Quito Old Town and the Equator

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Having gotten to sleep quite late, we would have all chosen to sleep in, but we were determined to give this “organized tour” thing a fair try for a our day in Quito. It was already paid for and seemed like a very sensible itinerary. So we hauled our tired selves (tired, but not Europe tired!) out of bed, and to breakfast buffet in time to board busses shortly after 9am. Our first stop was the National Basilica, an impressive example of neogothic architecture. While the church invites comparisons to other gothic cathedrals such as Notre Dame, the gargoyle forms are non-traditional and based on local fauna such as iguana, tortoises, jaguars and our favorites, the fearsome anteater gargoyle! We walked around the inside and outside of the church and assessed the impact of the altitude on our attention spans (Quito is above 9000 feet). We found ourselves a little short of breath but otherwise not too bad. The church was gorgeous, but we were already chafing at the organized tour when we were given a specific number of minutes we were permitted to explore. Back on the bus at the appointed time, we moved on to a 16^th century Franciscan monastery that was stylistically very different but equally impressive. We were led through parts of the “old town” of Quito, full of vendors, all selling the same souvenirs, and visited another spectacular church, la Compañía, which was ostentatiously adorned with 38 kg of gold-leaf to the point of virtually gleaming. We enjoyed walking through the squares of old town but wished to be more free to explore them on our own! We had a quick trip to the presidential palace, past the equally impressive home of the bishop and then on to a pre-arranged lunch at Theatrum restaurant where we got to sample some local cuisine including Ecuadoran ceviche (different than Peruvian!) and potato soup. After lunch it was back onto the tour bus for a trip to the equator monument. Located about 45 minutes outside of Quito, this monument was built following a lengthy scientific mission to locate the equator and prove successfully (not sure how or why) that the Earth bulges at the equator rather than being a perfect sphere. We are told that this makes the average human a few pounds lighter at the equator. The monument provided a few good photo ops. John turned on his GPS and confirmed what we had read, the monument was actually a few hundred yards from the equator. Heading north in search of 0 degrees, 0’ 0”, he reached 0 0’ 5” before being thwarted by a concrete wall. We browsed some souvenir shops and then headed back to the hotel for a brief break before dinner. Dinner (also pre-arranged by the tour group) was good, but the family conversation great, reminding us of the true value of these trips. Off to bed early to be ready for our early trip to the Galapagos.

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Photos

Basilica
The neogothic national Basilica. Tour bus (which we were being hurried back to) in foreground.

Scarf Vendor
The feathered cap seems to be some sort of uniform for the legion of scarf vendors. We were assured that the scarves were actually made in Ecuador.

Inside Basilica
This was the only church we were permitted to take photos inside. Beautiful stained glass windows and archways.

Anteater Gargoyle
The Ecuadoran and Amazonian creatures that guard the church gave a bit of playfulness to the place.

Presidential Guard
We've seen this before. Ornate uniform. Stonefaced stand at attention. John noted that the palace guards in the UK do a better job keeping completely still than these guys.

Dogses
Lots of stray dogs lounging about. We noted the comparison to some of the Mediterranean cities we've visited which are populated by stray cats.

Equator Line
Viewed from the top of the monument, the line in the center is supposedly the equator. GPS says it's off by a few hundred yards.

Straddling the Equator
Required tourist photograph.

Thwarted
We got pretty close to the "real" equator, but decided not to scale the concrete wall.

Dogses
At the equator monument, all the trash cans are on hinges, which seems to be designed to allow the dogs to insert their heads for browsing.