Basic HTML Version
100
JUNE 2012
•
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
THREE PERFECT DAYS
||
QUITO
As youwander around in searchof the tell-
tale gap, you keep ge ing distracted by the
ceiling, which is coveredwith angels’ faces
in the shape of li le suns. A worshipper
informs you that the Spanish used this
kind of imagery to entice the indigenous
people to convert to Christianity (not that
most of them had a choice—the church
also is rumored to be built on top of an
Incan temple).
You then walk a couple of blocks to
the baroque masterpiece
Iglesia de la
Compañía de Jesús
, which is Quito’s most
iconic church, largely due to its gold-
drenched interior. An amalgamofMoorish
design, Christian and native imagery and
international art styles—even Chinese
—covers every inchof the place. Themural
in your hotel room looks like an impres-
sionist sketch in comparison with the
detail work here.
Close by, perched atop a short but
steep,
steep
hill, is the
Basílica del Voto
Nacional
, the largest Gothic cathedral in
SouthAmerica. Thoughmodeled a er the
cathedral in Bourges, France, it has local
flavor: A careful look reveals gargoyles in
the shape of armadillos,
iguanas and tortoises.
Fromthemain tower you
spot
La Virgen de Quito
,
a wi nged Madonna
standing watch from a
distant hilltop, and you
can’t help thinking that a
cable stretched between
here and there would
make for the mother of
all ziplines.
Lunch is, thankfully,
downhill.
El Rincón de
Cantuña
, l i ke many
businesses in this part
of the city, occupies the
covered yet airy court-
yard of a colonial mansion. Following a glass of
guanabana
juice (owing to Ecuador’s
bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables, juice is offered at the start of almost everymeal),
you polish off a cast-iron skillet of shrimp, rice and plantains. You’re brought back from
the brink of siesta by a good, strong cup of Ecuadorian coffee.
A er a stroll through the Plaza de la Independencia, the bustling heart of colonial
Quito, you head to nearby
Casa del Alabado
. Themuseum, a stucco-walled 17th-century
mansion, houses three families’ collections of pre-Columbian artifacts. You’re struck
by the work of Ecuador’s early peoples, for whom it seems a bowl wasn’t a bowl unless
there was a jaguar or a shaman’s face carved into it. Among the highlights is a stone
bench called a “seat of power,” which once conveyed upon its si er
a status higher than that of tribememberswho sat on the ground.
You feel ready for your own seat of power or, say, ma ress of
rejuvenation, so you repair to your hotel for some rest. Quito’s
altitude is not to be taken lightly.
At dinnertime, you call for a taxi tobring you to
Octava deCorpus
,
a restaurant with an assortment of warmly lit rooms filled with
proprietor Jaime Burgos’ eclectic art collection. Burgos, who
circulates among the tables greeting regulars and insisting that
newcomers practice their Spanish, recommends the Neapolitan
chicken. You give it a try, alongwith an Argentinemalbec. Neither
disappoints. The romantic, homey atmosphere in the 150-year-old
housemakes the evening pass quickly—too quickly. You toast your
host one last time, and go.
LIVESTOCKEXCHANGE
The trading floor of the NYSE has nothing on
the sensory overload at Otavalo’s animal market
If you find yourself on the main highway near Otavalo, a
town about 60 miles north of Quito, early on a Saturday
morning, follow your ears (and your nose) to the weekly
animal market. There, creatures ranging from adorable
guinea pigs (don’t get too attached—they’re a delicacy) to
llamas and horses form a snorting, squealing, braying dust
cloud of commerce. Listen, too, for the sounds of Quechua,
the native tongue of the Otavaleños, as they sell or buy and
load the animals onto trucks. Just be careful where you
step—that isn’t ticker tape on the ground.
GETTING FRESH
One of the many juice stalls serving rejuvenat-
ing concoctions at Santa Clara Market; opposite, a plate of
shrimp, rice and plantains at El Rincón de Cantuña, a restaurant
in one of the interior courtyards at the hotel Patio Andaluz