Quito Kids

Of course I took tons of photos of kids.  These are my favorites.

 Such intensity--he's not exactly sure what he thinks of the camera.

 Need I say anything about this one?  I think not.

Three kids sharing a popsicle is frequently going to end up with someone not getting what they want.

Behind bars--it was just the security gate at their apartment building but it makes a cute photo, don't you think?

I think that's pretty much it for my trip to Quito.  I loved being there and I loved coming home.

Final Quito Pics

After spending so much time in little Cotacachi, life in Quito was so very different.  I loved it and as whoever it was who said it's a great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there reflects my feelings totally.  Here are some of the fun shots I got of life in the fast lane.

Wherever we went, there were people wandering up and down the streets--in traffic--selling things. They do it here out of baskets and wheel barrows on the sidewalks but not in Quito!

Fruits...vegetables...

...flowers...and so much, much more.

Not everyone was happy.  This poor, little shoeshine boy was sitting in the plaza crying.  I don't know why but he just moved me so much.

Here's my homage to Alfred Hitchcock--for those of you who are too young to remember it, look up The Birds.

I HAD to take this photo!  I couldn't resist.  This is a public bathroom in Old Town Quito.  The attendant is sitting under the canopy with her little change box, watching her tiny TV that's in the space between the two baños.  You may note a distinct lack of toilet paper.  Not that it's always the case but it's always wise to BYOTP.

Look carefully at the furniture this one man is carrying on his head. There's a sofa, two chairs, and a table of some sort.  You really can't see all of it but I was watching someone else load it on.  I'm not sure where he's taking it.  He's in the center island and there's another wall just like the one in this view on the other side of the street.  He is obviously going quite a ways.

One of my favorite public pieces of art.  I really wish I knew what they were hold onto but it was too small to see while driving past.

This is much better viewed head on but that wasn't possible so I got what I could.  These are women of import in Ecuador.

The public art is everywhere and quite impressive.  If you look at the sign above this mosaic, it gives you some idea of just how large it is.

I suspect this one was commissioned by the building owners.  This building is about eight stories high.

The police can be very helpful.  This woman needed a hand crossing the street.

You know me--I love the falling down stuff and I think this public art is as important as the expensive, commissioned stuff.

I discovered I had a little more than I wanted to put on one post and I think they're all photos of kids.  You knew I had to do it, right?

Quito Market Trip

One of the high points of the trip was a quick trip through a neighborhood market.  This is the market Sarah generally goes to when she can.

We were driving down the street and all of a sudden, there it was, the beginning of the market.  The vendors set up all up and down the streets in this little neighborhood.  It's amazing.

Squash anyone?  There were trucks and displays of squashes this big and even bigger.  It appeared they would cut a few of them in half or even in quarters but it was still enough to feed a small army.

Textile work isn't all for women here.  In fact, when it comes to weaving and the fibers used in it, women spin but only men weave.  Here a man is doing mending or alterations, not sure which--maybe both.

More squash--oh, anyone want a pair of shoes?

These fish heads were the size of large dinner plates.  I would have gotten more photos but the fellow who was running the stand was furious with me for taking pictures.  I have no idea why.  Maybe he's in the witness protection program and thought I was taking his photo.  OK, he was just grumpy.

Crab legs anyone?

When I say you can get just about anything here, I'm not kidding.  Padlocks, knives, scissors, and other assorted items, all on this little cart.

As I said, I was in Quito for Santa Semana, Holy Week, and one of the traditions here is a dish called fanesca.  It's absolutely fabulous (I had some Sarah made herself) and I'll be looking for it up here next year.  At any rate, one of the things in fanesca is salted fish.  There were any number of stalls at the market selling salted fish when we were there.  This is just about the only time of the year they will be there.  Once Easter has passed, the fish disappear--who knows what happens to them.  I know one thing, they don't go to waste.

Are these not the loveliest chickens you've seen in a very long time?  They're huge.  Of course there are the feet and heads right out in front.

Ecuadorian tortillas are very different than any I've ever seen anywhere else.  I've only eaten them a few times--they don't seem to get any better with exposure.

Squash in the foreground, clothes in the background, pots and pans, plastic ware, and a little glass ware in the center.

I love the stacks of tomatoes.  That's one dollar's worth of tomatoes.  The bags of limes in the lower right-hand corner are a dollar as well.

Then we arrived at the street where all the live animals were sold.  There was quite a variety, starting with chicks,

moving on to adorable puppies,

cuy anyone?  That's a guinea pig.

There were lots of kittens (she brought them to market in the bag she's holding),

ducks, chickens, roosters, geese, more guinea pigs in the crate on the right, and chickens almost ready for the stove on the sidewalk.

Turkey anyone?

Roosters by the bag.

Bunnies by the dozen--this one was sharing his temporary home with a few ducklings.

It was quite a sight.  It was easier to see and take pictures if I didn't think about where all of these little guys were going to end up.  I was fine with ducks, geese, turkeys, chickens, and such but it got a little tougher with some of the animals we think of as domestic pets.  I can stay in denial and think about them becoming pets but there's part of me that knows it isn't so, at least not for the majority of them.  Ah well, different lands, different cultures.  Sometimes it's easier to accept the culture than others but it just is what it is.

More to come, of course.  There will be at least one more museum and another church in the future.  I really love this stuff.

At the Middle of the Earth

One of our days in Quito took us to latitude 0.  There are two locations to visit--the first is the one originally designated as 0 latitude.  The French figured out where it was in 1736.  GPS established the actual location within sight of the first one.  It's pretty amazing when you consider how hard it must have been back then to try to figure it out.

At any rate, I went to the new one.  It's not nearly as impressive as the old one (which I will definitely go visit someday) but it's funky and fun and I'm a big fan of funky and fun.

They had a ton of these fabulous pots.  Some of them are burial urns.  They put the bones of the dead person in them.  Some of them were for water or other things--I was never sure which was which but since I wasn't going to use them, it didn't matter.

The bright yellow sign in the middle of the photo is a lovely set for taking pictures.  It's at the beginning of the tour.

Nothing special--I just loved the look and the colors.

The guy who operates this loom was on a break when I took this picture.  I really love some of these weavings.  It's very traditional to show indigenous people from the back rather than the front.  It's not like they feel a camera will steal their souls or anything, they are just very private.  The lower right shows a condor.  There's a condor park around here--it's on my list of things to see one of these days.  Maybe one of the people I know who is coming here for a vacation will want to go up there with me.

One good reason not to go to the Amazon--those are typical spiders.  They were bigger than my whole hand spread out.  I don't freak out over spiders anymore but that doesn't mean I like them.

The steps to making a shrunken head.  They have a real one on display.  Charming.

Always a good fashion statement for the discriminating Amazonian tribesman.  I've been assured they don't do that anymore.  I'm not positive I believe it but I know they don't do it indiscriminately.  They only use(d) it as a form of severe punishment for committing capital crimes.

I didn't know there were totem poles down here but there are--in all kinds of different styles.  This one is similar to the ones on Easter Island.

Tall ones, short ones, skinny ones, fat ones

This one is carved from a single tree.  I love it...almost as much as..

...this one.  I wish I could have gotten a little closer to this one.  It's amazing.

All these carved eggs are here for a reason.  One of the things you are supposed to be able to do at 0 latitude is balance an egg on end...

...and sure enough, you can!  This egg is balanced on a nail head.  They also demonstrated water swirling clockwise above the equator and counter-clockwise south of the equator.  It was pretty impressive.

This is an actual building moved here from its original site.  It was built in 1875 out of mud, straw, and wood.  The thatch on the roof is replaced periodically but that's all.  I love this kind of thing.

It was a fun day.  Next up, another museum--of course.