We flew into Quito yesterday. Though only 1200 ft higher than Cuenca (9400 vs 8200), I felt the altitude almost immediately. Combined with a low grade illness I started earlier in the day, I have felt pretty miserable most of today. Combined with the cold, I will be glad to leave Quito tomorrow, soon after we see Pauline head home.
Our Quito hotel is a 120 year old converted home, tucked back, just half a block from the main square. It is charming and extremely convenient to everything, but the lack of heating in a climate like this leaves me asking for extra blankets at night.
As soon as we unpacked, we headed out to explore. One of the very first things we saw was how many homeless there are here, along with beggars of all ages. In 5 weeks of Cuenca, I never once saw a homeless person and was only approached by beggars a couple of times. We saw more than that in our first hour here.
The very next thing we noticed was the extreme number of churches in Quito. There are a lot of them in Cuenca, but here in Quito, I could count six churches within sight of the main square alone!
The main square had a woman feeding pigeons, which meant they were in abundance. Kids were also everywhere. When you combine pigeons and kids, and you inevitably get the chase. I decided to sit and photograph them for awhile.
Evelyn and Pauline quickly tired of my sitting in one place, so I told them to go shopping. I suggested they stay around the square, and I would find them when the pigeons were exhausted. After about half an hour, I went looking for them, and came up blank? I called and asked Evelyn where she was. She said “just look for the yellow building with the white trim.”
Right! Yellow with white trim seems to be a predominant color scheme in town. I said I could see four such buildings from where I stood! They came back to the square and rescued me…
Quito is celebrating its Independence Day this week. In Ecuador, each city celebrates a separate independence day, since the country of Ecuador did not yet exist when the Spaniards were defeated. As with independence day in Cuenca, police presence is extremely high, in an effort to keep down crime against the celebrating tourists.
We stopped in a small cafe for a hot chocolate, and heard what sounded like a funeral march. I looked outside and saw a procession with a statue of Jesus. I have been looking for these for 5 weeks in Cuenca without success, and here was one we stumbled on within a couple hours of arriving in Quito.
More wandering after our hot chocolate, and we found Party Central street. At least that it what it seemed like. Just a couple blocks off the main square was store after store selling party supplies.
We also found many stores selling just one item, with dozens of variations.
Want a Swatch? There is a store just for that. Want some eggs. A store has only that, with stacks for 8, 9, 10 or 11 cents each. Vendors also walked the streets with a few of one item in their hand to sell. And some of the weirdest items at that. TV rabbit ears? Yep, two people selling that. Lottery tickets? Four of those. Cup holder rack? Hand whisk? Toothbrush? Cocoa tea? Yep, each had a person selling that single item, and several sold single items I couldn’t even recognize.
Today I mostly stayed in bed to recouperate, while Evelyn and Pauline took a city tour. Their great find was an artists street named La Ronda, filled with boutique shops, art galleries, cafes with live music, and their favorite chocolate cafe, Khipus Coffee-Choco Shop locate on La Ronda y Morales Oe 1-53. There’s a special chocolate drink made from a jungle chocolate topped with meringue.
Around noon, I decided to go out and get lunch. I heard another funeral dirge, and saw flowers on the street outside our hotel. I followed the sound, and came across my second Jesus procession in as many days.
