Conservative Quito

So, back in Lima, just another huge sprawling city. The big attraction is the beach at trendy Miraflores, but alas, in my two days there the city was shrouded in heavy fog, and I saw little. The city was in lockdown because of an election on the day I departed. There were riot police everywhere, and no venue could sell alcohol for 72 hrs in the lead up. I played safe and holed up in the Radisson to indulge in the pleasure of having my own room and a comfy bed, and to resume blogging; took a hotel car to the airport on election day for my flight to Quito.

16th April:

Apparently the Church is the big power here, still, and it shows; everywhere....

There’s a church or monastery on nearly every street corner in the old town, watched over protectively by a huge Virgen de Quito with wings. 

It’s copied from a statue in the huge Franciscan monastery, dating from 1535. It covers 3 hectares and was the birth of the Quito school of art - an art form developed by the monks , through indigenous artists, to communicate with and convert the masses. 

The overlays with indigenous traditional beliefs are everywhere. The original statue of the Virgen de Quito is housed here - she’s pregnant, and standing on a new moon (signs of fertility) and a demon... she’s winged, like an apocalyptic angel...

The chapel is gilded, ornate; the ceilings and floors are wooden geometric mosaics echoing the Moors; a window in the choir loft lets the sun shine directly through on the winter solstice onto a huge statue of Christ....a leaf taken straight out of the temples of the Incas.

There’s a preoccupation with suffering and the Passion of Christ... several bloodied statues are housed here - they are carried through the streets in Holy week, followers dressed in purple robes with hoods (aping the Franciscan monks supposedly but looking like Ku, Klux Klan) self flagellate en route as penance....it’s all a bit ghoulish...

The Jesuit church is unbelievable - every nook and cranny, the walls, the ceilings,the pillars are carved and covered in gold leaf. Maria isn’t such a big star here, but many a saint and martyr cover the walls....

And the cathedral, started in 1926, is huge, gothic...a climb up it’s spires, across a rickety wooden plank and through a series of vertigo inducing ladders offers the most amazing view of the town and surrounding hills, and directly on to the Virgen del Quito. No saints and martyr here ... the stain glass windows depict all the archbishops of Quito, resplendent in all their power and glory. Talk about power writing your own history...

It takes a little while to feel comfortable in Quito. There’s a huge police presence, armed security guards outside all the banks and many stores, riot police surrounding the plaza during a noisy political demonstration outside the presidential palace....politics South American style. I make sure I’m really discreet with my camera. But the people are friendly, diligent... they seem to look after their poor and disabled.

I had 6 days to fill in here, trying to recuperate from my tummy bug. It’s responded neither to abstinence nor antibiotics prescribed (through a lot of mime) by a pharmacist, so trying another lot.

My first taxi ride here was hair raising - we narrowly avoided several collisions, and lost the passenger side window in one such encounter; and they try and con you into paying exorbitant prices without the metre for the privilege!

I risked another death defying ride out to the Equator - the Mittel del Mundo; very kitsch but kind of neat standing at 0’0”. The adrenalin inducing trip did nothing for my tender tummy but I survived. The hour trip through the city make me realize how huge it is, and quite modern outside the old city. We even passed an Apple store called Mundomac (- my new benchmark for progress in South American cities!)

So now I’m up to date with my blog, ensconced in my new hotel, and waiting to meet my new room mate for the trip to the Galapagos.

A bientot