Traveling with the Bills in South America: Looking back at Quito from Mindo, part 2

September 18, 2011

So what did we learn in Quito? Quite a lot as it turns out, but don’t worry I’ll only mention a few things, just enough to paint a small picture of what we saw. The Andes, one of the world’s great mountain ranges, runs north to south right down the middle of this beautiful little county, the second smallest in South America. At nearly 9,000 feet in elevation, in an elongated basin between two much taller ridges, sits the capital of Quito. To the west the mountains slope down through misty cloud forests to the coast, 500 miles beyond which lie Galapagos, the islands made famous by our patron saint, Charles Darwin. On the other side of Quito, past a dozen or more towering snow caped volcanoes (some of them active), the east slope of the Andes drops away to the equally famous Amazon Basin, with its jungles of tropical luxuriance and still wild tribes of Amerindians.

Quito enjoys a nearly perfect climate of perpetual spring-sunny mornings which warm with the sun, beautiful clouds in the afternoon bringing showers, giving way to chilly nights. The city is an odd mix of centuries old colonial buildings, not so pretty sky scrapers, and flat-roofed shacks of the poor climbing the hills. The Spanish took over the place a long time ago, in 1534, building the beautiful old town (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) on the backs of the local Indians and black slaves brought in from the Caribbean. Lovely plazas, arch ways, courtyards, and impressive chapels and cathedrals are the results of their labors. The Spanish also brought a new language and new customs. (Friends greet each other by kissing a cheek.) The city now has a European feel with whiff of the third world. Its population is a mixed bag, ranging from fair skinned cosmopolitans of mostly Spanish descent, to pure blooded Indians, with a large middle class of mestizos in between. For the most part, the people are quiet and self-contained, but once you make contact they are quite friendly, even sweet. Indian women wear their traditional fedoras, white shirts and full length colorful skirts. Most of the others are well groomed and dressed conservatively in dull colors. Blue Jeans are few, as are tattoos and mohawks!. An ample breakfast, a large mid-day meal of slow foods, with little in the way of supper, and lots of walking leaves most of the people trim and well-proportioned. The streets are clogged with slow moving cars, many of which are made in China. Pedestrians have no rights, but if you hit one punishment can be severe. Driving here is like playing poker- lots of bluffing and calling of hands. Horns are well, but seldom used, often accompanied by the appropriate hand gesture.

I limp along with my minimal Spanish but Jeri’s facility with this rapid fire language grows with everyday. The locals are wonderfully forgiving of our frequent errors. We see hardly any other foreign tourists which gives a “first time” feeling to our trip. Taxis are reasonably priced and easy to use, and those of you know Jeri well won’t be surprised to learn that by consulting her map she often tells the driver where to go before he figures it out, proving once again that in former lives she was both a cartographer and a very capable executive.

I will leave you with an astounding fact- the prohibition against using a mobile phone while driving is actually enforced here. When the phone of one of drivers started to ring, he stopped in the middle of the lane on a rural road, turned the engine off, and proceeded with a conversation. I said it was astounding. Maybe a better word would be sensible.