Quito Part 1

QUITO, the great surprise

"Friiiiooo!!!! Peligrooooosoooo!!!! No tan lindo!!"

And all that stuff.

That's what we heared about Quito before we arrived.

I guess we are lucky then, since:

• Our warm clothes stay nicely packed in the bottom of our bags,
• For a capital, Quito is not more dangerous than cities like Paris and definitely less than Bogota,
• We don't need more than a couple of pictures below to prove that Quito is just a BEAUTIFUL place to visit and to live in.

You doubt it? We like it. A perfect excuse for us to share... the following.

A recap of our path from Ibarra to Quito

First amazing side of Quito: the high mountains, surrounding the city. Still, before reaching the valley of Quito, you have to climb A LOT!!

Entering Quito. Still 20 km to reach the historical center!!

View of Quito - Basilica side

Quito under the eye of the Cotopaxi volcano...
See the white dome in the middle top, above the clouds, covered with snow? That's it!

Place of the governor's house with the mountains behind

View from the enormous Metropolitan park

As you can see, Quito is hilly.

If you could look from the top, this is about what you would see:

Huge landscape model from Quito - Museo de ciencia de Quito

Let's now dive in the historical center. A beautiful set of colorful colonial buildings...

Picture selection from Quito's old architectural center

So, still looking for the cold, the naughty faces and the ugly face of this capital?
Well, we didn't find it yet!

So, you want more of Quito?? Here you go!

Ow the nice patio, with nice restaurants, delicious coffee and hand-craft creations!

And of course, as usual, universities and schools over here are simply beauties.

University in Quito, located in the Cultural Center.

Terrace from the University / centro cultural

Ok. There is much more about the old center but it's time for you to learn some bloody stories about Quito...

Garcia Moreno and the seven crosses

In colonial times, the Spanish conquistador marked the catholic domination in erecting seven crosses in front of seven illustrious monuments built in the most symbolic street of the city: the Garcia Moreno street, as it is called today. In Inca times, this street connected the temple of the sun with the temple of the Moon. Today, the name of this street is a reminder of Gabriel Garcia Moreno, 3 times president of Ecuador: in 1861, 1867 and 1875 - good job!!

Gabriel Garcia Moreno

His story as a president is quite a strike - and full of events so let's recap it as much as possible! He started his presidency with an empty treasury, a huge debt and a country ruled by corruption. Good luck mate! Still, he managed to improve the finances of its country, used the money he retrieved from the corruption for Ecuadorian infrastructure, increased foreign interest for his country, among other actions. He apparently also used a lot of indigenous as cheap labor work - yep, slavery...

However, his radical way of fighting for the economy of Ecuador raised some animosity. After his third election, a priest reminded him that danger was close: "You have been warned that your death was decreed by the Freemasons; but you have not been told when. I have just heard that the assassins are going to try and carry out their plot at once. For God's sake, take your measures accordingly!"

Well, a couple of hours after, he was assassinated by one man striking him down with 6 blows of machete and, just to make sure, 3 other men firing with 3 revolvers...

You never know, a manchete...

Nowadays, the city of Quito gave Garcia Moreno's name to one of its most important streets, where you can admire amazing churches and other monuments. And Quito is full of them - just look below!

Like everywhere we have been in South-America, catholic churches rule the place. The cool thing in Quito is, that each church has its own style. Gothic, full of gold, pink and white, rounded, squared...

That's why we have been so surprised - and a bit relieved to feel like we could breath again! - when we entered the Basilica del Voto Nacional.

Inside, the Basilica is impressive by its height and (appreciated) emptiness. Outside, it is amazingly HUGE! The images below try to show how big it is and how beautiful the details are but well, you now, it always looks better in reality!

Ok. Still so much to talk about but... we still want to show you the new center, its parks and buildings, the volcanoes around Quito, the rain-forest, its butterflies and humming birds... And we also would love to introduce you to Esteban and Nancy!! Which is too much. As much as the amount of food we eat since we met them ;-)

So you know what? Since I already uploaded stunning pictures from Guayasamin paintings - Guayasawhat?? - let's have a look at it and close the Duntchies chapter for today. A new post will follow soon! With everything we listed above.

GUAYASAMIN

A big WOW!! for this Ecuadorian artist (1919 - 1999)

Anaëlle has been the only one visiting the museum, with Nancy, the girlfriend of Esteban, brother of Juan-Carlos, Anaëlle's friend. Ok, whatever. (I know what you want to implie with this... you French!)

Nancy and Anaëlle in the garden of Guayasamin's house, in front of the museum's roof - and Quito behind.

And that's what Anaëlle would say about Guayasamin's work of art: "I have no clue how to describe my feelings except that I deeply felt in love with Guayasamin's paintings and sculptures. So you know what? Just show pictures."

Ok well, let's start with the artist himself.

Guayasamin in action

El Mestizaje, Anaëlle's big crush (after Arthur of course)
Realize the size of the painting

Guayasamin was born in a very poor family. But within his life time, thanks to his success, he earned enough money to build an amazing house (see pictures below) that he already thought has a museum. And, in parallel, he created with the city of Quito the Capilla del Hombre (the Chapel of Man) museum. He worked on the architecture of the museum and painted some works of art directly on the walls or on the roof, as you can see on the left.

Unfortunately, he died before the completion of the museum.

The main subject in Guayasamin's paintings was linked with violence and suffer in Latin America - and further, around the world. He painted many faces with striking expressions. And has a very specific way of painting hands...
I don't have the names of all the paintings - couldn't find some.

Las Manos de la Protesta

Below: Hands, Anger period (1963-1965)

The insatiable, The beggar, Scream, Tenderness

Lagrimas de Sangre - 1973

Rostro y Mano - 1995

Hambre

Cabeza - 1993

Below some chosen paintings, that I put together in some kind of patchwork.

Secundaria

And now some more peaceful faces :-)

Los Amantes

El Gritto (The Face)

Cabeza y dos manos

Bull and Condor

I guess the bull represents the Spanish conquistador and the condor the indigenous victory. I guess...

Paisaje de Quito

Ciudad de Quito

Et bam! Some wise words before we bring you to less heavy subjects ;-)

Let's visit Guayasamin's house. Well... we were not allowed to take pictures from the inside, which is a shame for the structure is stunning! However, I could find some shots on Internet.

Above, the house from outside. I could deal with that!

Below, one of the rooms. I would change some decoration!

All the objects, sculptures, paintings were bought by Guayasamin are for some, his creation.

Some shots from the arches around his terrace...

And finally some other shots from the house inside.

Anaëlle's favorite sculpture, below, among those she saw from the artist.

That's all folks for this post!

Rendez-vous in a couple of days for the following stories about Quito, beautiful Capital of Ecuador, its new center and stunning environment!!

A&A