Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Ecuador day 3: conjugating cathedral.

Our third day in Ecuador was similar to day 2 except with harder school and better churches.  
Drew and our teacher Angelica in our private classroom. We worked on verbs this day.
All the students at Aiola Spanish School this week during our daily break. Drew and I are probably the second and third oldest students.
After school we grabbed some lunch at a restaurant out of the tourist area. It was the best food we had had since our arrival, but I paid for it, big time later that night. Something did NOT agree with me.
Our big activity of the day was to go tour the Basilica. It's late and I am typing this with Drew snoozing beside me, so I can't give all the facts now, but this church is not as old as some. It is, however, the largest in South America.
By largest, I mean huge! The stone is not nearly as elaborate as the other churches we have seen, but the height and architecture are awesome, as in awe inspiring.
Look at the size of these doors!
$2 got us inside, which was impressive to say the least, but another $2 got us up in the towers. We first went to the south turret tower. To get there you had to walk across this sketchy plank walkway that traversed OVER the stone ceiling of the church. 
After the plank and a short steep ladder (where Drew called it off) I climbed the craziest tourist attraction I have probably ever done. This ladder/stairs with no cage, guide wires, warning signs, or protective devices of any kind was at least 300 feet in the air. I felt somewhat brave until I saw a local negotiating the ladder one handed while holding his toddler.
But the views of the city and the 150 m twin clock towers were spectacular!
 

We also went over to the twin tower side and I climbed up one of the towers. This is looking back at the turret where I had just been. If you look closely, you can see people in ,the turret.
We also went over to the twin tower side and I climbed up one of the towers. We were actually inside looking out from behind the clock face.
This is looking back at the turret where I had just been. If you look closely, you can see people in ,the turret. The view from the clock tower was even more spectacular than from the turret, I think. I was something like 350 feet up in the air in a stone building in an area prone to earthquakes.
A very cool feature of this church is that the "gargoyles" are in the form of Ecuadorean animals. This one is the frigate bird.

Enough pictures of the basilica. I will say, it was the most impressive structure I have ever been in.

We headed back to our hostel it try to open the bottle of wine we bought without a cork screw. We have up and went to a great restaurant just steps from our hostel.
Microbrews on tap!
The restaurant is run by an expat from New Orleans. He has his two sons working the 5 tables, one of which couldn't have been more than 7. The PoBoy sandwiches were great and we sat next to a man from Portland who had worked with Drew's uncle!
Except the intestinal distress I experienced through the night, day 3 was a fun day in Historic Quito. 

3 comments:

  1. What an amazing view from both those towers. I was a bit freaked out for you being up so high! Glad the intestinal distress held off until the evening... wouldn't want to be way up there when it came on!

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    1. Yes, for sure! Although there was a coffee shop and gift shop half way up, of course, in case I needed it.

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    2. Yes, for sure! Although there was a coffee shop and gift shop half way up, of course, in case I needed it.

      Delete