Being tourists in Quito

For the last three days we've been guests of two wonderful Ecuadorian families. We met both Ale and Marina when they spent time in Canada as agricultural students a few years ago. They invited us to visit them in Ecuador – 'so that we can show you our beautiful country, the “Middle of the World” ', and they are part of the reason we chose Ecuador as our travel destination this year.

Ale's family has welcomed us into their spacious home in the 'Los Chillos' valley, about forty minutes from downtown Quito (except at rush hour, of course – then it takes more than an hour), and it is nice that we have a safe, quiet place to stay for these first few days.

 

The 'middle of the world' - off by about 250m

 

Marina and her mother and father were our hosts for excursions in and around Quito on Saturday and Sunday, giving us a great range of impressions of this interesting place.

We start out on Saturday by visiting the 'Mitad del Mundo, a kind of theme park based on the idea that at that very place lies the “middle of the world”, according to the (supposedly not quite correct) measurements of a French geodesic team in 1736. Interesting for us here is less the exact location of the equator – everything is close to it here, after all – but the Museo Etnográfico, informing visitors about the many different ethnological indigenous groups in Ecuador, including customs, crafts, dress, weapons, musical instruments and much more. 

 

For lunch, another culinary experience awaits us. Asked if we are interested in trying Ecuadorian specialties we find ourselves confronted with a – for our taste - very unusual meat dish: cuy, roasted guinea pig. The Salazar family love it, thus it is no problem that Johann and I don't manage to eat our full share. The taste, actually, is quite pleasant, and if we didn't know what we are eating we might have even liked it, but there is a certain mental resistance to overcome when eating something that is considered a pet at home. The locro de queso (potato and cheese) soup on the other hand is much easier to swallow, and the drink of choice, chicha, a slightly fermented corn drink, is very refreshing.

 

Our next stop, not far from the Middle of the World, is the viewpoint overlooking the Pululahua crater. Pululahua means "cloud of water" or fog in Quechua, the indigenous language. This huge crater belongs to a volcano that last erupted 2,500 years ago, and, filled with fertile volcanic soil, its bottom is used as farmland. It's an impressive sight, the fields far down surrounded entirely by lava domes. The highest of them is Sincholagua hill at 3,356 m. There is a likely very interesting geobotanical reserve – Pululahua is the oldest National Park in Ecuador, and in fact all of South America, created in 1966 – but on this day we act like "mass tourists" and only walk to the lookout, not far from the parking lot. Long wisps of cloud are suddenly racing upward from the valley floor, slithering over the peaks, and I feel a few drops of rain. Will the weather hold for the next part of the agenda planned by Marina's family for this day?

To get there, Marina's father Manuel has to brave the incredibly dense traffic through the long spine of this city that doesn't seem to have a beginning or an end. After almost an hour of driving we finally pull into a parking lot conveniently close to the historic part of the city.

Here, we make our way to the Plaza Central (or Plaza de la Indepencia), surrounded by a wealth of magnificent colonial buildings, among them the President's Palace, Archbishop's Palace, Municipal Palace and countless churches that surpass each other in their display of incredible wealth. We briefly look into the Cathedral and the Church of the Society of Jesus, almost blended by the gilded walls and ceilings. In both churches mass is being read, and we soon withdraw quietly, a bit relieved to leave this almost oppressive splendour behind. On the church steps toothless old men and women dressed in little more than rags stretch out their hands, while others are hawking anything from candles to be lit in the church to candies to be consumed before or after. A bigger discrepancy on such a small room is hard to imagine.

 

 

 

In the meantime dusk has fallen, and we get in the car again to conclude our day on “la ronda”, a narrow street in old-town Quito that is one of the main attractions for locals and tourists alike. Ornate wooden doors lead into interior courtyards where restaurants offer Ecuadorian and international fare, strains of Salsa and other Andean music further enticing passers-by to come in for a meal, a drink or a cup of coffee.

We meet up with Ale in one of them, white-washed adobe walls sparsely adorned with local art, heavy dark wooden chairs scraping on the tile floor when we sit down for yet another taste of local food – and a cup of the famed Ecuadorian coffee, claimed to be 'the best in the world – even better than Colombian' by Ale and Marina when they were in Canada. I cannot say if this boast is justified, but it certainly tastes good at the end of this long day. No cuy is served here, but humitas (a kind of corn bread wrapped in corn leaves and then steamed), empanadas (meat or cheese-filled pastry pockets) and tamale (meat and vegetables like carrots, peas, and onion mixed with a corn dough, steamed in achira (canna) or corn leaves). We are encouraged to try it all, and it all tastes delicious!

Marina and her parents say goodnight now: it has been a long day for all of us, and Manuel must be very tired after braving all that traffic, on top of being an excellent and very knowledgeable tour guide whose command of the English language is much, much better than ours of Spanish.

 

 Ale, Johann and I make one more stop at one of Ale's favourite places for a glass of mulled wine and some live music. A well-known local group has just started to play when a Mariachi band marches in and makes its way up the stairs to the first level: a man has ordered music for his girlfriend to surprise her on her birthday. Our musicians simply put down their instruments and sit down at the bar to have a meal first, waiting for the 'competition' to finish. We don't want to wait that long and soon head home to Conocoto in the valley.

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Sunday has just as full a program as Saturday, and again Manuel is our guide. Florcita has stayed home this time; a knee injury makes it difficult for her to go for extended walks. Ale takes us to 'El Panecillo', our first destination, a bread-loaf shaped hill (hence the name!) overlooking Quito, with an excellent view of much of the city and the surrounding mountains, including several snow-capped volcanoes. For the best view we climb into the aluminum body of the huge winged Virgin Mary created by a Spanish artist in 1976. The hill is an ancient sacred place: in pre-Inca times it was the site of a temple dedicated to the sun god.

North meets South

Our next stop is the huge neo-gothic basilica, which was started a hundred years ago and still isn't quite finished. We spend some time admiring the stained-glass windows and climbing the bell tower and one of the other towers for a lookout, although I opt out of the last part of the climb. To reach the last platform, 375 feet high, one has to brave two steep ladder-like stairs, sturdy and secured with cage wire, admittedly, but the open view through the steps at that height is a bit too much for my stomach. After traversing the narrow wooden bridge running the length of the arches above the basilica under the peaked roof I climb one more set of steep stairs but then watch without envy how the rest of our little group ascends the last forty or so steps. To my amazement, local parents even take their babies and toddlers up there.

 

There are quite a few other visitors, and all the while mass is being held below us, people walking in and out. I'm surprised that here, just like yesterday in the two other churches, the music is accompanied not by organ but by guitar. 'To attract more young people', Manuel explains. It seems to work, judging by the number of filled benches.

Old and new

 

What I like best about this church are its unique 'gargoyles'. Here, they have been replaced with statues of Galapagos birds like the frigat bird, pelican, cormorant, blue-footed booby, owl, and a few others – nothing frightening about them!

Floripondio

 

The last stop for today is the botanic garden, especially interesting for me since I always look forward to learning about the flora of a region. It is well done, and we get a good idea of the manifold habitats present in this small, incredibly diversified country. From highland plants to rainforest to coastal vegetation, from the orchid greenhouses to the one containing nothing but carnivorous plants – it is a feast for the eyes, and often for the nose as well. I hope to see many of the plants in the wild once we are on the road again. Soon we will turn our backs on Quito again, ready for new adventures.