Old town

19th July 2011

This was a nicely fulfilling day of exploring old Quito. There is indeed a grand amount of colonial architecture here, with virtually no modern buildings and everything stitching together into a cohesive whole. There are some beautiful churches amongst the secular architecture too. One of the finest is the church of the Compania de Jesus, which is so completely covered in gilded wood within that you feel like you’re inside an expensive jewellery box. It’s no wonder the centre of Quito is a UNESCO World Heritage site; apparently the first city in the world to be so awarded.

Lucia at the Casa San Marcos had told us that the nearby Convento de Santa Clara had been open to the public last weekend, but she thought it was probably closed again by now. We stopped on the off-chance and found that it was indeed still open and we got a complete guided tour for the princely sum of $2. They had a special exposition of baroque art from the Quito school, some beautifully realistic and detailed carvings especially. The convent was almost empty, very tranquil and enjoyable. Later we heard from Lucia that she had to queue for nearly six hours at the weekend to get in!

Our next stop was the Casa del Alabado, a museum of pre-columbian art. It was set in beautifully restored colonial house with two courtyards and just like the MAP in Cusco the ancient works were displayed to brilliant effect with very simple and stylish use of materials and lighting. The pre-columbian cultures up here in Ecuador produced work quite different from the Peruvians but equally interesting. Rather than the contemporary-looking vessels it was the figurative work that stood out here, faces and figures with delightful expressions.

Looking over the whole of old Quito from a high hill is the Virgin of Quito, the statue we have a great view of from our B&B room. This seemed like a good final stop for the day, so we set off up the hill. We soon found some alarming signs: ‘Beware: tourist robbery zone, do not go this way.’ Luckily we also found three other tourists also trying the climb. However, when all five of us asked a security guard whether it was okay he said it would be more secure to get a taxi up. This was broad daylight. Well, we walked up anyway and didn’t see anything suspicious. Still, those signs must be there for a reason.

The Virgin of Quito is impressively large up close. I couldn’t help thinking she might like to meet up with Christ the Redeemer from Rio and run off with him for a dirty weekend.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Ecuador. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.