Another bus, another city…
Long Walks and a fear of heights
It never pays to rush, as eventually it will mean having to go back to spend more money and time on the same thing that you rushed through. Then again, I won’t mind having to travel through South America again. The portion between Colombia and Peru was a quick mad dash through Ecuador’s capital, Quito. I had spent a few days too many in the first two countries, and I wanted to keep to my rough estimate of arriving in Cusco sometime around the 17th of the month. Quito, however, and Ecuador as a whole, requires much more time than I had allotted (and I haven’t even talked about or thought about the Galapagos islands). Together with my host, I had worked out a nice schedule for the full day that I would spend exploring the capital, and it covered many miles on foot. The first location was the Contemporary Art Centre, only a short kilometre and a half from my host’s home. I sauntered along the roads and alleys, carefully following the digital map on my mobile. As much as I had walked and exerted myself in the previous two countries, Quito became the true starting point of my long walks and meanderings through the towns and cities of South America.
Contemporary arts centre interior, a wonderful space
The Contemporary Art Centre is situated in a fabulously restored building that has served many different purposes; from barracks to a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients to a military hospital. Although the exhibits were still minimal, the space is fabulous and would be perfect for a movie set. From the Centre I made my way to the towering Basilica of the National Vow which is situated at the historic centre of Quito. This Roman Catholic church is the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas (and by that I mean all of the Americas, North, South, and Central). I am always fascinated by structures such as these: churches, cathedrals, basilicas, temples, mosques, or whatever building humans have put up in which to express their various forms of worship. Invariably they are a lesson in architecture, art (religious and secular), belief systems, and history; they are also in direct contravention of the second commandment which prohibits the creation of any graven images… but for artistic purposes, however, such places are treasure troves.
The Basilica towers
90 Metres up, looking down at the street…..
I wandered through the basilica, taking in the sculptures and the art works, then decided to climb the steps into the towers leading to the roof and the balcony from where there is a magnificent view of the city. I made it up to about the 50 metre level, where a walkway of wooden planks allows you to walk across the roof of the transept to reach one set of towers. Walking out onto the platform, there was an added set of steps going up to the next level, an additional 20 metres or so. These steps ended on another platform from where you can look across the actual roof. A further set of steps leads up from this platform to the third and final observation point, but when I looked at the thin iron rods that made up this contraption, and through which, looking down I would have been able to see the street-level below me, my heart sank into my shoes, and I slowly backed away from the chasm and rungs, grasping the handrail tightly, while I slowly reversed my course to the safety of the balcony below, and the wooden planks that would bring me safely back to a space where I would not suffer from acrophobia.
Across the transept – wooden walkway…
The towers reach (for me at least) a dizzying height of 115 metres, with the third observation platform at approximately 90 metres or thereabouts. I was more than happy to stay at my 50 metre level. Descending from the towers I gazed out over the city, creating a mental map of my next destination and the route to get to the market area, the Plaza Grande, and several other sites along the way. There really is so much to see and experience in this city, and I simply didn’t have enough time.
Rich treasures ignored by the ‘Selfie’ crowd
I continued my walk and entered several more churches along the route before arriving at the Biblioteca Gonzalez Suarez, where I simply got lost… So I am a nerd, so what. If you want to give me a really great present, all you need to do is take me to a national museum, a huge bookstore, or a national library, and I can happily spend several hours to an entire day there (in the case of the Met in New York, or the Louvre in Paris, or some similar such place anywhere in the world – just give me a ticket). For the next two and a half hours I wandered the halls of the library, and checked out the various galleries, exhibits, and collections.
Interior of Basilica – the largest in the Americas
Earlier in the day I had been in a church library and looked at some of the manuscripts on display, while at the same time lusting for a peek at some of the other manuscripts haphazardly stored on dusty and musty shelves. There are so many rich treasures to be found in these places, and more often than not, they are corners ignored by the tourist hordes who swoop down, take pictures of gilded statues and then leave, satisfied that they have seen all the glories of the world, yet ignorant of the fact that they have only barely scratched the surface (which is why I prefer to travel alone, instead of on a group tour. I am not a difficult person to travel with, just give me my libraries and museums and nature walks, and don’t pester me with itineraries filled with shopping opportunities, if I want some luxury, I will order it online.
