Crazy Horse

I forgot to mention that the horse in yesterday's post was crazy.

Shortly after I took the picture below, the horse turned around and bit Flor on the shoulder. Luckily the horse mostly got a mouthful of Flor's wool jacket, which probably didn't taste too good. The horse let her go after just a couple of seconds. After the initial shock wore off, Flor and I were able to smile, although we were a little shaken, because the situation could have turned out to be serious.

All smiles here!

Yellow Flor

Yellow horse

Back to work

Remembering Quito

Flor and I were looking at these photos last night and reminiscing about Quito. We can't wait to return. We'll be there in early June. Quito looks more beautiful to us by night than it does by day. All of the night photos from the past couple of days were taken on the same night, and it was just an ordinary night, nothing special. There are people walking around like this all the time. There was a concert that night, but that is nothing unusual for Quito. After all, Quito is the capital of Ecuador, with a population of 3,000,000 people, embassies from every nation in the world, several theaters and art centers, and lots of tourists.  It is pretty easy to find cultural events during the week.

This was around 8:00 P.M. Some people say that the center of Quito is a place to avoid at night. That has not been my experience. Then again, I don't push the envelope too much. I don't stay out much past 8:00 P.M. unless there is a concert or something, and even then I go right home afterwards. It also helps to walk in groups. Still, I have never felt the heebie-jeebies in the center of Quito at night, which is not true of everywhere I've been in Ecuador. I guess I'll cross my fingers and hope that my good luck continues. It might not be luck, either. I believe there is something to the idea that we find what we are looking for.

Flor on a colorful street

Church window

A busy street

This horse was pulling a carriage around for hire.

Here is the carriage.

Night walk in Quito III

Flor and Pablo

Flor and Pablo in front of a church (El Carmen Bajo?)

A street

Carondelet, East side of Plaza de Independencia, Virgen de Quito visible on El Panecillo

North side of Plaza de Independencia

Night walk in Quito continued

Flor and Pablo

A street

A meeting place

Pablo and friends. Flor took this shot.

Night walk in Quito

This statue is on the west (uphill) side of la Basílica

A corner of La Basílica

Flor and her brother Pablo

The view east from La Basílica, down Carchi Street

Stopping at a store

Skies over Quito

Here is a nice picture of color in the Quito sky a little bit before sunset. This is looking up Avenida Universitaria from Avenida America. (I think!)

Quito doesn't often have colorful sunsets. The sun is still high above the horizon when it goes down behind Mount Pichincha to the west of Quito, so the sunlight hasn't had a chance to separate into colors. Often too, the sky around Mount Pichincha is completely filled with clouds from the afternoon thunderstorms. I used to complain that I missed nice sunsets in Quito, so when Flor saw this photo she made sure that I blogged it. Once in a while the sky can be colorful in Quito.

For those who haven't lived on the equator, the sunrises and sunsets are very regular. The sun comes up more or less at 6:00 A.M. every day, and sets at more or less 6:00 P.M. every night. It is not perfect. There are maybe 5-20 minutes of variation in the times, depending on the time of year. But the variation is much smaller than it is at more northern and southern latitudes. I got used to judging the time pretty accurately from where the sun was in the sky.

Pintag

These pictures are of Pintag, a small town east of Quito. I have been through Pintag a couple of times, to get into the mountains near Antisana, a large extinct volcano that is visible from Quito.

I wish now that I had taken more photos of Pintag when I was there. The architecture is nothing special, but the surrounding scenery is very green and beautiful. Maybe the background in this first picture gives a sense of that. If you right click on the picture and open it in a new tab, there is a little more resolution.

The church in Pintag.

More from El Centro de Quito

I have been blogging photos from the center of Quito for a few days now. All of the photos were taken on the same day. Here are the last few photos I want to share from that day. Then I'm going to move on to something different for while.

There are a lot of loose dogs in Quito, at least there were the last time I was there. Pet ownership has gone up quite a bit in the past ten years in Ecuador, and there is now a need for some sort of animal control, whereas there was not in the past. This guy is just hanging out, but sometimes you see small packs of dogs, and there is nobody to call to take care of them. Usually nothing happens, but I have seen news of attacks on the television. I am used to being around animals, but there has been a time or two when I was intimidated on the street in Quito by dogs. Probably here in the center of the city loose animals never get to be a huge problem, because it is such an important area of the city, with the government, that they would do something about the dogs before it got to that point. But in neighborhoods away from the center of the city, you can be startled by a group of loose dogs running towards you in the street.

I love the clouds in this picture. Quito is gray a lot of the time. I enjoy the chance to wear long-sleeved shirts and sweaters. Quito can also be very hot and sunny. It depends on the day and the time of year.

I'm not sure what this building is--maybe the old library? This is a typical street scene in the center of Quito. Lots of people, lots of activity.

Almost all of the buildings in the center of Quito have balconies. It is the colonial Spanish style of architecture. I love this guy walking down the street, just thinking to himself. I've spent a lot of time doing the same thing in the center of Quito.

I blogged a house in Ambato where Flor's family had an apartment when she was a child. Here is another place they lived, in the center of Quito. The building to the right of the church is apartments. Flor's family had the doorway closest to the church. The apartment was interior. They couldn't see the street.

El Panecillo

Here is El Panecillo, Quito's most distinctive landmark. This is the Space Needle or the Eiffel Tower of Quito.

The Virgin of Quito is the landmark, but El Panecillo, which means bread roll in Spanish, is what everybody calls it. El Panecillo is the name of the hill, which is small and round like a roll.

This was the beginning of the heavy metal concert that I mentioned in an earlier post. This is the Plaza of San Francisco. The concert doesn't look like much, but it was loud. This is about as close as I wanted to get. The bands were local. Interestingly, a number of hard rock bands put Quito on their tours, and there is a kind of scene here. AeroSmith was the last band through.



Here is a close up of the Virgin of Quito. What surprised me about this statue when I finally made it up there was its size. It is much bigger than it looks like from below. The ring below her feet is actually an observation deck that you can climb up to. There are some people near the base of the statue to use for reference.

Avenida José de Sucre

I took this picture standing next to Compañía de Jesús (in yesterday's post) looking east down Avenida José de Sucre.

There was a loud outdoor heavy metal concert that day a few blocks away. These might have been fans on their way to the show.

Flor is waiting for me to stop taking pictures.

This is no longer Sucre Avenue. I think it is Calle Guayaquil. At any rate, the view is south towards El Panecillo.

Street of the Seven Crosses

These pictures are from the Calle de Siete Cruces, or Street of Seven Crosses. The real name of the street is Gabriel Garcia Moreno, after a two-term President of Ecuador in the 1800s.

Gabriel Garcia Moreno forms the western border of La Plaza de Independencia. The pictures in today's post were taken just south of the plaza.

The first picture is of La Compañia de Jesús, a very famous church. The next three are street scenes. You can see crosses in a few of the pictures.

Plaza de Independencia

Here are some pictures of the Plaza de Independencia. This area is the center of activity for Quito's historic center, although there are several other important plazas in Quito's historic center. Ecuador's presidential estate, Carondelet, overlooks Plaza de Independencia. An important church, Catedral Metropolitano, is located here, and the Catholic Church in Quito also has its headquarters on the plaza.

But apart from the important buildings, which are everywhere around the plaza as well as in the plaza itself, it is people that give life to Plaza de Independencia. I took these pictures on a particularly busy day, but there are always a lot of people here. People rush through in a hurry to get somewhere, or buy an ice cream cone and sit on the benches.

This view of the plaza is from the front of Catedral Metropolitano, looking out.

Carondelet, the presidential palace.

A view across the plaza in front of Carondelet. A group of dancers is doing the ribbon dance, a traditional dance that you can see if you catch one of Ecuador's International Ballet companies. I didn't notice the dance when I took the picture, but I can see the ribbons here, tied to a pole in the background on the right.

To the left of the dancers up a hill is Ipiales, a market with a little bit of everything, which used to spill out onto the street and was a very colorful area. The vendors have been moved indoors now.

I took this shot of Catedral Metropolitano at a funny angle. Plaza de Independencia is flat, not inclined as it appears here.

Towards Plaza de Independencia

Here are some photos of the area between La Basílica (which I've been blogging the past couple of days) and Plaza de Independencia (which I will blog tomorrow).

I really like this section of Quito, for the architecture and the quiet. Plaza de Independencia is not quiet, but these streets just to the north are.

Just a building on a street.

A high school in front of La Basílica.

Another view towards Plaza de Independencia, with El Panecillo a little bit closer than in yesterday's picture. Check out the details in the yellow building.

I've asked Flor if people live in these buildings. She says that some people do, but that many of the buildings have been converted to office space.

Blue Building near La Basílica

This blue building was next to La Basílica, the church I blogged about yesterday. Here are a few views that all have this blue building in common.

The streets around La Basílica are usually quiet like this. Other areas in Quito's historic center are crowded and noisy. I will blog more photos of Quito's historic center later in the week.

In the distance on the bottommost photo you can see the Virgen de Quito on El Panecillo, Quito's most famous landmark.