Good Friday in Quito

Yes, it's been a very long time since Easter (more specifically Good Friday) but I still haven't shared these photos with you and I truly want you to see the images of the day.

I recently learned that the procession that takes place through the streets of Quito is the second largest Good Friday procession in the world.  Wow--impressive.  Even more impressive are the sights the presented themselves that day.  There are two images that are almost haunting in their beauty.

Are these not the most amazing faces?  I just love both of them.

These fellows are called cucuruchos and there are hundreds if not thousands of them!  They have something to do with signifying penance.  I want to do a little more research but for now I'm just interested in getting the photos out to you.

I wish I could have gotten better photos but being in such a huge crowd made that nearly impossible.

There were dozens of men carrying crosses as Jesus did.  These were light and they carried the for three miles.  That's no small thing.

There were also floats carried by more penitents.  Again, they carried these for the whole three miles.

This is one of the largest crosses I saw.  It's almost impossible to see here but there are a couple of people helping him carry the cross.  Many of them have helpers but the men actually under the cross were obviously struggling under the weight.  We were much closer to the end than the beginning so no one was as fresh as they were a couple of hours before, when they first got started.

I don't know if you can see how old this man is but I would encourage you to enlarge the photo (just click on it) to get a feel for that.

Another of the floats.

This is a man portraying one of the thieves who was hung next to Jesus.

 I LOVE his face!

...and a final float.

It was an amazing day.  I still have photos to share but they're the odds and ends that didn't fit in with a specific day's theme.  Enjoy.

The Quito Adventure Begins

It's been a while since you've heard from me and there's a reason--I've been exhausted!  It's true, I totally wore out and have taken almost two weeks "off." That's in quotes because I haven't exactly been lying about but I sure haven't been doing what I've become accustomed to.  Here's what's been happening.

A dear friend invited a Cotacachi friend and I to spend Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Quito with she and her family.  We took her up on it and headed down there on Monday, March 25th.  Monday was a pretty quiet day.  We took a bus from Cotacachi to Otavalo and then another one to Quito.  Our friend met us at the bus terminal and took us to Las Palmeras for lunch.  It was fabulous and I didn't even remember to take my camera out of my purse.  Trust me, though, if you ever get to Quito, it's the best!  OK, I have no idea where it is but I can tell you that the food they serve is typical of the Esmeraldas area.  I highly recommend it.

After a kind of late lunch we ran a couple of errands and then went to Sarah's for dinner and a quiet evening at home (there was a DVD involved--what fun).

Tuesday we started out in earnest on our grand tour of Quito.

We started the day at the Grand Plaza which is surrounded by history and culture all over the place.  One one side of the plaza is the Presidential Palace.  I have to tell you, I was surprised at how relatively modest it is in comparison to some I've seen in photos.  Don't get me wrong, it's lovely and definitely large, but not garish or overdone.   

Just below the main floor of the actual palace there is a series of doors, each of them a shop of some kind.

This one is a barber shop.  I wonder if the President gets his hair cut here.

I think this may be one of my favorite parts about the Presidential Palace.  This plaque announces that the President of the republic was assassinated at this spot on August 6, 1875.  The carving above it says, "God does not die." Here's the part I like about it. The plaque is there to remind the current president, whoever might be in office at the time, that if he doesn't behave himself, this could happen to him. I wonder if it keeps them on their toes.

Walking down a side street I saw this stained glass window on the side of the Presidential Palace.  I'd love to be able to see it at night with the lights on inside.

We had hoped to tour the Presidential Palace but we discovered that Tuesday is school tour day.  These are just a few of the dozen or so classes of children we saw waiting their turn for a tour. I guess I'll just have to go back another time for that.

Across the plaza is one of seven huge Catholic churches in Old Town.  This place is huge!  See the door in the center?  Look below to see just how big it really is.

It was pretty darned impressive.

There are more pictures of the church, the plaza, and then the museums we went to see later that day but I have to confess that I'm totally beat and I'm going to head for bed.  I won't be writing tomorrow for sure because I'm going to be gone all day but I'll do my best to write something Friday and definitely something over the weekend.  Actually, it's not the writing that takes the time, it's editing the photos.  When I'm all done showing off the parts of Quito I got to see, I'll confess to how many photos I took in my five days there--want to take a guess?

Carnival

Last weekend was Carnival time in Ecuador and even though it isn't celebrated formally in Cotacachi, that doesn't mean we don't know it's happening.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Carnival in Ecuador:

In Ecuador, the celebrations have a history that begins before the arrival of Catholicism. It is known that the Huarangas Indians (from the Chimbos nation) used to celebrate the second moon of the year with a festival at which they threw flour, flowers and perfumed water. This once pagan tradition has since merged with the Catholic celebration of Carnival.

Special Event at Morochos, Part II

As this is magically posted for me, I'm enjoying a visit to Mindo, in the cloud forest.  I will be writing about my trip there in upcoming days (or perhaps weeks, who knows?) but if you'd like to take a quick peak at what the area looks like in the meantime, if you'd like to take a quick peak at the area, the Cloudforest Ecolodge has a great site for learning more about the area.  That link takes you directly to the page for the Cloud Forest but the rest of the site has more information.  I'm not staying anywhere quite so grand but it's a lovely place to start.  If you are less interested in the descriptions and more interested in what it looks like there, just go to Google, put in "Mindo Ecuador," and click on the link for Images.  Tons of fabulous stuff there.

OK, back to Morochos!

Special Event at Morochos, Part I

In mid-December there was an event in Morochos that, among other things, was celebrating the 12th anniversary of the home sharing program in the indigenous communities (it had a lovely, official name that I didn't write down and so it is totally gone but I can get it if anyone is in need of it).

Paige is the Peace Corp Volunteer in Morochos and she makes sure we know about events up there that we might be able to support and that we'd also enjoy.  This was indeed one of them.

Happy New Year

New Year's Day is the most "official" holiday in all of Ecuador.  In the entire time I've been here there has never been a day when everything was closed but New Year's Day it was--everywhere.  There was no gas delivery, garbage pickup, absolutely nothing that made any noise out there.  No deliveries, no stores open, nothing.  It was pretty amazing.  I only mention the gas delivery and garbage pickup because those folks were out on Christmas Day but not on New Year's Day.

Of course the night before was a whole different story.  New Year's Eve is a huge event here filled with symbolism and lots of parties.

People dress in costume, stop cars, and demand a fee to pass.  Of course it's pretty much voluntary and I always saw them lower their ropes if they had them or step aside for taxis.  These adorable kids live in my block and for a small fee they were more than happy to pose for me.  The wigs were very popular and I think that next year I might have to try to find one for myself.

More Christmas

As I've said, Christmas in Cotacachi is a big deal.  Everyone participates in one way or another.  The nativity scene in this city display is almost life size and there's a lovely tree as well.

Merry Christmas!

Well, here it is, the day after Christmas and I'm just getting my Christmas greetings out to you.  It seems I won't have an internet connection at my new house until this coming weekend but I'll write when I can.

A little before Christmas I happened by the park when the people from the nursing home were having an event.  I love these people!  Enjoy.

It's hard to imagine just how short most of these folks are.  I'll try to give you a little measuring hints as the photos go on.  Don't you just love Santa? It's traditional for the indigenous people to present a serious face to people most of the time until they get to know you and this woman carried it off beautifully.