ECUADOR

                                           ECUADOR

                                           ST FRANCIS

Quito, or to give the city it's full title of San Francisco de Quito, at 9184ft above sea level, is the 2nd highest capital city in the world.  It is a long, thin city extending along the eastern side of the Pichincha volcano, 22 miles long and 3 miles wide.  The climate is mild and pleasant rarely exceeding 25oC.  The beautiful historic centre was declared a World Cultural Heritage site by UNESCO in 1978.  The city is known for its treasures of colonial churches, paintings sculptures and carvings. 

                           THE CHURCH OF ST FRANCIS 

                                   THE CHOIR STALLS

 The San Francisco church is the oldest in Quito built in 1536 - 1580 and is the biggest religious complex in the Americas with over 8,670 acres including the convent and six internal patios.  It is built over a pre-Colombian commercial centre - before the Spanish conquest in 1534, the Incas conquored it in the 15th century but destroyed the city rather than accept defeat.

                               THE CONVENT MUSEUM

The Incas spread north from their capital at Cuzco in Peru and their empire spread east into central Argentina and along the Pacific coast from Colomia to Chile absorbing hundreds of indigenous groups and imposing their laws and culture.      

                       VINCENT WITH A CLARIST  NUN

This stall outside the Convent of St Clara was selling Colada Morada, a delicious cherry based drink, as part of the celebrations for the Dia de los Difuntos (Day of the Dead). The purple colour "symbolizes the grief and the blood of those who no longer accompany us". Indigenous communities visit cemetaries taking along favourite food dishes to share with loved ones by their graves.  

                   THE CASA DEL ALABADO MUSEUM

The Casa del Albado museum of pre-Colombian art is housed within a colonial mansion in the Old Town which was built in 1671 making it one of the oldest colonial buildings in the country.  The museum is arranged by themes that focus on pre-Colombian man's concept of the cosmos and constitutes a journey through the ancient spiritual past of the country. 

The amazing ceramics made us want to learn more about the many groups who have occupied the country leaving such treasures in their tombs and ruins over the past 5000 years.  Our first stop was the Rumipamba Archaological Park where traces of a village and extensive road which led from the Andean highlands to the coast can be seen.  Following that we took a taxi to the slopes above the town where a small outdoor museum houses the La Florida burial chambers dating back to 220 - 640AD.  The tombs belong to the Quitus culture and vary in depth from 15 to 17 metres deep and 2 metres in diameter.  Large amounts of ceramics, jewellery and gold were found alongside hundreds of bodies.  The site reflects the cultural beliefs of the Quitus who regarded the  Guagua Pichincha    volcano as their god and whose circular tombs signified bodies being returned to Mother Earth's womb. 

The reproduction of one of the burial chambers containing 16 bodies and ritual objects gives a clear idea of how  the bodies were given back to Mother Earth's womb in the cosmovision of the Quitus culture

The replica of the faces was done through a system of forensic anthropology using the actual skulls.  The spondylus ponchos (shell) worn by important individuals is original

We spent an afternoon at the splendid National Museum of the Central Bank of Ecuador which holds the most complete collection of Ecuadorian art including amazing ceramics dating back to 3500BC and a sample of the vast legacy of pre-Colombian metalwork including gold and silver. (no photos allowed) It makes one wonder how much of this intricately crafted work was melted down to decorate the churches of the occupying armies of Spain

La Compania de Jesus Church

This church of the Society of Jesus is one of the richest churches in the Americas.  Built by Jesuit priests between 1605 and 1765 it is said to contain one and a half tons of gold.  The splendour and wealth of the decoration is unforgetable but it could be considered that the ediface stands as a symbol of the complete subjugation of the indigenous people of Ecuador whose own beliefs and culture were forever changed by the coming of the Europeans.

HACIENDA PORVENIR

Located on the edge of the Cotapaxi national park, the hacienda offered walking and riding.  Sadly, I had contracted a severe virus in the Galapagos and spent the entire 3 days in bed with high fever and severe headache, not helped by the high altitude. The perfect symetrical cone of Cotapaxi is the highest active volcano in the world at 19,347ft.

Our much anticipated two day birding trip to the Mindo cloud forest had to be cancelled due to the illness and we spent a quiet couple of days back in Quito.  I thought that I was hallucinating when we came across an enormous new open top bus passing slowly along the winding cobbled streets of the Old Town.  It was a test drive for a new tourist venture to bring visitors up to the Angel monument high above the city and we were welcomed aboard and took our places on the top deck where we dodged the dangling electric wires and waved at the mystified local population.  

VIEW FROM THE MONUMENT