Friday, December 28, 2018- Quito Tour
View from our Room
We had to set an alarm to get up in time to make it to breakfast at the 7:30 agreed upon time. When Janet and Ben arrived, Jack, Sharon and Terri were already eating. Mark C and Jan were next to arrive, followed by John and Price. Then Riley showed up, followed shortly by Mark B and the rest of his family. We learned that the Mark C and Mark B parties had both arrived after 2AM due to flight delays between Atlanta and Quito. But at least everyone had arrived safely. Ciara and Tom were the last to arrive at breakfast.
Sharon, Jack and Terri
Mark C and Jan C
Riley, Erin, Drake, Konrad and Mark B
Jack, Price, John, Tom and Ciara
The NH Collection Hotel breakfast buffet was well provisioned with high quality food. They had an unusually complete selection of fresh fruit, since everything is always in season in Ecuador. There were a wide selection of pastries, breads, cheeses, prepared meats, a custom omlet station, quiche, saffron rice with chicken and plantains, and a wide selection of fruit juices and smoothies. There were items for any dietary requirement.
Janet had a rough night with restlessness, nausea and a severe headache- all signs of acute altitude illness. This had developed despite taking a prophylactic acetazolamide dose of 125mg the night before. She went back to the room, where she promptly lost her breakfast. She was then started on more aggressive medications for altitude illness, including bumping her acetazolamide dose to 250mg twice daily, and giving her a bolus of dexamethasone 8mg and ondansetron 4mg to stop the nausea and headache. Fortunately, within a half hour, Janet was back to ambulatory status and was able to rejoin the group in the lobby for our first group photo of this Galapagos adventure.
Notice how clean and happy everyone looks!
Anna Maria introduced us to our driver for the day, Marcelo, who showed up with a very nice tour bus for our group. The bus must have had a seating capacity of around 40, so there were plenty of empty seats, and plenty of room for everyone to be comfortably situated. The bus had air conditioning, and even had USB ports overhead that could be used to charge our devices. No Wifi, though.
Our Quito Tour Bus.
As we drove through the streets of Quito, we noticed street vendors selling large inventories of nearly life sized character effigies from popular culture and politics. Anna Maria explained to us that one tradition Ecuadorians have at the end of each year is the burning of effigies to represent the passing of the old year, and rebirth of the new year. Ecuadorians write out all the bad things that happened to them over the last year on the effigies, and then set them ablaze, sometimes accompianied by fireworks and loud music. Another part of this tradition involves picking out colored underwear- Red for love, Yellow for success and White for good health. Also, the effigies are invariably male characters, leaving behind “widows”, who are depicted by men who cross dress as women in celebrations all over Ecuador during this season of festivities.
Effigies for burning to celebrate Feliz Año 2019!
RIP, this guy in 3 days.
Other common sights on the streets of Quito are urban tagging on most vertical flat surfaces, and street hawkers who walk up and down between traffic lanes at intersections offering everything from windshield washing, to sweetened colorful meringue treats and plaintain chips. It’s a wonder more people don’t get run down in the hectic and heavy traffic. Traffic cops ride around on dirt bikes, and are quite numerous.
Our first scheduled stop for the day is the Inti-ñan Museum, situated on the equator as confirmed by military grade GPS in the early 2000’s. This was a very interesting and worthwhile museum with exhibits on the flora, fauna and people of Ecuador, as well as the scientific oddities that exist around the equator.
There are exhibits on the indigenous people of the Amazon who inhabit the inland Amazonian basin region that makes up the eastern part of Ecuador. They had exhibits on how to make a shrunken head, and why this was done. They even had one of the infamous fish that swims up the end of a man’s penis if given the opportunity. NEVER PEE IN THE AMAZON WHILE SKINNY DIPPING!
Ben and Janet
Jan and Mark C
John, Price, Ciara and Tom
John has a shrunken head on his shoulder.
Burial mound reproduction
We also learned about cocoa cultivation and production. Ecuadorian cultivars are unique in that they can pick up flavors and characteristics of nearby plants, so they can produce extraordinary chocolate. We got to taste the fruit of the cocoa that surrounds the seeds, which are roasted to produce the cocoa butter and powder. It was faintly reminiscent of mango. That lead to the sale of a few Ecuadorian chocolate bars.
Konrad masters balancing a raw egg on the Equator.
Tom takes the Equatorial sobriety walk- Not So Easy!
Most people found it nearly impossible to do a sobriety test along the actual equator. Supposedly, our inner ears are tuned to the subtle inertial and gravitational fluctuations off the equator that help us maintain our balance.
The most inexplicable phenomenon though was the effect of standing on the equator on muscular strength and performance. Mark B and his wife were amazed by the fact that when standing just 6 feet off the equator, Mark B was able to keep his thumb and index finger closed so that Erin was unable to pry them apart. But when they repositioned to directly over the equator, Erin had no trouble prying Mark’s thumb and index finger apart. They repeated this experiment many times out of disbelief. Our tiny Ecuadorian docent wasn't able to defeat Konrad in a test of strength 6 feet off the equator, but on the equator, she was easily able to defeat him and all challengers. Ben speculated that they had actually buried a piece of kryptonite under the line painted over the equator and that Ecuadorians are immune to its effect.
Tiny Ecuadorian Guide + Equator Gravity beat American Strength
Coriolus Effect: Fact, not Myth
We were also surprised at how easily they could demonstrate the Coriolus Effect within just 6 feet of the equator. They had a portable sink basin with a plug in the center. The docent filled the sink with a bucket and then pulled the plug while the sink was directly over the equator. She floated a leaf on the water to demonstrate the movement of the water, and sure enough, on the equator, the water drained straight out with no rotation of the leaf. Then she picked up the basin and moved it just 6 feet off the equator to the north, repeating the experiment. Amazingly, the water clearly rotated counter clockwise out the drain. Then she moved the basin just 6 feet south of the equator and clearly showed the water draining in a clockwise manner. We were amazed by this simple demonstration of science. We have been north and south of the equator and tried to demonstrate this same effect, but with variable success.
Video of Coriolis Effect Demonstration
Video of Coriolis Effect Demonstration
The weather was overcast with a temperature in the upper 70’s- warmer than the Weather.com forecast. Rain as also forecast, but we didn’t get rained on at all, so we were very fortunate regarding the weather.
Guarding the French Equator
Our next stop was a park with an elaborate monument marking the “French Equator”, which happens to be 250m off the actual equator as currently defined by satellite technology. The monument stands just under 100’ tall and is topped with a 15’ diameter 5 ton globe. It contains many science museum exhibits regarding the equator, but much of it was under renovation. The elevator was broken, so we had to climb up nearly 100’ to get to the viewing platform at the top. The fact that we were at over 9300ft in altitude compounded the magnitude of that climb. That was a real cardio workout.
Through some mix up between the site adminstrators and Royal Galapagos tours, Ben had to front $100 to re-purchase admission for our group, even though admission was included in the Galapagos tour price. Fortunately, they reimbursed Ben in a matter of 2 hours at lunch. While the view from the observation deck is nice, it certainly wasn’t nearly as interesting or informative as the Inti-ñan Museu, but the site is pretty much an obligatory photo stop for anyone visiting Quito.
We then drove back into Quito to a hillside overlooking Old Town. El Panecillo is the site of a huge monument celebrating the Virgin Mary. It is Quito’s counterpart to Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer. The volcanic hilltop stands at 9895ft in altitude and the monument stands 135ft tall overlooking Quito. El Panecillo is Spanish for "little bread loaf" and refers to the shape of the hill when viewed from the valley below.
UNESCO world heritage site, Old Town Quito ahead.
The Dancer or Virgen de Quito looks out over Old Town.
The statue was constructed in 1976 by Spanish artist Agustín de la Herrán Mattoras. She is made up of 7000 pieces of aluminum (Hey, she's recyclable!) and is a replica of the Quito Baroque Art School's original by Bernado de Legarda entitled "The Dancer" or "Virgen de Quito". It is notable that this 1734 sculpture was the first representing the Virgin Mary in motion- practically dancing- a radical departure from the static iconography of the era. The angel wings derive from her description as the Woman of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation (12:1-18)
Incan cistern at El Panecillo
In typical Spanish Conquistador custom, El Panecillo was originally an aboriginal temple of Sun worship, which was destroyed by the Conquistadors, but traces of their labors remains. An elaborate stone work Incan cistern remains at the foot of hill where the Virgen de Quito stands.
We headed down into Old Town Quito proper, which is characterized by pre-18th century construction, narrow streets and recently designated UNESCO’s best preserved world heritage site of its kind. Traffic in this area is unbelievable. The streets are impossibly narrow and congested, yet the traffic manages to flow despite the total absence of traffic lights or stop signs. It moves like blood cells in the capillaries of some living creature. The skill and experience of our bus driver are to be commended as he maneuvered our bus effortlessly through the morass. I would not recommend attempting to rent a car and drive into Old Town Quito. It is two orders of magnitude worse than the worst Bostonian traffic.
The first order of business as lunch, which was at Cafe Del Fraile, an elegant and comfortable establishment in Old Town, just off the central square. They offered a wide variety of food choices including vegetarian, milkshakes, and customary Ecuadorian specialties. The food was well prepared, delicious, and nobody left hungry. We were technically on our own for lunch and dinner, but Anna Maria was very helpful in picking out this restaurant, which suited our needs quite well and handled our credit cards and splitting up the bills with ease and grace. Conveniently, there was a decent bathroom within steps of our tables.
Next we did a walking tour of the Old Town Square and two of its more iconic churches. The first church was an example of Spanish excesses. It was covered with gold over most of its interior. The other was a much more modest respectful place of worship. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside, but weren’t aware of this until after we had snapped a few. Fortunately, the guards did not confiscate our phones.
Plaza Grande or Plaza de la Independencia
Palacio del Gobierno- Presidential Palace
Courtyard of Metropolitan Museum of Quito
Courtyard of Metropolitan Museum of Quito
Courtyard of Metropolitan Museum of Quito
Courtyard of Metropolitan Museum of Quito
La Compañía de Jesus
La Compañía de Jesus
La Compañía de Jesus
La Compañía de Jesus
La Compañía de Jesus
La Compañía de Jesus
Iglesia de Santo Domingo
Iglesia de Santo Domingo
Iglesia de Santo Domingo
Iglesia de Santo Domingo
Iglesia de Santo Domingo
Virgen de Quito watches from El Panecillo
Street Vendor makes a sale.
Kids play while Moms sell to Tourists
That pretty much concluded our tour, which seemed to be a good introduction to the city of Quito. As we headed back to the hotel, the bus dropped off a group of wannabe shoppers at a local craft artisan market about a mile from the hotel. Jack and Sharon had discovered it when they had arrived earliest of all of the groups to Quito, and had a whole morning to kill by wandering the streets around the hotel. We found many good buys of local made goods including scarves, sweaters, coin purses, and even a guinea pig doll made of Alpaca fur.
We had learned that we will not be allowed to bring alcohol onboard the EcoGalaxy without paying a substantial fee. Jack had brought some rum, so he invited the John, Price, Ciara and Tom to help him finish off that bottle with some Coke. That made for mini party to celebrate our conquest of Quito. We have to hit the sack early and hit the curb by 5:15AM to catch our flight from Quito to Balta Island in the Galapagos Islands tomorrow. Better set a couple of alarm clocks.
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