunch, drooled over some shoes and GT had a much needed haircut. That's about all I could cope with for the day. I'm sure some retail therapy would have cured my headache ;-).
