Colonial Quito

Still in Quito you say?  Yes, it is a huge city with stuff.  Lots of stuff.  After living and traveling on a boat, cities are fascinating to me with all the hustle and bustle of traffic, horns, lights, smells, cab drivers and buses, languages foreign and more foreign.  Everyone with someplace to go, things to do, and we were no exception.  We had touristy things to do before we headed to the airport for our anticipated trip home.  

Quito is divided into districts so it's fairly easy to get around and map out your day.  An entire day was devoted to the historical center, or old town of Quito.  If you like old buildings, this city was awarded the First Cultural Heritage of Humanity and American Capital of Culture in 2011.  It's over 5 centuries old.  I won't bore you with descriptions but some of the churches here are unbelievable.  One of them took 160 years to build and has over 52 kilos of 23 carat-gold leaf adorning the walls and statues.  There is a painting in one called the "Hell and the Last Judgement" by Brother Hernando de la Cruz from 1620.  A massive work of art depicting the "breaking of the big 10 sins" people standing in judgement in hell,waiting.  The colors and activity in that painting alone could keep you standing there for hours.   Most of these places you're not allowed to take pictures.  One of the churches has an 1104-pipe organ that is still used for special concerts.  The streets throughout this part of the city are brick, the buildings multi-colored and adorned with more carvings and ornate iron work than anywhere I've ever seen.  Some of the tile work is interlaced with the back vertebrae of animals giving white geometric symmetry to the tile stones.  Take a stroll through Old Quito with a few photos:  

Look at the church at the end of the street.  I wanted to go but the hills had become too much.

Hell and Last Judgement

What a great few days we had here.  Now it's time to get on a plane and head back to Texas for a few weeks.  Adventure awaits there too.