Return to Quito

I'm writing this from the airport, on my way back home. It feels almost surreal, few hours ago I was strolling through Quito, discovering its inner and outer beauty. Now I am sitting in the airport lounge pondering about work assignments waiting for me and planning how to get back to my corporate life in the smoothest possible way.

Band rehearsals in the park. Fresh air and lots of freedom to express musical passions. It was fun to watch them!

Plaza Grande - Plaza de la Independencia in Quito Old Town with its interesting history - linked to Wikipedia for your reading pleasure!

Police are patrolling the Old Town on smart carts, so popular in other capital cities and not only. They can be seen from Portugal to Poland, they are also becoming a popular means of transportation for patrols and for tourist in the USA, Pittsburgh has got them as well, you can see people moving quietly through the streets of the business district.

Parque La Carolina in Quito Business District

I spent last couple days in Quito, a melt down after extensive weeks of travel. It surely was a good decision. I discovered a whole new Quito.
Read on.
First time around I had been focused on Old Town Quito. I stayed in Minka hostel which is few blocks away from the Basílica del Voto Nacional.

the Basílica del Voto Nacional, view from the top behind the Cathedral

The hostel was clean and the staff where friendly, although not all of them spoke communicative English. It was OK for me as I only had a night with them and I knew what were my next steps. I took their advice when looking at local transportation. Originally I had planned to get to the North Terminal by bus. But as the dawn in Quito and Ecuador in general comes early, sunset around 18:20, I decided not to take my chances with strolling around neighborhoods in the dark with all my belongings on me. I asked Minka to order me a taxi  :).

A day in Quito's Old Town can be magical, as it was for me. It was a wonderful Sunday with sunny clear weather and light mountain breeze. People were going to churches, to attend Sunday mass, all they long. All of the were churches open to visitors. I used this opportunity to visit them all. That was an experience on its own.

La Compania de Jesus, overwhelmingly beautiful church that will make you breathless for the amount of gold and decorations. It is said to be 7 tons of gold that is glimmering from the walls, the ceiling and the altar. Imagine that! Jesuits, who stand behind its creation, did not waste resources back in 1605 when they started it. This church is on the UNESCO list, together with other the most important heritage sites and monuments.

 My typical approach when visiting a church is to try and experience the atmosphere with all the respect to the people and the catholic religion. I do not take photos in temples typically (of any religion). I break this rule on rare occasions when I think it is worth spreading the word of the beauty of a particular temple. So here are a few pictures, just to give you an idea. In no way they represent the real beauty and the feeling of greatness and majesty when being inside.

A representation of a local sculpture school emerged in Quito - a more academic style prevailed, closely connected with the Baroque naturalism apparent in Spanish sculpture.

The unique style of Ecuadorian catholic art can be easily researched. Some of a good summary can be found here. I truly enjoy visiting churches everywhere I go. It gives me a sense of connection with the local community, and also it gives me a good idea how people celebrate their life, how they connect with God and with other member of the community. Coming from a catholic-rich country like Poland, I can easily recognize similarities as much as differences and this is enhancing my traveling experience greatly. In Ecuador a deep devotion and connection to catholic religion with a mix of local legends, still present, local festivals that are mixing celebration of catholic calendar and a pre-columbian believes that are still cultivated, all this makes is all the more interesting to experience. I wish I could come over for the big Mama Negra festival. There are few festivals like that left, this particular one the was established when the Cotopaxi volcano erupted in 1742 and it seemed that Latacunga would be destroyed. La Mama Negra includes a noisy, exuberant parade of characters such as the Moorish King, the Angel of the Stars and Los Huacos who represents the area’s pre-Colombian heritage.

A mural representing Mama Negra parade, Latacunga

La Mama Negra festival - exhibition in Museo Pumapungo in Cuenca

The Plaza Grande in Quito Old Town is always bursting with life. Tourists are wandering around as there is a Tourist Information center which serves a great deal for all kinds of questions on Ecuador. There are western-type cafes and souvenir stores around the plaza. It makes it interesting and colorful to visit all of them. The experience of sitting at the cafe, sipping a little small Ecuadorian coffee and looking at the crowds around is somehow calming. Nothing disturbs the daily order of things.

Tourist are a real minority in Ecuador, unlike in some other popular destinations where it is hard to find a local person sometimes. Here these two ladies were enjoying a street food, relaxing in the main plaza. All Ecuadorians love socializing outdoors, eating out, even if it involves the simplest of street foods. It is worth to mention that the street food is so affordable that almost all the people can afford it. I do not think the lady paid more than $0.5-$1.0 for her snack.

One of the most common street services is shoe polishing. Here are two boys offering their services, they got this young lady to agree and get her shoes shined.

Street sales of snacks is flourishing in Ecuador. Here they sell Empandas, traditional pastries filled with meet, or cheese. They do not cost more than $0.5 on the street are are very tasty. The cheese filling is yummy, the cheese used is some kind of a white cheese that reminds me of the Polish 'oscypek' sheep cheese, it is not smoked but it has a distinctive salty flavor.

Indigenous people are selling arts and crafts among the crowd. Quito's merchants are advertising their services and selling products, almost everything and anything. You can even buy a miniature dog on the street - SADLY- (mini poodles seem to be the most popular) and right by it you can by for your new friend a fashionable jacket and puppy-shoes. I wouldn't believe if I hadn't seen it myself. The little poodle walking by the merchant as a live advertisement for dog clothes. It was dressed top to bottom in pink. Pink jacket, little hoody, pinky socks-shoes. The dog was not bothered by an abundance of textiles he was carrying. Amazing.
My dog would chew it all to bits :))

The basket next to this lady had some kind of merchandise inside. You see indigenous people strolling around with different merchandise, mostly food though.

My favorite sweet snack was quimbolito - a sweet corn steamed puddings baked in variety of leaves like banana leaf,  achira leaf, the leaf of the taro plant, perhaps better known as dasheen or yautia leaf. Some of the quimbolitos have raisins, dates or even chocolate. They are all light and yummy.

On Sunday's people chill. It is the time to meet with friends and family. Pictures of daily life are not at all different to what I'm used to. Ice creams, coffee, lunch. Their whole life seems to be evolving around prayer and attending a mass. I hear that some Catholic holidays require them to go to church several times a day. Even in Poland, the most Catholic infused society, we do not go to church more than once a day. Interestingly, Ecuadorian holidays are a mix of Spanish- Catholic drill and indigenous myths and legends that survived till this day. Hence the unique religious art works and festivals, so specific to Ecuador. I would love to write more about it, maybe when I get to write about the arts and crafts.

This is all I the Southern Quito. Being poured between mountains, Quito is stretching far south to north, with the new international airport as far as ~40 km from downtown.


The Northern Quito surprised me immensely. After having traveled weeks I Ecuador I thought I had seen it all. Nope.
The North district is like 5th avenue compared to Bronx, for New York. Or like Champs Elyse's compared to Mont Martre.

Parque La Carolina, This park started from the expropriation of the farm La Carolina in 1939.

Oops my flight is boarding! Need to run.

Pope John Paul II headed a great Catholic mass in the park during his visit to Ecuador in 1985, and this Christian Cross was been built in this place.