Tour of Historic Quito

This morning we were led on a tour of the historic district of Quito per requirement of our Spanish classes per requirement of this program. On the bus ride in there was yet another sighting of Cotopaxi spewing some ash. Not unlike this boiling over of the natural world, Quito is also facing the issue of significant social unrest in the forms of protests and riots expressing dissatisfaction towards the president. All in all it's an exciting time to be in Quito. Winding our way through the narrow streets of low income neighborhoods I sometimes felt as if our luxury tour bus was the Nellie cruising the Congo, but I tried to fight away those views. Anyway, due to the threat of riots and demonstrations there were many police officers stationed around various plazas with riot shields as well as several military-types in full uniform ready for whatever. The militarism was a bit shocking for an otherwise extremely friendly and peaceful city. Entering our first sight, the Church of San Francisco, I thought I was observing a Time Magazine worthy moment when I saw two police officers presumably praying for peace in the city in the back pews:

But once I turned the corner I discovered that instead of being hunched over in earnest prayer, they were fixated on their cell phones:

Such a letdown

Anywhoooo, the church was spectacular here are some pictures:

Lots of Gold-- This one is considered modest by Quito Standards

From there we also went to the Church's museum and then another one which was home to indigenous art. I was struggling to pay attention but I did find some primetime art pieces:

Ohhhh please tell me more about your faith in me

When your boys want you to rally but you went too hard the night before

When you a sheep but you low-key ripped

Peace out haters

When you away from the action of the scene so you just stare at the painter

Uhhhh can I help you

When you some kind of dinosaur pig shark mix

When you schemin up for real

 From there we headed towards the main plaza featuring the President's house. Thankfully there were no protests at the time.

A scenic street

This is supposed to be the most elaborate of all the churches. The entire interior is covered in gold leaf. Presidente Correa was filming some sort of ad or speech inside so we weren't granted access.

Main plaza. Front of the body backpack game strong

Potentially Racist?

Almost Certainly Racist

President's House

A street. We had to climb many stairs for this which was exhausting at altitude. Did you know: Quito has the highest elevation of any legit capital in the world? La Paz doesn't count. Or maybe it's Sucre. One of those Bolivian ones.

See above caption

All in all the historic center of Quito is actually gorgeous although I hardly did it justice. Our tour didn't take us to all of the must-see places but hopefully I'll be able to visit them on my own in the next couple of weeks. The end of this post I admit is half-baked, but my excuse is that I'm exhausted from my trip to Baños and I'm also currently working on making a compilation video of my adventures. I have to say, it was a pretty incredible weekend.