Quito, the Middle of the World

Yesterday we departed from Otavalo to head to Ecuador’s capital, Quito. Quito is a cultural center in Ecuador, full of many different socio-economic classes, ethnic backgrounds, and many tourists.

On the way to the city, we stopped at the center of the world, el Mitad del Mundo, to straddle the equator, one foot in the northern hemisphere and one foot in the southern. We learned about the real orientation of the world, and why our typical maps are completely incorrect. The word “orient” meaning “east” describes the orient of the world. So east should be at the top of our worlds, not north. “North” actually comes from a sanskrit word meaning “left”, so north should be occupying the left part of our maps. Obviously, we took a ton of pictures here, and then moved on to Quito.

El Mitad del Mundo

In Quito, we met our guide, David, who showed us around all the incredible historical sights of Quito. We started at the Basilica del Voto Nacional, where we learned that no basilica in any part of the world is finished. Why? Because there’s an old legend that the end of the world coincides with the finishing of a basilica. Nobody has wanted to test that legend.

La Basilica del Voto Nacional

Inside la Basilica

Inside, we heard more interesting tidbits about the history of this incredible building. For example, the gargoyles that guard the basilica are actually animals that are part of the huge biodiversity of Ecuador’s Amazon. Also, the legs of the president Gabriel Garcia Moreno are entombed here. Garcia Moreno was killed by his body guard after the guard found out the president had been sleeping with his wife. And had a kid with her. So the guard attacked him with a machete and cut off his legs. The president’s body is buried elsewhere, and his heart is in a different cathedral.

The legs of Gabriel Garcia Moreno

From here, we visited the central square, where an impressive statue remembering the Heroes of the Independence resides. Surrounded by symbolism, we saw the Andean Condor– Ecuador’s national bird– the lion– representing Spain– and the rooster, which has a crazy story of its own.

La Dama de la Independencia

The Andean Condor

The rooster weather vain apparently has the ability to come alive, but will only do so under one circumstance. If a drunkard enters the square at midnight, the rooster will awaken and attack the person, bringing him or her to hell forever. Spooky stuff.

The Rooster

We also visited “the most beautiful church in the world”, La Compañía de Jesus, which has about 7.5 tons of gold coating its interior. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed, but I can attest that it was an impressive sight. On our way out, we saw a painting that showed the heathens in hell, receiving their respective punishments. Because indigenous people were not allowed in the church at the time, this painting near the entrance served as a lesson on what one should not do if they want to go to heaven.

The doors of La Compañía de Jesus, coated in gold leaf

Our final stop was at the top of Cerro El Panecillo, the hill that overlooks Quito. Sitting atop the hill is an impressive statue of a winged virgin Mary, La Virgen del Panecillo, or La Virgen Apocalipta. The story behind the wings is that in one interpretation of the Bible, Mary has to escape an evil snake demon trying to corrupt her holy ways, and she most fly away. Hence the wings.

La Virgen atop el Cerro Panecillo

La Virgen Apocalipta

Obviously, we took a ton of pictures with this statue as well.

The whole group with La Virgen

Our final destination was the hotel, Hotel Quito. (It seems like we’re only staying in hotels that have the same name as the city.) The view from our room overlooked the lower part of Quito, in the foothills of the Andes.

Today, we are departing for the jungle, where we will be hiking around and avoiding mosquitos.