Quito means the land of the humming birds, and true to it's name, it has a lot of humming birds through out the city, and throughout Ecuador.
Ecuador was first inhabited by the Quitu-Cara people, the first indiginous people of this area. They were conquered by the Incas in the 1480's. The Inca's wiped out the Quitu-Cara civilization, leaving behind very little information about these people.
In 1532 the Spaniards conquered the Inca's and ruled until the early 1800's. In 1822 the region gained it's independence from Spain, under the leadership of Simon Bolivar. His new republic was called the Republic La Gran Colombia. In 1830 La Gran Colombia broke into 5 separate nations, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Shortly after the separation of the La Gran Colombia countries, Panama separated from Colombia.
The City of Quito was founded on the 6th of December, 1534 and remained a fairly small city for many centuries. In 1972 Ecuador began exporting oil, and the City of Quito grew 6 times it's size almost over night. Since Quito is located between the Inchina Volcano to the west and the valley on the east, it could only grow to the north and south. Quito is now a city of 2.5 million people.
The Inchina Volcano looms over the city of Quito and is an active volcano. It last erupted in 1999 and continued to erupt for almost 3 months. The city of Quito only saw smoke and ash, because the crater of the volcano faces away from the city, but during those three months the people of Quito had to wear masks and goggles any time they were outside, and the entire city was gray with ash.
Our first stop this morning was a neogothic basilica in the colonial area of Quito which was started in 1886 and is still not completed today.
The architectural details of the basilica are beautiful to look at, but it is so large that it is hard to fit it into a picture, so we eventually walked across the street to see if we could get a better shot.
Out first stop was the Independence Plaza.
We stopped in the square to talk to a man that was selling coca leaves and coca candy. Coca is very popular with the Ecuadorian people. It has many medicinal values, including being a cure for altitude sickness. Many people use the dried leaves to make coca tea as a hot drink.
The outdoor patio is the only portion of the palace that is still used solely by the church.
From Government Square we moved on to the Presidential Palace, where guards still stand at the entrance in 2 hour shifts. The guards costumes were designed with a Napoleon influence and contain the colors of Simon Bolivars flag, which are the colors in the Ecuadorian flag today, red, blue and gold.
From the porch of the palace there are beautiful views of independence square.
We were allowed into the courtyard of the Presidential Palace, where we enjoyed the beautiful fountains, stairways, grand doors and wrought iron gates.
Our next stop on the city tour was the cultural center, originally a beautiful colonial building that has been added onto with a more modern style.
On the left side of the building, you can see the original colonial facade, and the red brick on the newer part of the building.
The patios in the cultural center were influenced by the Moorish society of South Africa which was later adopted by Spain. The Moorish women could not be seen in public without their husbands, so they built these large extravagant courtyards so the Moorish women could enjoy the outdoor air and sunshine without being seen.
In this courtyard there were two large arrocria trees which were about 150 years old. They were imported from other regions of South America. They were beautiful, interesting trees.
In the library were some very old books. I wish I could have seen them up close.
In the early days of Catholicism, anyone who was not baptized could not go beyond the narthex of the Catholic Church, but then the church realized that if they wanted to convert the indigenous people they needed to welcome them into the church. 90 percent of Ecuadorians are now Catholic, but it is a mixture of the indigenous beliefs and the Catholic religion because of the indigenous people.
Our next stop was the Golden Bascilica.
The ceiling of the narthex.
The church is a combinations of many architectural types. There are geometric shapes which came from the Moorish, the alters are baroque with more of nature represented. The remains of the first local saint, Marianna Jesus are buried in the alter of the Golden Basilica.
There were originally multiple alters in the church so the congregation could hear, but now with technology only the main alter is used. Richer people could pay to sit in the balconies at the front of the church where they were positioned closer to the main alter, God and heaven.
Part of the gold leaf in the church has been restored, but this effort is ongoing. The process of "painting" a church with gold leaf is very complicated. Wood is carved, then sealed with stucco, then painted with iron oxide. 2-3 coats of the gold leaf are then applied with a paint brush. It is then polished with agatha stone to bring a shine to the gold.
Near the main entrance there is a very interesting picture of Hell, denoting the punishment for the various sins. We spent a lot of time looking at this picture. It was very interesting.
We also visited the bell room, where we were allowed to take pictures.
As we continued our tour, our youngest daughter's boyfriend bought some naive paintings in Colonial Quito from a local vendor. They are painted on sheep skin stretched over a wooden frame.
Many or the people of Quito still wear their traditional dress (or at least components of it), and carrying their children in a bundle on their back is still very common.
We then walked to the oldest Catholic church in Quito which was built in the 16th century.
So many pigeons!
This is the statue of the winged virgin. It can be seen from almost everywhere in the city.
There were dancers in the square of the church.
And all around the church, the streets are bustling.
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