Day 3……….
This morning, I got up early and went to the school with Njål. Eudoxia, the woman in charge of the office, has arranged for a friend of hers to take me on a private tour of Quito. Omar shows up and is a handsome young man who is nice, nice, nice. He immediately starts chatting with me and regardless of his own ability to speak a little English, insists that I speak in only Spanish. This makes me laugh and laugh because no matter how often, how loudly, or how slowly he says, ¨dónde están usted de?¨I still have absolutely NO idea what he is saying! Turns out he is asking where I am from. 🙂
For fifteen minutes we wind our way through the streets of Quito and he peppers me with friendly questions…..in Spanish, of course. I am just starting to realize that this might make for a very long tour when, BAM! We are rear ended by a young man driving an SUV. No worries….we are totally fine!!! But, unfortunately, the cars are not. I get out of the car and step onto the sidewalk, leaning against the wall. I listen for ten minutes while the young man apologizes profusely and Omar looks sadly at the crumpled rear of his car. It doesn’t look like there will be a tour today. 🙁 I feel so badly for Omar….I know he needs his car to make a living and he looks so dejected..
As I lean against the wall, I look up and read the street sign. Mariscal Ave.
Great.
All of the books I have read have said that Mariscal has some of the more, shall we say, unseemly areas of Quito and that it is not all that safe. I look at Omar and tell him that I am going to get a cab back to the school and that I am so sorry for him. He nods sadly and throws out his arm. In matter of 2 seconds a taxi has slid to a stop in front of me and I am on my way back to the school. So, what to do in a situation like this? Call my new friend Patricio!! Within another 15 minutes, I am safely ensconced in his cab, headed for the Cathedral. I am so excited about this cathedral!! Here they call it the Basilica, and it is not even the most famous church in town, but it is huge and gorgeous and I crane my neck out of the window to get a glimpse of it as we maneuver through the curvy, narrow stone streets.
The thing about cathedrals is that, they don’t ever seem to match their surroundings. We are in the midst of cobblestone roads and buildings of pastel colors stretching, literally, as far as you can see. And towering above it all is this immense, dark grey stone structure that truly reaches for the heavens. You see it peeking up and through the neighborhoods, or ´barrios´ as they are known here but it is not until you actually pull up to it that you can see how incredible it really is. Now, someone told me that this is actually neo Gothic, but it looks exactly like every Gothic cathedral I have ever been in. Except….all of the gargoyles are animals!! They have tortoises, alligators, and even armadillos sticking out of the side of the building! It is cool!!
I climb the steps to enter the cathedral and an elderly nun comes out and starts talking away to me. She chatters and chatters! I offer her my hand and help her down the steep steps, all the while she is talking animatedly the entire time!! When we get to the bottom she nods and smiles, saying ´Gracias¨ and gets into a cab. I guess I will never know what she was actually saying to me!! 🙂
I enjoy the Cathedral and luckily enough, they allow photos without flash, so I click away. I understand that you can climb 300 steps and a series of ladders to the very top of the cathedral, but the altitude is still playing havoc with my lungs, so I decide to leave that for another time. Afterwards, I sit and enjoy a coffee while watching the people come and go from the church. This really is my favorite part!!
I finally abandoned my ´cafe with a view´ and make my way back to the very patient Patricio. It is time to go see the church that Quito is most famous for. I am really not sure how it can compare with what I have just enjoyed, but I am happy to go see what all of the fuss is about. We make our way through the heart of the Colonial downtown of Quito and I crick my neck trying to see everything!! The traffic is terrible, but we finally make our way to a parking space and as I get out, I look up to see that Patricio is also getting out. He motions that he will walk with me.
Oh this is SO not what I had in mind!!
Don’t get me wrong….he is very, very nice! But I want to enjoy the heart of Quito for a few hours alone, not feeling like I have a body guard!! I momentarily contemplate giving him the slip, but of course, I would never do that. It was a fun idea, though! We weave our way through the crowds of people….almost all locals. There are not many tourists around, as far as I can tell. Old men are sitting on benches feeding pigeons, children are chasing each other in circles and women are weaving through it all selling bags of fruit that I do not recognize. It is a pretty cool scene.
We make our way up to a church that looks…well, nice and all that, but….no big deal. Patricio waits outside while I pay my 2 dollars and walk through the door.
Oh………my………………goodness…………..
This church is called La Companea. And the inside is plated in over 7 tons of gold. Did you hear that?!?!?!? That would be 14,000 pounds of gold. Imagine every single surface covered with the most ornate patterns imaginable…all gold. I am so sorry because there are no words that I can say that can really make you see what this looks like! It is known as the most beautiful church in all of Latin America and I have to say, I cannot imagine anything on earth being more spectacular than this. Of course, here they do not allow photos, but later I will put some images up on the blog so that you can all enjoy it. All I can say is that I am terribly glad that I came to see it.
Afterwards, we walked down to another church, this one less ornate, but gorgeous in it’s own right. It had beautiful paintings washed over the stone walls and looked old and revered. It was a great church to follow the opulence of La Campanea. Quito has 87 churches and the city is really famous because of that. I wish that I had time to see them all. There is something about old churches that truly moves me. It is not the religion….that is fine, but does not move my soul the way the buildings themselves do. I am just so profoundly touched by the centuries of work and honor that go into each of them. It is something really special.
The day is getting on and I still need to buy shoes, (Njål has insisted that I have tango shoes) 🙂 go to the bank and grab a quick bite before the Tango lesson tonight. This one is for the pros, and I will just be watching. But I am really honored to be included.
After running all of my errands and saying goodbye to Patricio, Njål and I head across town to the University. We walk into a recital hall and I settle onto the floor to watch. Several of the dancers from last night run over and hug and kiss me, while John, the teacher waves and grins at me. These people sure know how to make a girl from Georgia feel welcome and included!!!
The lesson was really fun to watch and I enjoyed chatting with one of the dancers while she waited to join in. When all way said and done, they all decided to go to another Milonga (dance) and invited me to join in. It is after ten o’clock and first they are going to someones home for a private lesson and then to a restaurant for hours of Tango. I know that you will all be terribly disappointed, but I was completely exhausted! Did I mention that our new Tango friends had invited us to go out of town tomorrow sight seeing? I have to get some sleep!!! So, with kisses all around, I made my good-byes and grabbed a taxi back to the house. Another day is done………….