Moving2Ecuador

Pululahua is Quichua for 'Smoke of Water' or 'Cloud of Water', which refers to the clouds that roll in to fill the crater every afternoon. The fog provides water for this very fertile oasis surrounded by arid hills and mountains. I am terrified of the drive down to the bottom of the crater, so for thirty minutes I am sure that I am going to die. I am afraid to look over the side of the dirt road, but when I do there are only clouds and some glimpses of the green crater floor far below. Once on 'terra firma' we are drenched in green, with orchids and bromeliads and moss covering the trees. There is more than one microclimate in the crater, with cloud forest along the edges and very fertile agricultural land across the bottom. The volcano last erupted about 500 BC and is currently inactive. Most craters have lakes covering the caldera, but somehow there was a route for the lava to exit, so fertile soil was left instead. Green and Fertile in the Caldera We were tol...

Rumipamba park is a 32 hectare complex located on the grounds of a former hacienda now in the heart of the city of Quito. I had seen the sign for it next to the Casa de la Musica when Maya played a concert there at Christmas, but could find nothing about it in my guide book. It made sense to me that there would be some archeological evidence of preColumbian Quitu culture in Quito, since they were the original occupants of the area from 2000BC until the arrival of the Spaniards. Evidently the name Quito originates from the people who once occupied the place. Rumi means stone and pamba means pampa or plains. There are remains of huge stones from the last eruption of Guagua Pichincha volcano, which occurred in 1660. Scattered throughout the grounds are excavations of walls and houses and tombs and roads dating from 500 to 1500 AD, with Quitu ceramics shown in the hacienda. The grounds are extensive, so I imagine there are many more structures to be excavated under our feet. The Banco Cent...

When we flew from Quito to Miami during the Christmas break, Maya was asking Eric about whether he could win the Nobel prize, and we all joked about it as we walked to the baggage claim area. We were overheard by a middle-aged Ecuadorian couple who were on their way to London, Ontario to pick up their son who had just finished his Phd (soil science or soil ecology). While I took a bathroom break, Eric and Maya struck up a conversation with the couple, and learned that the mother was head of the language program at Catolica and that Pablo was coming home to Ecuador to look for work. Information and email details were exchanged. When Eric met with Pablo and his parents last week, he was invited to visit the family's farm near the Mitad del Mundo. I was not sure how interested I was in a day in the country, but decided to join Eric, Kathy (a professor who was with us on the student trip and spent the week with Eric in Yasuni) and Kathy's two students, Scott and Peter, for a change...

Plaza Santo Domingo Pope Alexander VI issued a papal bull after Columbus 'discovered' America giving responsibility of evangelizing the New World to Spain's Catholic Kings, which thus gained them the exclusive rights of discovery and conquest in America as a 'religious campaign'. The Fransiscans, Augustinians, Dominicans and Jesuits all played significant roles in christianizing the natives, and each order built churches and monasteries and convents throughout Quito. There are churches at every corner of the Centro Historico, and today I visited Santo Domingo, which sits on the square with a stature of Simon Bolivar standing in the centre. Again I had a very eager guide, who had an amazing number of facts at his disposal, and was able to share all sorts of intricate details about each painting. What made his comments interesting, were his insights about the struggles between the indigenous and the church. The priests, sometimes gently, more often forcefully, imposed...

One can only feel good waking up to sunshine every morning. It is always spring in Quito, and walking outside in the warmth and brightness is energizing. I returned to the Centro Historico today to visit the church and museum of San Augustin. I pass by the church every time that I go to the old town. I take the Ecovia to La Marin station and walk past the multitude of shops and hawkers along Chile street, and the church is on my right at Guayaquil, the Plaza Grande a block further. I have been inside the church several times, but until today the museum has always been closed. I had visited the monastery many years ago with the Johns Hopkins students, but it has not been on the agenda since. I had a very earnest young man from the Central University as my guide. He was small and dark, but had unsettling transparent eyes of an uncertain colour. I averted my eyes as much as possible so as not to be too distracted, but he kept moving closer and closer to me, invading my personal space over...