Much to our surprise, on Friday, March 3, it was partly sunny for about half the day. We took this opportunity to go to La Virgen del Panecillo, the tallest aluminum sculpture in the world. It is a replica of La Virgen de Quito (a wooden sculpture by Bernardo de Legarda) situated on el Panecillo, a large hill in the middle of Quito. The sculpture is made of 7,400 aluminum pieces.
Along with an observation deck there is a small museum showing the design and construction of the sculpture. La Virgen was not on our must see list, but I’m glad we went. The views of the city were incredible.
Next we grabbed a taxi and headed to Centro Histórico. Our first stop was the Plaza de San Francisco.
There we visited the Mueso Convento de San Francisco and Iglesia de San Francisco, basically a religious museum in an old convent and a baroque church. The convent is a fascinating building, but the religious art was not really our taste. Nevertheless, it was worth the visit.
Up the street is Casa del Alabado, a pre-Columbian art museum. More succinctly, old sculptures. The museum is nicely done, and the sculptures were much more interesting than I expected. Stephanie ended up sitting in the courtyard waiting for me to finish up.
As the skies remained partly sunny, we enjoyed a stroll around old town and Plaza Grande. We took our taxi driver’s suggestion and headed to Palacio Arzobispal (a former Archbishop’s Palace converted to restaurants and stores) to find a place for a late lunch. What great advice.
After reading a few menus, we settled on Café del Fraile. We ordered the daily special of stewed goat with rice, potatoes, avocado, and salad, as well as two empanadas. The empanadas came with tomate salsa (i.e. ketchup) and ají de tomate de árbol (an Ecuadorian hot sauce). Stephanie spent half the lunch trying to figure out how to make ají. It was that good.
It was definitely the best meal we had in Quito. We would have never found this place but for a taxi driver that spoke English fairly well and liked to talk.
Our taxi driver also told us that Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de La Merced is a must see. Eh, it was okay. As an old Catholic church it is nice, but nothing special.
A few days previously we visited the highlight of old town, the Basílica del Voto Nacional, a large neo-Gothic Catholic church. Built between 1887 and 1909, this is sometimes called the new church. It is open to tourists daily.
Tickets to visit the church are $2 each. For an additional $3, one can buy a ticket to climb up one of the towers. This is a must, in my opinion.
We arrived shortly after 11:00 AM on Wednesday, March 1, and handed over $4 for two tickets. The lady at the ticket desk rattled off several sentences in Spanish. I nodded politely, assuming she was giving the usual admonishments: turn off your cell phone, do not talk loudly, be polite, and so on.
Stephanie and I promptly walked inside and into the middle of a service. What could we do? We’re not going to be those tourists walking around taking pictures during service.
We sat in the back and followed along as best we could. Stand up, sit down. Pray. Repeat. After what I think was a short sermon (it was in Spanish, after all), there were several prayers, an offertory (we gave), more prayers, communion (we abstained), and ashes (our “aha” moment), followed by a small band playing as the service ended shortly before noon.
Who knew it was Ash Wednesday? Google calendar tells me all sorts of holidays, but not Ash Wednesday?
In hindsight I think the lady at the ticket desk was trying to tell us the schedule for Ash Wednesday services and/or that we did not need to buy tourist tickets.
Once service concluded we explored the interior of the church but did not take many pictures. It did not seem right to act like tourists in a Catholic church on Ash Wednesday.
Then it was off to climb the tower, which was spectacular.
Ecuador uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency, which greatly simplifies things. There is no confusion over what things actually cost, and no need to figure out currency conversions on the fly.
Prior to the year 2000, the Ecuadorian sucre was the official currency. Mismanagement by the central bank apparently led to massive inflation and a wildly unstable currency. At one point $25,000 sucre was equivalent to $1 U.S. dollar. So the government ditched the sucre in favor of the U.S. dollar.
Cash is king in Ecuador, and the locals do not like large bills. We came prepared with stacks of $1s, $5s, and $10s, along with a few $20s.
For reasons I cannot explain, Ecuadorians love 50 cent and 1 dollar coins. I have seen more of these coins in the past week than in my entire life. I am not exaggerating, either. Not once did we get a $1 bill in change.
I cannot help but wonder if the Ecuadorian government uses $1 bills to buy $1 coins from the United States Mint. It’s not as if those $1 coins are used in the States.
Our week in Quito is over. We are now very excited to head to the Galapagos Islands.
Garrett and Stephanie
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