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Published: January 26th 2014
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25 January 2014 – Saturday – Quito, Ecuador
Today we visited the historical centre of Quito. In 1978, along with the historical centre of Krakow, Poland, was the first city in the world to receive World Heritage Site status from UNESCO. In 2013, Quito was nominated for the prestigious "World Travel Awards" in the category of "leading South American Destinations".
Quito has the largest, least-altered, and best-preserved historic centre in South America. It is considered one of the most important historic areas in Latin America. There are about 130 monumental buildings (which hosts a variety of pictorial art and sculpture, mostly of religious inspired in a multi-faceted range of schools and styles) and 5,000 properties registered in the municipal inventory of heritage properties.
Although a multi-million dollar regeneration program has claimed to leave the historical centre better shape than ever, we found many parts of it tatty, ragged and decrepit, and even a little bit grungy and seedy in places; more than we would have expected or anticipated after having read and researched it online. It is also asserted that the beggars and street hawkers have been replaced by street artists and horse drawn carriages, but we
saw no signs of this: there were beggars and hawkers in every square and prostitutes and transvestites hanging out on the street corners of the more dodgy areas (which are only one block away from the main cobblestone pedestrianised areas and easy to wander into unwittingly). We saw no street artists or horse drawn carriages at all.
Where the money has been spent is in the upkeep of the many churches and cathedrals and museums (there are 62 museums and cultural centres in Quito), and the Grande Plaza. Also known as Plaza de la Independencia, it is Quito's main square and has been an essential meeting place since the 16th century. It is surrounded by what are known as the four pillars of society: the Cathedral, the Presidential Palace, the Archbishop's Palace and Quito’s City Hall. It is a great place to people watch and we planted ourselves here for an hour in the sunshine and did just that!
We also visited La Compania, the astounding baroque church built by the Jesuits from 1605, took about 160 years to complete. Only two years later, the Jesuits were expelled from these lands, because of the Edict of expulsion decreed in
1767 by Charles III, King of Spain. The interior of the church is of marvellous sparkling golden beauty and splendour as gold leaf covers every inch of pillars, arches and domes within. Its Baroque façade is a work of art in stone: columns, cornices, cherubs sacred hearts and were finely carved in volcanic stone from the Andes. It is a truly incredible church building!
We wandered the narrow, hilly streets for the best part of the day. We stopped at one of the churches to see the arrival of the bride for a wedding ceremony. The wedding car stopped at a side entrance, the bride popping up through the sunroof window, looking dazed and disoriented! We hopped on the 25 cent bus back to our very large and window-less apartment (3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, full kitchen/dining room/sitting room – 25 US Dollars per night) in the New City to have a bit of a rest before heading out to the nearby jazz club for dinner and live music.
We trotted through the rain-soaked street with hope, excitement and expectation – the first live jazz we have found in South America! (A torrential downpour of over 90 minutes’ duration
threatened our attendance at the jazz club, but the rain let up and besides we had no food supply in the apartment.) The dinner was very good: well-cooked medium, tender and juicy steaks, a few small roasted potatoes and a side salad. A very attentive and English-speaking waitress looked after us. Unfortunately, like most of the world’s jazz club-restaurants, the majority of the people present at this venue, El Poblo Diablo, were more interested in listening to the sounds of their own voices rather than listening to the music being created and performed on the stage in front of them. The performance started an hour later than scheduled (another universal complaint about attending live music performances in clubs and restaurants) and the drummer didn’t arrive until the second last song of the first set. The band was led by a female Argentine singer whose voice was limited in scope and a bit boring. She didn’t have a dynamic personality or stage presence and didn’t engage with the audience; she sat on a stool, eyes closed, as though singing to herself. She was accompanied by three Ecuadoran musicians: an electric keyboard player and electric bass player and the late-arriving drummer. (I
am not a big fan of ‘electric’ instruments in jazz and always prefer the sounds of an acoustic piano and contra bass.) The band played a selection of bossa-nova type songs that all sounded the same. All the musicians were adequate and functional, but none exciting or captivating. The solos were dull and uninspiring. Even though they were going to play a second set, we decided to ‘give it a miss’ and returned to our apartment three blocks away. The rain had completely stopped and the road was drying quickly, even after midnight.
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