Semana Santa celebrations in Quito, Ecuador

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It was a very easy flight to Quito, under 2 hours long, and with quick check in and immigration when we arrived. We were booked into Hotel Cathedral in the Old town - it was in an old colonial building, with a large internal courtyard, and was only a couple of blocks from Plaza Grande, the central plaza which was very picturesque. We spent the afternoon exploring the surrounding areas - it was cool and wet unfortunately. That evening (the Thursday before Good Friday, we had difficulty finding somewhere to eat as everything was closed and the city as quiet as a morgue. We ate at a 5* hotel on the edge of the plaza - good food but not cheap!
Next day we joined the crowds of people in front of Monasterio San Francisco - the oldest church (built from 1534 to 1604) and the largest colonial building in Quito. It was fronted with a very large raised plaza and we had quickly looked inside the night before. The interior is a riot of golden baroque carvings with a very impressive altar. We pushed through the crowds on Good Friday to see the church officials decorating the religious icons which were to be used in the parade with hundreds of fresh flowers, mainly vivid long stemmed roses which are grown in the hills near Quito. Unlike Antigua the icons were actually on top of cars - it was a surprising sight to see the cars next to the altar! The walls outside the church were lined with heavy wooden crosses - their bearers were no where to be seen though. I felt that the parade was no where as impressive as the parade in Antigua - there were no carpets which we already knew were not a part of the procession in Quito. But there was no incense either and we had seen photos of the parades with billowing clouds of incense. There were hundreds of purple hooded participants - many of the men were bare chested (with religious tattoos) but they wandered more then paraded so the impact they made was no where as impressive as the solid lines of purple we saw in Guatemala.
Many of the men dragged heavy crosses behind them - in fact at the start of the parade, a cross had fallen and injured a participant before he had even made it down the church steps. Other men were wrapped in barb wire, or were wearing barb wire crowns. Others were whipping themselves or dragging heavy chains around their ankles and a group of men had cactus crosses tied to their backs. Nearly all were holding a religious icon or a small cross. There were many brass bands in the parade as well. The crowds were very thick - surprisingly many shops were open - and certainly the street sellers were out in force. There were many armed police and military on the streets - in fact the entire time we were in Quito - the military with full body armour were very obvious. We found out that there had been a major riot in the city only weeks before and a couple of people were killed.
The procession ended with the icons we saw being decorated in the church - it took many hours to wind it’s way around the city (from church to church) - we left and went back to it many times during the day. Again later in the afternoon there was very heavy rain and by 7pm the streets were totally deserted once again. Another meal in the same restaurant as the night before. We had walked, in the rain, to a street where all the houses have been restored and turned into restaurants but they were all closed that evening as well so it was 5* again!
Next morning we walked up the very steep hill to Basilica del Voto Nacional, a large but relatively modern (built 1926) Gothic cathedral built high above the city. The parade had visited this church the day before - it was interesting to see the purple stream heading up the hill from the bottom. Above Quito, on a small though constantly visible hill, stands a huge statue of Le Virgen de Quito. It’s a major landmark in the city and looks very impressive from all directions. The Basilica must have been built at the same height as the angel figure as from the main altar in the church. Looking through a heart shaped window above the main door of the Basilica you can see the Virgen framed beautifully. It was very effective! Going back down the hill - at an altitude of 2800 meters - it is much easier to walk downhill then up hill - we headed back to visit some of the churches! But they were all closed!! We did manage to visit the museum next to the San Francisco church - it was full of ornate (and blood spattered) paintings and other religious icons. The inner courtyard was beautifully landscaped, and around the walls were monks taking confession from local people who were waiting in queues to speak to one of the monks. I watched a couple of nuns viewing some of the exhibitions - it was funny as despite the signs saying ‘no photos” they both had their mobile phones out doing just that! I would have loved a photo of them doing it but thought I probably shouldn’t!
We caught a taxi up to visit the statue on the hill - fabulous 360* degree views of what is a very long city (it stretches about 50 klms along a valley with houses running up the sides of the mountains). The statue is made of 7000 pieces of aluminium riveted together and she has a very sweet face! Due to cloud cover we had no views of the volcano which towers behind the city - in fact we left Quito without ever seeing it! We caught a bus back down to the Old Town but it took a different route and totally disorientated us. The bus driver put us off above the Old Town - not normally a problem but by then there was a very severe electrical storm with large hail stones right over us. It was very scary and we were very pleased to be rescued by a taxi driver - at that stage we didn’t care what the fare back to our hotel was going to cost - though taxi fares here are incredibly cheap and that one only cost a couple of dollars! Another evening dodging heavy rain but we did find a different and cheaper place to eat that night - though the city was still deserted after dark. We don’t know whether that was because of Easter or normal in the Old Town after dark.
We loved the buildings in the city - massive archways, lots of them in shades of yellow, cobbled one way streets (seems to be the norm in Latin America). There were many churches in the streets surrounding the plaza but though most are supposed to open to tourists at some stage during the day most had bolted doors when we went passed.
The last hour in the city I managed to visit La Compania de Jesus which is considered the most beautiful of all the churches. It was a Jesuit church, every inch of the interior was stunningly gilded with gold leaf - it was truly wonderful. No photos were allowed however. The stonework inside was like lace, very finely carved them gilded.
Our last day in the city was spent riding a series of local buses the length of the city to visit the monument on the Equator - Mitad Del Mundo (Middle of the World) There is actually controversy around the monument as when a French man made the measurements in 1736 proving that it was the equator line instruments weren’t as accurate as they are today. 0.00’ today, measured by GPS is actually 274 metres north of the monument. The true equator today is measured (and we went to the line with another lady who was staying at our hotel who had GPS on her phone) is within another museum just outside the fence of the Mitad del Mundo complex. The whole complex was very touristy, full of restaurants and souvenir shops. The little museum with the true line - Museo Solar Inti Nan - was a fun place to visit. Lovely friendly guides showed you all the equator experiments that you see on travel shows on the television - the water going down the plughole the opposite way depending on whether you are standing in the north or the south. An interesting experiment was done using muscle strength - you have much less strength in your muscles on the equator line. Two foot either side and you’re obviously stronger. It’s weird as it is very pronounced. All good fun and a great day out.
Quito was a fascinating introduction to Ecuador. We didn’t go near the new town - you could see it spread across the hills in every direction as far as you could see but we thoroughly loved the time we spent in the UNESCO listed Old Town. We certainly didn’t see as many of the museums or churches that we planned on visiting but that was simply because they weren’t open - probably because of the Easter break. Most of the shops seemed to be open though which surprised us. Also it rained heavily most of each afternoon and evening we were there. On our last day the President was in the city - there was a parade for him as we were leaving for Otavalo outside his palace which is on one side of the Plaza Grande. With the heavy police presence it was probably a good area not to be around anyway. We saw many small protests the few days we were there - mainly political groups as elections are to be held in the country shortly.
The streets here, as in Costa Rica, are lined with pizza and pastry shops - they have their own chains selling BBQ chicken and as yet we haven’t seen any Kentucky or McDonalds here. There are some great little cafes around but surprisingly most of the coffee we’ve been served has been instant. If you order coffee with milk you can a cup of hot milk and a jar of instant coffee given to you. The indigenous women are very elegant here. They wear knee length skirts and stockings or knee high socks with high heeled shoes. Around there throats they wear many strands of gold glass beads (or beads which resemble small gold nuggets - once they would have been real gold), both wrists have strands of small coral beads, all accessorised with a shawl and a felt fedora style hat in olive green or brown, with a peacock feather tucked into the hat band. All their babies are tied to their backs in very tight slings - I wonder how the babies can breath!
The next town we are visiting is Otavalo, famous for an enormous Saturday market (principally aimed at the tourists) which we weren’t going to be there for. The city is a couple of hours north of Quito at an elevation of 2550 metres. We had to leave Quito from the northern bus terminal which was a long way from where we were staying - in the same direction as Mitad del Mundo and it had taken nearly two hours to get there! We were leaving Quito on a working day and were expecting the traffic to be horrendous. As in all of these colonial cities the streets are all one way and traffic really backs up quickly.

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