It is sprawling and it has many very different parts. We are just outside of the old town which has many beautiful old churches, the presidential palace and many older colonial building. Riding around town we have also seen newer neighborhoods, some ugly from the 70s to 80s and some more modern. There are also many big poor neighborhoods but we have not ventured into those. We have been warned away from them.
Our apartment is a little tucked away oasis and hard to leave. But first on 3/3 we went to the presidential palace and saw the changing of the guard. There were soldiers dressed up fancy and midevil like, some in horses but most on foot with spears or sabers. There were some more serious soldiers in BDUs and machine guns and secret service. Security is a big business here in Ecuador. The President and Vice President made an appearance from the balcony. Ecuadorians are divided and opinionated on their current president but he sounds like a guy I would support.
After that we wandered through a couple of churches and wound up sitting outside for lunch in the Plaza de San Francisco. The people watching was fun. The church on the square was very pretty with lots of gold and a traditional craft store in their basement was almost as cool as the museum we went to the next day. Then we found a grocery store and went home for spaghetti.
A note on typical Ecuadorian food. Aside from the coastal seafood, which I already covered, most Ecuadorian meals out consist of 1) soup, usually with some potatoes. 2) grilled or fried or stewed meat. 3) Potatoes fried or baked or rolled into a pattie or rice 4) a small salad of lettuce, tomatoes and pickled red onions. 5) a shared bowl of large baked corn kernels. It is good food but not great. This is not a culinary country. That is one of the reasons we are eating at home most nights.
Day two in Quito, 3/4, we started off in a native ancient tribal art museum. Casa del Alabado is in a beautiful restored colonial building and has a great collection of mostly pre Incan native art going back 5000 years. The art is more intricate than I expected. I got the kids to stay interested by having them pick which peace was their favorite in each room then we would discus.
Lunch was typical Ecuadorian faire except some of the food was delivered by a waiter in a full purple gown and pointed hood. This is in preparation for the upcoming Good Friday celebration.
We ended our days touring at Quito's most famous church Iglesias de la Compañia de Jesus. We were not allowed to take pictures of this church dripping with an estimated 7 tons of gold but I snuck one of the central dome. Lumia was accosted by a gaggle of school girls on school tour who were entranced by her hair. I got pictures of that. Lumia was very patient with her fans. It was like a scene from 'A Hard Days Night.'
Two more days on the next post.
Love the scene of Lumia with fans. Of course! I would like to join her fan club too. :-)
ReplyDeleteFoodies in a non-foodie city…hmmm.