Una semana en Quito
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2004
1
11
82
Trip End
May 06, 2005
Quito,
Ecuador
Friday, October 1, 2004
I am learning to refer to Spanish as Castellaņo, the Spanish still aren't exactly top of the favourite foreigners list. Ralph, an American, related the lovely story of a time when he was asked where he was from. Having a sense of humour, he answered 'The worst country in the world', and got the reply 'Oh, Spain?' !!!
After my 4 hours of Castellaņo in the morning, for most of the afternoons I went on the school's 'Quito Cultural' activities, which were visits to various parts of Quito, with the bonus of additional conversation with a real life Ecuadorian. We tried new (to me) fruits and other bits of typical Ecuadorian food; went to the Sipan exhibition (copies), which made me wish I had gone to the real thing in Peru - another time; saw the World Press Photo 2004 exhibition, which was good as I had missed it in London.
01 Ralph, Luzmila and me; Spanish school
One of the photos was of a 14 year old who was so obese that he had to be on a ventilator or he might stop breathing when he fell asleep - not a problem that many Ecuadorians face, and it was interesting to see their reactions, as well as those to the series on rubber fetishists!Grammatical pause whilst I consider what to do with my semi-colons after all those extra sentences.
;;;
who knows??
On Friday we went to the Basilica, where you can climb to the top of a couple of the towers if you have a head for heights. The views of old and new towns and the Panecillo were great. (NB If visiting a tourist site in Ecuador it can be worth asking for a guide, often they're included, they usually know their stuff, sometimes they speak English, and if not it's good for your Spanish.)
On Wednesday I went with Ralph to a jail to visit foreign prisoners held there. To enter we had to take our passports and give the name of the prisoner we were visiting, then have our arms stamped, important for exiting later. The South American Explorer's Club gives a list of items that are expensive to purchase inside that can be taken as gifts, and I bought washing powder and sugar. As I was searched I did ponder the wisdom of choosing to take bags of white powder into a prison where a large proportion of people are held for drug smuggling. They obviously decided I wouldn't have the bare faced cheek and let me through. It's not like there aren't drugs in the prison, it's just that the guards like to be involved to supplement their income.
As soon as we entered there were people asking for money or the gifts we were carrying.
02 Market building and section of old town
Life is only as comfortable as the prisoner can afford. All living expenses need to be paid for: food, laundry, the lot. They are free to set up businesses to earn extra income, and there are hairdressers, beauty salons, snack bars etc.The noise and chaos were incredible. From 6am to 6pm all prisoners are free to wander in the central areas and all the visitors are looking for their friend or relative. The prisoners have keys to the wings they are in and their rooms, so that only the inhabitants of that wing (about 10 or so rooms with a kitchen/shower area at the end) can enter.
Ralph had been before so was spotted by one of the people he had visited already, and we sat down on the stairs to chat. There is no official visiting area so people are constantly going past. A guard sits at the top of the stairs to stop visitors entering the wings, but she let us go past anyway to have a look at the rooms. The guards earn the minimum wage of around $120 a month, so are susceptible to bribes to let husbands and boyfriends into rooms resulting in large numbers of pregnancies. The children often live in the prison with the mothers, if there is no-one else to look after them. There are no school facilities and as far as I could make out they only leave when the mothers finish their sentences.
The cells I saw each had two beds in, and 2 or 3 lived there. However, in the poorer parts of the prison there can be 8 to a room, including children. The prisoners have to make their beds when they arrive, and I mean construct.
Nuns visit frequently and help a lot in delivering incoming and outgoing mail as well as buying things on behalf of the prisoners.
As we left we were warned to check our bags carefully before leaving the country and not to carry anything for anyone under any circumstances. I almost didn't leave at all as one of the guards was doubtful that I was the person in my passport, the photo dating from my period of very short hair a couple of years back.
