Our day started out with a buffet breakfast. The breakfast buffet is always included in all the hotels we stay at. The one at this hotel is really good, but last time we were here we had to leave too early to enjoy it. The restaurant is bright and interestingly decorated.
After breakfast, Judith is finished getting ready first, and decides to wait in the lobby to meet our tour guide. When I arrive, they're already in conversation. I introduce myself to him, but he doesn't reciprocate. I find out later, he never told Judith his name either. Just a weird quirky thing about this guide; otherwise he's as pleasant at possible.
Our first stop is the Equator museum. First there are Llamas in pens at the entrance and of course you-know-who goes to scratch them.
Overall the museum is interesting. They start with a talk about some of the indigenous animals, tribes and people. I haven't figured out why the equator museum would discuss these topics--there wasn't a clear connection between the first part of the museum's presentation with the next part about being on the equator.
In fact, the first part seemed a bit random. She showed us a mounted tarantula in a glass display container, a taxidermied Anaconda and boa constrictor, then she showed us some shrunken heads - one human and one sloth and showed us wall murals of the method employed in making such a head. Next she pointed us to a 3 dimensional figure of a indigenous man who had his penis secured pointing upward against his body. Apparently it's done to prevent a particular deadly Amazon fish attracted by urea from entering the penis. This figure was inside a grass house that she said was built in 6 days by a local tribe. Next she showed us the actual home where a local woman lived until she was 110. She was famous for her corn liquor "checha". Then she showed us the cactus that contains mescaline allows you to have hallucinagenic experiences. I tried to connect the dots here but all these things, while interesting, were so random.
It was only when she started discussing equator related issues that her discussion started to make sense. She showed us a timepiece that works only on the equator. We watched water drain straight when the sink was on the equator when it was moved to the north, the water swirled one way (counter clockwise as I recall) and the opposite way (clockwise) when the sink was moved south of the equator.
We did some other experiments that supposedly showed the effects of being on the equator such as balancing an egg on a nail. I was just happy with the equator photo op. Judith says she was standing on the south side but I can't remember.
After the equator we headed to a huge statue of the Madonna overlooking Old town. The statue is located on El Panecillo, a 200 metre high hill. The statue is 45 metres tall made of 7000 pieces of aluminium. In the picture you can see people out on the observation deck just above the base. This was built in 1976. We climbed a narrow staircase to get to the observation deck. The view of the city is impressive.
Next up was Old Town district of Quito. It's often known as Colonial town as a result of all the older architecture. When the Spaniards took over in the mid 1500's, the Incas destroyed their settlement there before the Spaniards destroyed it. Unlike places such as Cuzco, there wasn't much of any ruins left to build upon. Some architectural pictures:
We next see Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus (Church of the Society of Jesus) , in the Old town area. It has a lovely baroque facade. The church was started in 1605 and took over 150 years to complete.
The interior is ornate, with more gold leaf in that building than I've ever seen -- the only place where there wasn't any gold leaf seemed to be on the pews and the floor. We weren't allowed to take any pictures. Inside the Symphony of Ecuador was playing. We find out that it was a practice session for a free show that night. Both Judith and I look at each other and instantly decide to come and take in the show.
After the quick tour of the square, we went into one of the buildings that currently houses a university. It had a large diorama of the city with a keypad that would light up certain landmarks and buildings. I thought it was a bit lame, as if some elementary student put it together. But our guide seemed to like it, pressing buttons to light up buildings throughout the Old town area
There was a cool piece of art that was displayed in the courtyard. It was made to look as if the concrete wall had exploded. The actual installation was more dramatic than the picture below suggests.
Nest up was the Plaza Grande, formally known as the Plaza de la Independencia. It's the major central square for Quito, full of people talking, busking, exercising or just hanging out. It is bounded by several buildings including the President's residence (he was in, so no tours), Quito Cathedral (we didn't go in and the Archbishop's Residence, now turned into shops and restaurants. In the middle of the square is this monument to recognize Ecuador's independence from Spanish control. Considering that the Spaniards overthrew the Inca Empire around 1550 and the plaque says 1809, that's a long period of Spanish influence. Much longer than the Inca Empire which only lasted about a hundred years.
The square is quite large. I snapped a picture of some buskers. They seemed quite popular receiving applause when they finished their song.
We walked back to the van to check out one last church. The Basílica deal Voto Nacional is the largest neo gothic Basílica in North or South America. It was started around 1884 and continues to be under construction to this day. Instead of gargoyles, the building has Ecuadorian animals such as Pumas, tortoises, iguanas, armadillos, etc.
Inside the interior is very plain in comparison to the other church we visited. The Basílica is just immense. Ceilings are very high, and the sanctuary and chapels are large; it can hold a lot of people.
When we finished looking at this church, the tour was over. We had the tour guide drop us off at the Teriferico, the cable car that runs up one of the hills. The height rises just over 800 metres to 4050 meters. It took a long time to arrive at the top, maybe 15 to 20 minutes. The views of the city aren't as good as they are from the Madonna statue hill as here the volcanic mountains obscure my pictures.
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Quito is a long, narrow shaped city. It is bounded by large mountains to the east and west and has to grow in a north south orientation. It is currently 60 km from north to south--equivalent to downtown Victoria to Duncan. Crazy.
At the top of the cable car mountain it was cold and windy. We discovered that you can go horseback riding, have your picture taken so that you appear to be hanging from the edge of a moving cable car or grab an overpriced snack or souvenir. We didn't do any of these, so we went back down. At the bottom, we were approached by a taxi driver who asked if we needed a ride. All the taxi drivers will give you a price to take you wherever you want to go before you get into the vehicle. And the prices are very reasonable. I don't think Uber will be much of a threat here. The cab we take is owned by the cable car company as the Teriferico name is on the side of it.
We got back to the hotel and when I unloaded my stuff onto my bed, I discovered I left my iPhone in the Teriferico cab. It's not a great feeling. I checked my "find my phone" app and discover it at a nearby intersection. I advise Judith that I'm going to check with the hotel to see if I can somehow get them to help me chase down my phone. I discover this isn't easy due to a bit of a language barrier.
But eventually the hotel manager gives the OK for one of the valets to come with me in the hotel cab. I link my iPad to his iPhone and we're off trying to get my phone back. Unfortunately, the app doesn't
refresh often enough. We try linking my iPad with the driver's phone but that also doesn't refresh fast either. Back to the iPhone which by this time has no battery power left so we stop and I follow him into a cell store and I pay $5 for a change cable. We get back on the chase.
The valet flags down a motorcycle policeman and he tags along with us. But the app doesn't want to refresh and that spinning circle by the wifi indicator just keeps spinning. We must have tried to chase my phone for over an hour; but in the end gave up because the app it wasn't refreshing -- just a spinning circle indicator. During this time, we're using Google translate to communicate. I discover you can't say anything complicated. A few things we said translated into amusing nonsensical gobbledygook until I got the hang of it and made the simplest sentences I could come up with.
Calls to Teriferico went unanswered. They were gone until Monday. I asked the hotel manager if they could call Monday to see if my phone was found. By this time it was running out of juice. I put it into "lost phone" mode.
When I came back to the hotel, Judith was wondering what had happened to me since by now I had disappeared for a couple of hours. Given that nothing else could be done and since she had already had a bite, I decided we should just go to the concert. We would be early, but we should be able to get great seats. Even better was that the lineup was only by the front gate which had steps that we could sit down on. If we were 15 minutes later, we would have had to stand for the hour we waited. And the symphony was excellent. I'm no expert, but I enjoyed the performance a lot. It was standing room only. And we were permitted to take non flash photos!
Below is a shot of the interior above the orchestra, and it's all gold leaf. The gold leaf appears on the ceiling and on the walls and pillars throughout the entire church.
So much for find my phone app, I think you could write a very interesting review of it.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that it was more of a problem with the cellular coverage than the app itself. But that's only a guess. Maybe that app isn't meant to be chasing a moving phone.
ReplyDelete